Or coffee if you are a small child
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I’m sure I’ve mentioned this book before and its humour is probably lost on most of us on here, but this was recommended to me when I was a stagiaire almost 30 years ago.
https://www.fnac.com/a9701233/Jean-Loup-Chiflet-Sky-my-husband-Ciel-mon-mari
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There seem to be quite a few idioms with a canard , several of which are a little pejorative.
I was a bit surprised that the Animaliste Party had a duck poster, as lovely as it is, because of the ‘blah-blah-blah’ and ‘fake news’ references.
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Péter plus haut que son cul… a more vulgar version of ‘to be more royal than the King’
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On the first occasion… in my ignorance, I waved away the sugar cube which was being offered… but mine-host simply smiled and continued with the ceremony… delicious… !!!
Je m’en tamponne le coquillard
je m’en bats les couilles
y a pas écrit pigeon sur mon front
tu me prends pour un pigeon
je te mette un taquet
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- ça ne casse pas trois pattes à un canard - “hardly the bees knees/dogs bllcks”
- avoir une dent contre qqn - to hold a grudge against someone
- avoir les dents du fond qui baignent - be full up to the brim (to the point of being sick)
- avoir du monde au balcon - have a well endowed chest (in reference to females)
- être bien monté - be well endowed (in reference to males)
- c’est l’hôpital qui se fout de la charité - pot calling kettle black
- avoir une veine de cocu - to be a lucky bstrd
- être plein aux as - to be very rich
- tout ça, c’est du charabia - it’s all Greek to me
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The best way to learn, in my experience is to listen wherever and as often as possible. We learned a lot in our five years by watching French TV with french subtitles - and always with our French/Eng!ish dictionary ready to open and look up any word we didn’t know. After 16 years I still use the dictionary app on my phone whenever necessary. Get one that
Translates whole phrases. Don’t concentrate too much on ideoms - they will come with time. I’m 71 and still learning!
Gosh, thanks for the tip - wondered where I’d been going wrong all this time😉
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Ciel, mon mari!
From carry on style French TV back in the day - heavens, my husband’s home (time to hide in the wardrobe)
On that - the pronounciation of cul - the rather (what to say?) Common, vulgar? way of saying derriere is so close to the word for neck - cou that a French friend waits to pounce and laugh anytime I’m about to say cou. It makes me stop and think before I say it!
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My advice to listen seems to have sounded differently to the way I meant it. Actually, I learned, on a university course around 20 years ago that most people don’t listen closely to speech and sounds, being so busy making something, out of, or listening to that one word or phrase that the meaning of what’s being said is lost. Having taught conversation and everyday English to a group of French people in our local area for 12 years - now reduced to their wednesday evening “club”, I’ve found repeatedly that they can do exercises, read passages and talk on a subject they know about (in English) but they still need me to write things on the board and when we listen to stories in English on YouTube they can’t understand without reading the text. Because none of them takes any opportunity or makes any effort to Listen to any English at any other time. As I said before, my husband and I watched only French TV for our first five years - and had no contact with other English speakers so had no choice but to listen carefully and at least grasp the concept of what was being said from the words we did understand. That’s been my experience. Just trying to help.
BTW a lot of French idioms translate as ones we use in English!
Actually if someone speaks properly then cou sounds very different from the other one?
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Not exactly an idiom but a wonderful play on words.
Elle est comme une cathédrale elle a ses saints à l’intérieur.
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9, not too shabby given my grasp of French.
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Well the thing is that for us it really isn’t close at all. Which is why we find it funny when you don’t know your arse from your… neck.
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One for steam enthusiasts… À fond les manettes
Yes, I only got 9 too, more from working them out than a knowledge of the French term. There are some tricky ones, the Paris-Saint-Germain one for example.
Mind you there is a link because you say you got it in the neck but we say on l’a eu dans le cul.
I was asked what Caen meant (as a toponym only that wasn’t made clear) by an elderly English person only he pronounced it CON and just said what does con mean - and I had to temporise until I found out what exactly he meant. Terrible cross-purposes.
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For me, as a French living in Berkshire, I try to use typical expressions as much as I can. That gives me the impression of being a bit more British:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
it is only an impression though 
So my favorite is: Not a sausage 
but also Excuse my French!
whenever someone is about to swear. I checked it out because surely I thought French can’t be worse than Brits when it comes to swearing. And in fact, in the Norman times, noble men used to speak French when commoners couldn’t. So when nobles were talking in English to them but were about to say something in French, they would say Excuse my French to apologise for using words some people would not understand. Much more glamorous explanation than the swearing 
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