Your French Language Quiz du Jour

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Photo, below: Do you know what "Fur coat, no knickers" means? Keep reading...


Knickers


In our French conversation group this week, our friend Monty showed up with a book of colorful French idioms, so we played a guessing game: Nicole threw out the idiom, we guessed (or tried to) what it meant. We also tried to come up with parellel English idioms, but we didn’t do too well on that score.


Want to play? Here are a few idioms, with their literal translations. Their real meaning is down below—no peeking ’til you’ve guessed.


1. Les chiens ne font pas des chats (dogs don’t have cats)


2. Donner de la confiture au cochon ( to give jam to the pigs)


3. Mettre du beurre dans les épinards (to put butter in the spinach)


4. Se croire sorti de la cuisse de Jupiter (to believe one has come out of the thighs of Jupiter)


5. Casser les pieds à quelqu’un (to break someone’s feet)


6. Partir ventre à terre (to leave with your belly to the ground)


7. Tomber sur un os (to fall on a bone)


8. Vous ne pouvez pas être au four et au moulin (you can’t be at the oven and the mill)


Answers:


1. The Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.


2. To give someone something that they don’t have the ability to appreciate


3. To find a way to make a bit of extra money


4. To have a very high opinion of yourself


5. To bore someone to death


6. To depart in a hurry


7. To encounter a difficulty, hit a snag


8. You can’t do two things at once


Why not

In class we had a visiting American, Belinda, plus our resident Brits. Both contributed a couple of great expressions I didn’t know. Belinda, who is from the mid-west, threw out “Big hat, no cattle” (big ego, but all talk), and the Brits had a good one too: “Fur coat, no knickers”. (If you need a translation: knickers,in the Queen’s English, refers to underwear). This expression describes a woman who looks classy, but is in fact a loose woman (and as someone in our group ruefully commented: for some of us, it’s “big knickers, no fur coat”).


Now, do you have some favorites to share, in any language?


Photo, right: speaking of expressions, I spotted this English one on a French window awning. There must be a story there...



In the COMMENTS: Carol loves snails, and Natalia and Rachel are skipping it all and going straight for les champignons! Marge, using prawns is a great idea, which makes it similar to the the delicious Shrimp Scampi. Susan (of A Small Village in France), is there really a snail farm in your neighborhood? That's worthy of a post! By the way, you'll love her funny post this week on jet lag.


Be sure to check out Jeff Steiner's Americans in France blog. He's done a post on the best views in France. One of them is from Brancion--and if you know where to look, you can see Balleure in the distance!


Here's more language fun: (at Amazon.com, .fr, .co.UK)



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Haha I was almost born in Doncaster - my mother aged 21 was driving up to Scotland from the S of France to see her parents-in-law in Scotland (my father was in the Far East) when she took a bend much too fast just outside Doncaster in her natty little sports car & crashed horribly, flew off the road, she was ejected into a field, car squished flat & then it blew up. She was 6 & a 1/2 months' pregnant - anyway some people saw the blaze, rang an ambulance & she spent a week in hospital (where they helpfully told her I was dead) then got taken up to Scotland in an ambulance & I was born another week later, bang on 7 months.

3

Well that explains it - I was born in Doncaster then my parents shocked the family by moving south - to Retford. In actual fact they moved to a tiny village called Torworth, which is in North Notts but only four miles from the South Yorkshire border - we even have a Doncaster postcode there.

And 'sithee' thats a blast form the past from my Barnsley grandparents - he used to say 'serry' as well, as in 'nah then serry, what's up'?

4

Tha's soft as grease. Tha's daft as a brush. Tha's reight mardy. Well I'll gu to ar arse. Bruce ull tell thee what 's meant.

5

Hey this is fun, I'm learning all kinds of useful British expressions I've never heard!

6

EE...thas not back'ard at comin' for'ard, sithee!

7

North Notts. S Yorkshire Tracy.

8

Love that, must be from Yorkshire somewhere as I've heard it before - well, I'll guh to the foot of our stairs!

9

Well I'll guh tuh Trent. Expressing surprise and disbelief at some event or idea.

Some folk use the alternative. Well I'll guh to the foot of our stairs.

10

All mouth and trousers. An apt description for Nigel Farage.

11

Oh yes and "kippers and curtains" too!

12

There are much more colourful expressions for tarts :wink:

13

In the uk. Fur coat, no knickers definitely means someone making out they are better than they are. In Yorkshire we say, lace curtains at the windows but no sheets on the bed’ as well.

14

Nope - Vero is right re the fur coat and no knickers!

15

Véronique, there was some debate among the Brits in our group as to what it meant, but the explanation I put was the winner! Now the French one you added, never heard that, but I can guess what it means!

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ps: I don't think the fur coat & no knickers expression means someone is a tart - it is that they are prententious. They rely on appearances to give an impression (prosperity, etc) to outsiders who will see the fur coat but not realise they can't dress adequately underneath, but they are in reality no different from their neighbours without fur coats. I have heard it applied to people who bought an expensive new car every year but apparently ate off orange-boxes & never invited anyone to their house.

17

I'm sorry to see "pêter plus haut que son cul" didn't make the list ;-)