Geek's Corner (7) : French Expressions You May Not Learn in School (Part 1)

À boire ou je tue le chien!
Bring me something to drink or I kill the dog!

Arriver comme un cheveu sur la soupe
About a remark in a conversation, to be completely irrelevant (literally: "to arrive like a hair in the soup")

Attaquer bille en tête
He didn't beat about the bush (literally: "to attack with a marble in head")

Avoir chaud aux plumes
To escape a danger (literally: "to have one's feathers hot")

Avoir des atomes crochus avec quelqu'un
To have a lot in common with someone (literally: "to have hooked atoms with someone")

Avoir le cul entre deux chaises
To be caught between two stools (literally: "to have one's ass between two chairs")

Avoir les dents du fond qui baignent
To be overfed (literally: "to have one's back teeth swimming")

Avoir les jetons
To be scared (literally: "to have the tokens")

Avoir les chevilles qui enflent
To be very full of oneself (literally: "to have one's ankles swell")

Avoir des casseroles au cul
To be haunted by a scandal (literally: "to have saucepans hung on the ass")

Avec ma bite et mon couteau
To do something with very few tools (literally: "with my dick and my knife")

Avoir le cul bordé de nouilles
To be lucky (literally: "to have the ass full of noodles")

Avoir trois métros de retard
To always be one step behind (literally: "to be three metros late")

Avoir un chat dans la gorge
To have a frog in one's throat (literally: "to have a cat in one's throat")

Avoir un fil à la patte
To be tied down (literally: "to have a thread at the leg")

Avoir un poil dans la main
To be lazy (literally: "to have a hair in the hand")

Avoir une peur bleue
To have a bad scare (literally: "to have a blue fear")


Ça me fait une belle jambe
A fat lot of good that does me! (literally: "It makes me a nice leg")

Ça ne casse pas des briques
It has nothing to write home about (literally: "It doesn't break bricks")

Ça ne casse pas trois pattes à un canard
It has nothing to write home about (literally: "It doesn't break three legs to a duck")

Ça va chier des bulles
There'll be one hell of a row (literally: "It will shit bubbles")

Ça va être pour ma pomme
It's for yours truly (literally: "It will be for my apple")

Ça vaut son pesant de cacahuètes
Ironical: That's priceless (literally: "It is worth its weight in peanuts")

C'est dans la poche
It's in the bag (literally: "It's in the pocket")

C'est le pied
That's great (literally: "It is the foot")

C'est une autre paire de manches
That's another story (literally: "It's another pair of sleeves")

Chat échaudé craint l'eau froide
Once bitten, twice shy (literally: "A warmed cat fears cold water")

Coincer la bulle
To bum around (literally: "to wedge the bubble")

Courir sur le haricot
Get one someone's nerves (literally: "to run on someone's bean")