Useful foreign phrases |
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Useful foreign phrases |
Numbers |
Colours |
Kinship |
Idioms |
Tongue twisters |
Proverbs |
Other multilingual pages
A collection of idiomatic expressions in French with English equivalents and translations.
| Idioms | English versions |
|---|---|
| Faire la tête | to sulk ("to do the head") |
| Garder la tête froide | to keep one's cool ("to keep the head cool") |
| Se creuser la tête | to think really hard / to remember something ("to dig into your head") |
| Se casser la tête | to go to a lot of trouble ("to break your head") |
| Coûter les yeux de la tête | to cost an arm and a leg ("to cost the eyes from the head") |
| Se mettre le doigt dans l'œil | To put your foot in it - to make a mistake ("to put your finger in your eye") |
| Rester bouche bée | to be speechless ("to be left open-mouthed") |
| Donner sa langue au chat | to give up ("to give one's tongue to the cat") |
| Être au bout de la langue | to have a word on the tip of your tongue ("to be on the tip of the tongue") |
| Avoir les dent longues | to be ambitious ("to have long teeth") |
| Avoir un poil dans la main | to be lazy; to avoid work ("to have a hair in the hand") |
| Manger sur le pouce | to grab a bite to eat ("to eat on the thumb") |
| Ne rien faire de ses dix doigts | to be lazy ("to do nothing with one's ten fingers") |
| Prendre ses jambes à son cou | to take to one's heels ("to take one's legs to one's neck) |
| Casser les pieds à quelqu'un | to get on someone's nerves; to bore someone ("to break someone's feet) |
| Enlever une épine du pied à quelqu'un | to help / get someone out of a fix ("to remove a thorn from someone's feet) |
| Couper la poire en deux | to meet someone halfway ("to cut the pear in two") |
| Pédaler dans la sémoule | to become insane / senile ("to pedal in the semonlina") |
| Tomber dans les pommes | to faint / pass out ("to fall in the apples") |
| Tondre des œufs | to be cheap / a skinflint ("to mow/crop/shear the eggs") |
| Sucrer les fraises | to be a bit doddery ("to sugar the strawberries") |
| C'est la goutte d'eau qui fait déborder la vase | the straw that broke the camel's back ("it's the drop of water that made the vase overflow") |
| Caser du sucre sur son dos | to gossip about someone behind their back ("to break some sugar on his/her back") |
| Appuyer sur le champignon | to drive very fast / accelerate ("to press on the mushroom") |
| Étre dans le pétrin | to be in a mess / a jam ("to be in the kneading-trough") |
Many of these idioms were provided by Jan Underwood
More French idioms
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:French_idioms
http://www.one.under.btinternet.co.uk/list.html
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