List of idioms in the French language

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List of idioms in the French language:

Contents:	Top - A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z - See also - External link

[edit] A

Idiom	Meaning	Literal Meaning
Avaler des couleuvres	Put up with humiliation	To swallow grass snakes
Avoir bon dos	To be too easily blamed for something when the real responsibility is to be found elsewhere (example : "some people blame unemployment on the immigrants ; immigration has a good back !" or "this schoolboy blames his tardiness on his mum. She has a good back ! he just gets up too late, that's all.")	To have a good back
Avoir d’autres chats à fouetter	To have other fish to fry - To have other/better things to do	To have other cats to whip
Avoir le cœur sur la main	To be generous	To have the heart in the hand
Avoir un cheveu sur la langue	To have a lisp	To have a hair on one’s tongue

[edit] B

Idiom	Meaning	Literal Meaning
Bête noire	Pet Peeve	Black beast
Bon an, mal an	Year in, year out	Good year, bad year

[edit] C

Idiom	Meaning	Literal Meaning
Comme un éléphant dans un magasin de porcelaine	Recklessly Uncoordinated (cf. Like a bull in a china shop)	Like an elephant in a porcelain shop
Comme un poisson dans l'eau	At ease	Like a fish in water
Conduire comme un pied	To drive horribly	To drive like a foot
Couper les cheveux en quatre	To split hairs	To cut hairs in four
Coûter les yeux de la tête	To be very expensive / To cost an arm and a leg	To cost the eyes of the head
Ça me dit quelque chose	That rings a bell	That tells me something
Ça me prend la tête	That drives me crazy / That annoys me	That takes my head
Ça ne tient pas debout	It doesn’t make any sense	It doesn’t stand upright
Ça passe ou ça casse	Sink or swim	It passes or it breaks

[edit] D

Idiom	Meaning	Literal Meaning
(Les) doigts dans le nez	Very easy	Fingers in the nose

[edit] E

Idiom	Meaning	Literal Meaning
En un clin d’œil	In a flash	In the wink of an eye
Esprit de l’escalier	Staircase wit	Spirit of the stairway
Avoir le melon	To be sure of oneself	To have the melon
Être aux anges	To be over the moon	To be at the level of the angels
Être un singe sur une branche	To be at home; in one's natural habitat	To be a monkey on a branch
Être simple comme « bonjour »	To be as easy as pie	To be as simple as ‘hello’

[edit] F

Idiom	Meaning	Literal Meaning
Faire la grasse matinée	To have a lie-in	To make/have a fat morning
Faire la sourde oreille	To turn a deaf ear; to ignore	To play the deaf ear
Faire quelque chose au nez et à la barbe de quelqu’un	To do something in front of someone without that "someone" noticing	To do something to someone’s nose ad beard
Faire une carte de France	Have a wet dream	To make a map of France

[edit] G

Idiom	Meaning	Literal Meaning

[edit] H

Idiom	Meaning	Literal Meaning

[edit] I

Idiom	Meaning	Literal Meaning

[edit] J

Idiom	Meaning	Literal Meaning
Jeter l'éponge	To abandon a combat, to give up	Throw the sponge

[edit] K

Idiom	Meaning	Literal Meaning

[edit] L

Idiom	Meaning	Literal Meaning

[edit] M

Idiom	Meaning	Literal Meaning
Manger ses mots	To mumble	To eat your words
Manger sur le pouce	To eat very hastily	Eat on the thumb

[edit] N

Idiom	Meaning	Literal Meaning

[edit] O

Idiom	Meaning	Literal Meaning
Ce ne sont pas vos oignons	It is none of your business	Those are not your onions
[Avoir] un œil au beurre noir	[To have] a black eye	[To have] an eye in black butter

[edit] P

Idiom	Meaning	Literal Meaning
Poser un lapin à quelqu'un	To set someone up, not show up	Put a rabbit to someone
(Coûter) la peau du cul	(To cost) arms and legs	(To cost) the skin of the arse
Pilier de bar	Bar fly	Bar pillar
Pleuvoir des cordes	To rain cats and dogs	To be raining ropes
Prendre ses jambes à son cou	To run away quickly; to escape	To take one's legs to one's neck
Prendre son pied	To enjoy, to have pleasure	To take his/her own foot

[edit] Q

Idiom	Meaning	Literal Meaning
(Faire une) queue de poisson (à quelqu'un)	To cut in front of someone (in driving)	Do a fish tail to someone

[edit] R

Idiom	Meaning	Literal Meaning

[edit] S

Idiom	Meaning	Literal Meaning
Se casser la tête	To go to a lot of trouble	To break your head

[edit] T

Idiom	Meaning	Literal Meaning
Tirer le diable par la queue	To be too poor to do anything	Pull the devil by the tail
Tomber dans les pommes	To faint. Probably originated from the onomatopoeic homophone "pom"	To fall in the apples