If you are learning French because you are looking to travel to an area where French is spoken daily, you need to learn French idioms to develop your fluency.
It is important to learn French idioms is because it helps you sound more natural, more like a native. While there is nothing long with learning common French phrases from a textbook, when you are actually having a conversation with native French speakers, they might not follow the “script” you learned from the textbook.
French speakers will use slang words and expressions as well as idioms in their daily speech. These phrases might not necessarily match up with what you find in phrasebooks.
Native speakers will use the French idioms we list in this post often at various points of the conversation as they understand the real meanings behind them. If you, a French language learner, don’t learn some common idioms you might find yourself unable to follow along.
1. Ça marche
Translation: That works
Meaning: Okay or I agree
The French expression is similar to “okay” in English. For example, if you agree or are okay with your friend’s plan to go hiking on the weekend, say “ca marche”.
2. Mettre son grain de sel
Translation: Put in one’s grain of salt
Meaning: Give an opinion
You might hear this from a French speaker just before they give you some unsolicited advice.
3. Quand on parle du loup
Translation: One speaks about the wolf
Meaning: Arrive just as they were speaking about you
This is similar to the English idiom “speak of the devil”. If, as you join a group of French-speaking friends at the bar, you hear them say this in greeting then they were just speaking or thinking of you.
4. Coup de foudre
Translation: Bolt of lightning
Meaning: Love at first sight
This is a lovely French idiom about love that describes the sudden, shocking feeling of falling in love at first sight.
5. Ne rien savoir faire de ses dix doigts
Translate: Not knowing how to do anything with one’s ten fingers
Meaning: Useless
This French idiom is a rather harsh way of saying that someone is not very good at something. The implication is that they are useless and of no help.
6. Aux calends grecques
Translation: First day of the Greek calendar
Meaning: An unlikely event
This French idiom is used similarly to the English phrase “when pigs fly”. If something is unlikely to happen, then a French speaker will say it will happen on “the first day of the Greek calendar”.
7. Ce n'est pas tes oignons
Meaning: These are not your onions
Meaning: This is not your concern
If you want to tell someone, in French, to “mind their own business” you can use this French idiom. Keep in mind, it is slightly rude and blunt, so be careful about who you use it on.
8. Se creuser la tête / les méninges
Translation: To dig into your head/brain
Meaning: Think hard
You might hear this from a French speaker if you asked them a question that they need to think about. It’s also commonly used like the English idiom “racking your brains” which implies that you are trying to remember the answer to the question.
9. Il pleut des cordes
Translation: It’s raining some ropes
Meaning: It’s raining hard
This idiom is used by French speakers to describe a hard and maybe unexpected downpour. It’s similar to the English idiom, “raining cats and dogs”.
10. Avoir le cafard
Translation: To have the cockroach
Meaning: Feeling gloomy
This is another French idiom that describes someone’s mood. If you hear someone say this, it is similar to when an English speaker says that they are “feeling blue”. They are feeling gloomy and a little melancholy.
11. Se vendre comme des petits pains
Translation: To be sold like small bread
Meaning: Sell out fast
A French speaker will use this phrase to describe a popular item that sells out fast. An item that is in demand, that everyone wants to own will “sell like small bread’.
12. Appeler un chat un chat
Translation: To call a cat a cat
Meaning: To speak the plain truth
A French speaker will use this to describe someone who is known for speaking the plain truth. They will tell you how things are, without any embellishments or disassembling.
13. Fair la tête
Translation: To do the head
Meaning: Sulking
This French idiom is used to describe someone’s mood. This is used to say that someone is sulking or in a bad mood.
14. Tomber dan les pommes
Translation: Fall in the apples
Meaning: Fainted
A French speaker will use this idiom to say that someone has fainted or lost consciousness.
15. Revenons à nos moutons
Translation: To return to our sheep
Meaning: Return to the main topic
You might hear this idiom used when you are in a business meeting with French speakers. It’s the equivalent of the English phrase “return to the business at hand” or “get back on track”. The speaker is trying to get the meeting or the conversation back to the main, most important topic as you’ve all began to talk about other, less important, things.
16. Sauter du coq à l’âne
Translation; to jump from the rooster to the donkey
Meaning: Jump from topic to topic
If your boss needs to remind you to “revenons à nos moutons” during a meeting, it could be because this had been happening. You were all talking about too many different topics other than the main one.
17. Avoir un faim de loup
Translation: Hunger of a wolf
Meaning: I’m starving
If it’s nearing lunchtime, you might hear a French speaker use this idiom. They are saying that they are very hungry and you can expect them to suggest a nice place to go have lunch.
18. Boire comme un trou
Translation: Drink like a hole
Meaning: Drink a lot
When a French speaker uses this idiom to describe someone, they are saying that they like to drink. There is a slight air of judgment contained in this idiom, they might worry that someone drinks too much, but it stops just before actually calling someone a drunkard.
19. Une poule mouillée
Translation: A wet hen
Meaning: A coward
When a French speaker calls someone a “wet hen”, they are calling them cowardly or timid. It’s basically the same as an English speaker calling someone “chicken”.
20. Garder la tête froide
Translation: To keep the head cool
Meaning: Keep calm
This is similar to the idiom “keep a cool head” in English. When you hear this, someone is advising you to keep calm and keep your emotions – especially your anger – in check.
21. Vous perdez la boule
Meaning: to lose the bowl
Translation: Losing their cool
When a French speaker says this, they are saying that you are beyond “garder la tête froide”. You are no longer calm and rational but acting a little crazy and over-emotional. This can be used to remind French speakers to get themselves under control.
22. Être dans la lune
Translation: To be in the moon
Meaning: To daydream
This French idiom is used to describe someone who, in English, is prone to daydreaming. It can also be used to say that someone is not paying attention or is distracted.
23. Arrêtez de raconter des salads
Translation: Stop telling salads
Meaning: Stop lying
This funny-sounding French idiom about food may sound harsh, but it’s usually said in a joking manner. While it is basically calling or describing someone as a liar, it’s usually said good-naturedly and without anger. Someone who tells “salads” is someone who exaggerates or tells tales because they are trying to be funny. There’s no malice to their lies.
24. Il fait un froid de canard/de loup
Translation; it’s duck-cold/it’s wolf-cold
Meaning: Cold weather
If a French speaker uses this to describe the weather outside, you better make sure to grab a warm jacket or sweater before you leave the house.
25. Coûter les yeux de la tête
Translation: Cost the eyes in your head
Meaning: Expensive
This French idiom is similar to the English idiom “costs an arm and a leg”. In both French and English, these idioms are used when a native speaker wants to warn you that a purchase is not worth it, that the seller is asking too much or that the price is unreasonable.
26. Faire la grasse matinée
Translation: To do a fat morning
Meaning; Stay in bed
When a French speaker tells you that they are going to take a “fat morning” or that they had one, they are saying that they took the chance to sleep in and stay in bed for most of the morning.
27. Faire une nuit blanche
Translation: To do a white night
Meaning; Stay up late at night
This is the opposite of having a “fat morning” though it could contribute to why a French speaker needed a “fat morning”. If you stayed up late, you had a “white night”.
28. Vous arrives comme un cheveu sur la soupe
Translation: Arrive like hair in the soup
Meaning: Interrupt a moment
No one likes finding hair in their soup, or any other type of food, so that’s probably how this phrase came to be an idiom used to describe an unwelcome intrusion. If you came into a room at the wrong moment, walked into the middle of an argument, or maybe a romantic rendezvous, you are like “hair in the soup” in that situation.
29. La moutarde me/lui monte au nez
Translation: The mustard is getting to my nose
Meaning: I’m getting angry
If you are getting impatient or are on the verge of losing your temper, you can use this French idiom to describe how you are feeling.
Conclusion
If you want to gain fluency in French and improve your ability to have daily conversations with native speakers, you need to understand and memorize lists of idioms such as this one and the others we have on this blog.
If you're looking for a way to learn more French idioms, you should try some of these cool options: Check out Babbel for fun, interactive lessons that fit into your day easily. If you want something more in-depth, there's a great French course on Udemy that covers everything from the basics to more advanced topics. And if you prefer learning with a personal touch, Lingoda offers classes with native speakers that can really help you practice speaking.
What are some useful French idioms to use daily?
Ca marche - That works. Mettre son grain de sel - Give an opinion. Coup de foudre - Love at first sight. Ce n'est pas tes oignons - This is not your concern. Avoir le cafard - Feeling gloomy.
What does this French idiom mean: Boire comme un trou?
When a French speaker uses this idiom to describe someone, they are saying that they like to drink. There is a slight air of judgment contained in this idiom, they might worry that someone drinks too much, but it stops just before actually calling someone a drunkard.
