The French language is full of proverbs and expressions that carry a cultural colour that is difficult to translate. Here are 20 French proverbs — often literally untranslatable — that embody a unique popular wisdom and illuminate French thinking.
1. “Don’t sell the bear’s skin until you’ve killed it” — Avoid celebrating a victory before it’s won.
2. “Putting your two cents in” — Intervene where you haven’t been asked, often to complicate things.
3. “Call a spade a spade” — Tell it like it is, without euphemism.
4. “It’s not the sea to drink” — Reassure: the task is not insurmountable.
5. “We are not out of the woods” — Point out that the difficulties are far from over.
6. “The carrots are cooked” — Seeing that there is no hope, that the situation is irreversible.
7. “Looking for noon to two o’clock” — Complicating one’s life by looking for non-existent problems.
8. “Beating around the bush” — Hesitating to bring up a sensitive topic directly.
9. “Putting down a rabbit” — Not showing up for an appointment without warning.
10. “Having your ass between two chairs” — Being indecisive, not choosing between two options.
11. “To fall into the apples” — To faint; A pictorial and very French expression.
12. “To be dressed up” — To be elegantly dressed for a special occasion.
13. “Drowning the fish” — To deliberately confuse to avoid a subject.
14. “Catching the fly” — Getting offended very quickly for little things.
15. “Telling salads” — Making up stories, lying, or embellishing reality.
16. “Tighten your belt” — Cut back on spending in difficult times.
17. “To have a sharp tongue” — To speak a lot and without restraint.
18. “To have a hair in your hand” — To be very lazy, to refuse work.
19. “Sparing the goat and the cabbage” — Trying to satisfy two opposing parties at the same time.
20. “Being soupy” — Getting angry very quickly, jumping easily to anger.
These proverbs, sometimes absurd for a non-French-speaker, reflect a short and colourful art of saying that distinguishes French. Incorporate them into your conversations to enrich your vocabulary and better understand French folk humor and wisdom.
