The French language has a wide range of fun and colorful expressions toutes faites (set expressions) involving parts of the body. Some of these coincide with English ones, but most of the time, it's necessary to find equivalents. Let's look at a few of these expressions in this lesson.
But first, Manon and Clémentine will explain what expressions toutes faites are:
Expressions toutes faites. Qu'est-ce que c'est ? Ce sont des phrases ou des locutions qui ont une tournure assez imagée et qui sont souvent très difficiles à traduire.
Set expressions. What is that? These are sentences or phrases that have a rather colorful phrasing and that are often very difficult to translate.
Captions 2-4, Manon et Clémentine Expressions toutes faites
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Manon and Clémentine then give us a variety of examples, some of which involve parts of the body like l’œil (the eye). Be careful not to take this one literally: to have un compas dans l’œil (a compass in one’s eye) is not as painful as it sounds. Metaphorically speaking, it means having a knack for assessing measurements accurately just by looking:
Manon a le compas dans l'œil...
Manon has the compass in her eye [can measure things by sight]...
Caption 10, Manon et Clémentine Expressions toutes faites
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Or you could gauge distance with your nose, à vue de nez (literally, "by sight of nose")! That’s how Clémentine goes on to describe Manon’s guessing abilities:
Elle le fait à vue de nez.
She does it by sight of nose [roughly, at a glance].
Caption 14, Manon et Clémentine Expressions toutes faites
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However, Manon does not think Clémentine’s statement is much of a compliment, as the expression implies measuring somewhat inaccurately. So, Manon tells Clémentine she is mistaken, using the expression se mettre le doigt dans l’œil (literally, "to put one's finger in one's eye"):
Mais moi je pense que tu te mets le doigt dans l'œil quand tu dis « à vue de nez ».
but me, I think that you're putting your finger in your eye [entirely mistaken] when you say "by sight of nose."
Caption 17, Manon et Clémentine Expressions toutes faites
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Being good friends, they are not going to argue about finer points like that and prefer to avoid couper les cheveux en quatre (literally "splitting hairs in four"):
Bon, ne commence pas à couper les cheveux en quatre !
OK, don't start splitting hairs!
Caption 19, Manon et Clémentine Expressions toutes faites
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Speaking of things to avoid, it’s best not to mettre les pieds dans le plat (to put one's feet in the dish). This is roughly equivalent to "to put one's foot in one's mouth," or to speak too bluntly. Barbara decides to risk doing this by telling her mother that she's a bad cook:
Il était grand temps que je mette les pieds dans le plat.
It was high time that I put my feet in the dish [put my foot in my mouth, risk offending her].
Caption 7, Mère & Fille Cuisine Monster
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There is another expression using pied (foot). If you wake up in a bad mood, or get up on the wrong side of the bed, this is what you can say in French:
Et « se lever du pied gauche » ? -C'est être mécontent, de mauvaise humeur.
And "to get up on one's left foot"? -That's to be unhappy, in a bad mood.
Caption 45, Manon et Clémentine Expressions toutes faites
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A person in a bad mood is likely to be a pain in the neck, or un casse-pieds ("feet breaker"):
Mais tu es casse-pieds aujourd’hui !
But you’re a pain in the neck today!
A similar expression is un casse-tête ("head breaker"). When something is so difficult (like, say, French grammar) that it gives you a headache, you can call it un casse-tête. In this video, we learn that the production of too many books can be un casse-tête (a headache) for a bookstore:
Une production très importante en France de livres qui est plutôt une bonne chose, mais qui est parfois un casse-tête...
A very significant production of books in France, which is rather a good thing, but which is sometimes a headache...
Captions 19-21, Gaëlle Librairie "Livres in Room"
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Un casse-tête is also the word for a puzzle or brain-teaser:
J'aime faire des mots croisés et d'autres casse-tête.
I like doing crossword puzzles and other brain-teasers.
Exploring French expressions should hopefully be neither un casse-pieds (a pain) nor un casse-tête (a headache)! You can learn some more expressions toutes faites (set expressions) in the rest of Manon and Clémentine’s lesson and remember that our Yabla videos are a great source of interesting expressions as well. Thank you for reading!
This lesson is brought to you by the letter x, an exaspérante (exasperating) letter that can morph into several different sounds. How do you extract a meaningful rule out of this unruly letter? Are you ready to explorer (explore) this exciting letter x? Fear not, the French pronunciation of the letter x is similar to English, at least at first glance. However, there are some notable differences that we will explore.
You may have noticed that some of the cognates mentioned in the previous paragraph share the same x sound in French and in English. Here is an example using the word explorer (to explore):
Il faut les explorer, les décrire, en faire une carte et en découvrir d'autres.
We have to explore them, describe them, map them, and discover some more.
Caption 12, Il était une fois: les Explorateurs 10. Amerigo Vespucci - Part 3
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Here is another example, with exacte (exact):
Du coup, c'est très compliqué d'avoir la date exacte.
As a result, it's very complicated to get the exact date.
Caption 37, Lionel Le musée de Jeanne d'Arc - Part 2
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In a few instances, an x at the end of a French word will render the same x sound as in English. The video below refers to l’Académie des Lynx, named after the wild animal le lynx (lynx), renowned for its sharp eyesight:
Le prince Federico Cesi, fondateur de l'Académie des Lynx
Prince Federico Cesi, the founder of the Academy of the Lynxes
Caption 33, Il était une fois: Les découvreurs 9. Galilée - Part 7
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Likewise, words ending in -ex are usually pronounced as in English:
C'est-à-dire, vous faites un barré avec votre index
That is, you do a barre with your index finger
Caption 10, Leçons de guitare Leçon 3
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But words ending in -ex or -nx are not that common in French and tend to be of foreign origin. Instead, typical x endings come in the following combinations: -oux, -aux, -eaux, and -eux, which all call for a silent x. (We’ll explore exceptions further on.)
In the video below, the speaker, a British server, has never heard of a silent x… She tries to entice Sam and the gang with some “gâtox," which has everyone flummoxed. Fortunately, Sam saves the day and explains that she meant to say gâteaux (cakes), with a silent x. Listen carefully to learn how NOT to say gâteaux:
"Gâtox"... Je crois qu'elle veut dire "gâteaux".
"Gâtox"... I think she means "cakes."
Caption 45, Extr@ Ep. 11 - Les vacances - Part 6
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Here is an example with the correct pronunciation of nouveaux ("new," plural):
Les nouveaux livres qu'on a reçus.
The new books that we've received.
Caption 14, Gaëlle Librairie "Livres in Room"
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Since the x is silent, gâteaux and nouveaux are pronounced the same as singular gâteau (cake) and nouveau (new). But listen carefully to this sentence with the same word, nouveaux (new). Why does the x now sound like a z?
Afin de développer de nouveaux outils de pilotage...
In order to develop new steering tools...
Caption 10, Canal 32 Le futur de l’éolien se joue dans l'Aube
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This is not a mistake. The speaker formed what we call in French une liaison by joining two words together—the first one ending with a consonant, nouveaux, and the following one starting with a vowel, outils (tools)—rendering a z sound: nouveaux-Z-outils. (Notice how the speaker runs the two words together without pausing to make them sound like one word.) You will find more information on liaisons in the lesson Liaisons, Numerous and Dangerous.
So, look out for nouns (sometimes adjectives) starting with a vowel. It is a signal that you should sound the x like a z! Here's another example:
Les vieux époux ont décidé de mener leur vie
The old couple decided to lead their lives
Caption 4, Le Jour où tout a basculé Mes grands-parents sont infidèles - Part 9
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And here's one with a very short word, the determiner aux ("to the," plural):
Nemours a un passé particulièrement intéressant et très intimement lié aux États-Unis pour deux raisons.
Nemours has a past that is particularly interesting and very closely linked to the United States for two reasons.
Captions 5-6, Voyage en France Nemours - Part 2
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So we have: les vieux-Z-époux and aux-Z-États-Unis.
In short, when a word ends in x, the x is usually silent unless there is a liaison. If you are still unsure, don’t worry. Many liaisons are optional, and French people don’t apply the liaison rule to the letter, so to speak. Just remember, though, that in some situations, liaisons are de rigueur. The examples given above are very common and always call for a "liaiZon."
On the flip side, when a French word begins with x, it does not sound like a z, as it would in English. Instead, it's pronounced more like the x in exemple (example):
D'un symbole d'unité française, ce drapeau a été utilisé parfois comme symbole de xénophobie.
Once a symbol of French unity, this flag has sometimes been used as a xenophobic symbol.
Caption 41, Le saviez-vous? Histoire du drapeau français
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Stay tuned for another X-rated lesson on the numbers deux, dix, et six (two, ten, and six) and find out what is special about them. Thank you for reading!
You may know that all French nouns are either masculine or feminine, but did you know that some nouns can be both? A word like après-midi (afternoon), for example, can be either masculine or feminine depending on the speaker's preference:
Vous deux, là, qu'est-ce que vous allez faire de beau cet après-midi?
You two, here, what are you going to do that's exciting this afternoon?
Caption 57, Actus Quartier - Fête de quartier Python-Duvernois - Part 1
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On passe une super après-midi.
You spend a great afternoon.
Caption 90, LCM - Rétine argentique, le paradis des photographes
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Un après-midi (masculine) and une après-midi (feminine) both mean "an afternoon." But usually, when a word's gender changes, its meaning changes too. Take the word mode, for example. La mode (feminine) means "fashion," but le mode (masculine) means "mode" or "(grammatical) mood":
Le milieu de la mode est aussi touché hein, forcément.
The world of fashion is also affected, you know, necessarily.
Caption 36, Cap 24 Paris - Alessandro fait les Puces! - Part 1
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Le temps présent fait partie du mode indicatif.
The present tense is part of the indicative mood.
Caption 10, Le saviez-vous? - Le mode indicatif, c'est quoi?
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Like mode, a lot of dual-gender words end in -e. Another common one is poste. When masculine, it means "post" as in "position" or "job" (among other things), and when feminine, it means "post" as in "post office" or "mail":
J'ai trouvé mon premier poste de libraire
I found my first bookseller position
Caption 3, Gaëlle - Librairie "Livres in Room"
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Si je venais à gagner, vous m'enverrez mon chèque par la poste.
If I were to win, you'll send me my check in the mail.
Caption 27, Patricia - Pas de crédit dans le monde des clones - Part 2
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You'll most often find the word livre in its masculine form, meaning "book." When feminine, it means "pound," as in the unit of weight and currency:
L'extérieur d'un livre s'appelle la couverture.
The outside of a book is called the cover.
Caption 4, Manon et Clémentine - Vocabulaire du livre
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Une livre équivaut à environ quatre cent cinquante-quatre grammes.
One pound is equal to around four hundred fifty-four grams.
Voile has related meanings in both its masculine and feminine forms. Both refer to things made of fabric—a veil (un voile) and a sail (une voile):
Un niqab, c'est donc un voile intégral qui ne laisse, euh, voir que les yeux.
So a niqab is a full-length veil that only, uh, shows the eyes.
Caption 10, Cap Caen Normandie TV - Danse - Héla Fattoumi se dévoile
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Il a une seule voile.
It has a single sail.
Caption 11, Fred et Miami Catamarans - Les Bateaux
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This video takes you on a tour (un tour) of Paris, making a requisite stop at the Eiffel Tower (la Tour Eiffel):
La Tour Eiffel, qui est le symbole de la France.
The Eiffel Tower, which is the symbol of France.
Caption 20, Paris Tour - Visite guidée de Paris
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Gender can be tricky in French, doubly so when you're dealing with words that can be both masculine and feminine. Remembering them is just a matter of practice. You can find a comprehensive list of dual-gender words on this page.
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