Le mot du jour : “La fin des haricots”Remember last week expression about carrots being cooked? Well, this week, it’s all about beans! “La fin des haricots” means “the end of the beans”, and, as you can guess, it’s not good news… It’s a more recent expression (probably beginning of the XXth century), and is …
Author archives: Anne
Les carottes sont cuites !
“Les carottes sont cuites” (the carrots are cooked) is an expression that can be translated by “It’s over”, “It’s lost”. I tried to find the origin of that expression, because it seemed weird that carrots would be used to express such a despair! Well, it’s quite blurry, but it seemed that from the XVIIth century, …
Un sentiment de déjà-vu
Le mot du jour : “Un sentiment de déjà-vu”Well, with the lockdown being back on both side of the Channel, I couldn’t help but feel that we were going through the same motions as before. Hence my “sentiment de déjà-vu”. “Sentiment” means “feeling” and “déjà-vu” can be translated by “already seen”. The English expression “déjà-vu” …
Être au bout du rouleau
Le mot du jour : “Être au bout du rouleau”I don’t know if, like me, you have children at home, but mine are completely “au bout du rouleau”. So what does this mean? “Être au bout du rouleau” means to be at the end of the roll, so to be exhausted, basically. This expression has …
On n’est pas sorti de l’auberge !
Le mot du jour : “On n’est pas sorti de l’auberge !” “Une auberge” is an hostel and the whole sentence can be translated by “We have not left the hostel” I think the closest equivalent in English would be “We are not out of the woods yet”. But why would leaving an inn be …
Être haut comme trois pommes.
Le mot du jour : “être haut comme trois pommes” Let’s start the week with a cute expression. “Être haut comme trois pommes” (to be as high as three apples) means to be small. Believe me, given how short I am, I’ve heard that one a lot when I was a child 🙂 It’s an …
La mouche du coche
Le mot du jour : “La mouche du coche” I learnt a few days ago a new (well, new for me!) English expression : “back seat driver” It’s apparently someone quite annoying, giving lots of advice and orders without being actually helpful. Well, in French we would call that kind of people “une mouche du …
Journée Européenne des Langues
Today is the European Day of Languages. So go and learn a language, it doesn’t matter which one 🙂 You can start simply with an app on your phone and learn a few words everyday. It’s good for your mental health, is a good work-out for your memory muscle, and it will widen your horizon. …
En faire tout un fromage
Le mot du jour : “en faire tout un fromage”That expression is quite funny and can be translated by : “to make a whole cheese out of something” You use it when someone is overreacting, making a big fuss. It is the equivalent of the British expression “to make a mountain out of a molehill” …
Heureux comme un poisson dans l’eau
Le mot du jour : “Heureux comme un poisson dans l’eau”“Heureux comme un poisson dans l’eau” means “happy like fish in water”.It describes someone happy with his/her own situation in life, someone comfortable. And I think this is exactly the feeling of my daughter at the moment, as she is packing for university with a …