5 French Phrases to Use at Your Next Get-Together
After a few months living in Paris, you may be feeling a lot more comfortable with your French language skills. You recognize the exceptions to each rule, and the gender of most nouns is less of a guessing game. The next feat: how to talk like les Français.
We asked international students here in the capital to tell us their favorite French saying, and its closest equivalent in their native language.
Read on, and try using a few during your next class, around the coffee table, or during dinner with your French host family.
One last thing–be careful not to use them out of context!
Sofia (Spain) – “Les cordonniers sont toujours les plus mal chaussés”
This phrase literally translates to “It’s always the shoemakers who are the worst off,” meaning many people carefully do their part when it comes to others, but not for themselves.
The proverb comes from French philosopher Michel de Montaigne’s Essais (“Essays”), written in the 16th century, in which he wrote “When we see a poorly dressed man, we say that it’s no surprise, if he’s a shoemaker.”
In Spanish, you can say “En casa del herrero, cuchillo de palo”, or “In the blacksmith’s house, lies a wooden spoon” in English.
Tanishk (India) – “C’est l’hôpital qui se fout de la charité”
This saying quite literally translates to “The hospital doesn’t care about charity,” meaning someone may be acting with bad intentions. It’s generally used when one person accuses someone else of doing something wrong.
The French word charité traces its roots back to the Catholic faith, standing for selfless love. Back in the 12th century, a Charité in France was a religious organization whose primary role was caring for the needy and sick.
According to the surgeon Alain Bouchet, this particular phrase refers back to the historic rivalry between two medical institutions in the southern French city of Lyon: the old Hôpital de la Charité and Hôtel-Dieu.
You’ve probably heard this phrase in English: “The pot calling the kettle black.”
Rochelle (US) – “Vouloir le beurre et l’argent du beurre (et le cul de la crémière)”
This phrase directly translates to “Wanting the butter and its money, too”, meaning someone who asks for too much, or that wants everything and gives nothing back in return.
Dating back to the 19th century, this was popularized by French farmers of the time: it wasn’t very noble to make some butter and sell it, while also trying to keep the butter for yourself and its profits.
An English equivalent is the common “Have your cake and eat it, too.”
Dionesa (Indonesia) – “Ce sont les tonneaux vides qui font le plus de bruit”
This one here refers to ignorant people being the ones who have the most to say, with little making any sense. Similar phrases like this are found to have been used back in the time of the Greeks and Romans.
Many different cultures have a related phrase for this expression. In Indonesia, they say “Tong kosong nyaring bunyinya”.
In English, Shakespeare once wrote: “The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.”
Angela (Brazil) – “Passer du coq à l’âne”
Finally, this funny phrase helps describe whenever someone moves from one topic to a completely different one without any transition. We all know someone, right?
Although there seem to be multiple origin stories for this expression, a popular one comes from the Grimm Brothers’ 1815 tale The Town Musicians of Bremen.
In the story, four mistreated animals–a donley, dog, cat and a rooster–decide to run away from their former masters to become musicians. On the journey, they end up scaring away a band of thieves and moving into their house, by climbing on top of one another (in the order mentioned earlier!).
According to Angela, in Portuguese you can say “Passar do pau pra cacete”, or “Jumping from pillar to post” in English.
As for you, what’s your favorite French saying? Share it in the comments !
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