French Idiomatic Expressions Flashcards
Avoir le cafard
To have the blues (literally, “to have the cockroach”)
Avoir la pêche
To be full of energy (literally, “to have the peach”)
Avoir la tête dans les nuages
To have one’s head in the clouds
Avoir un poil dans la main
To be lazy (literally, “to have a hair in the hand”)
Avoir le cœur sur la main
To be generous (literally, “to have the heart on the hand”)
Avoir le feu au derrière
To be in a hurry (literally, “to have fire on the behind”)
Avoir la flemme
To be lazy (colloquially, “to have the laziness”)
Avoir du chien
To be attractive (literally, “to have some dog”)
Avoir la gueule de bois
To have a hangover (literally, “to have the wood face”)
Avoir la langue bien pendue
To be talkative (literally, “to have the tongue well-hung”)
Avoir une faim de loup
To be very hungry (literally, “to have a wolf hunger”)
Avoir le bras long
To have influence (literally, “to have a long arm”)
Avoir un chat dans la gorge
To have a frog in one’s throat (literally, “to have a cat in the throat”)
Avoir le nez fin
To have a good sense of smell (literally, “to have a fine nose”)
Avoir le diable au corps
To be very lively (literally, “to have the devil in the body”)
Avoir un cœur d’artichaut
To fall in love easily (literally, “to have an artichoke heart”)
Avoir la main verte
To have a green thumb (literally, “to have the green hand”)
Avoir un trou de mémoire
To have a lapse in memory (literally, “to have a hole in memory”)
Avoir le compas dans l’œil
To have a good eye for measurement or estimation (literally, “to have the compass in the eye”)
Avoir le moral à zéro
To be feeling down (literally, “to have morale at zero”)
Être au bout du rouleau
To be at the end of one’s tether (literally, “to be at the end of the roll”)
Être dans la lune
To be daydreaming (literally, “to be in the moon”)
Être sur son trente-et-un
To be dressed to the nines (literally, “to be on one’s thirty-one”)
Être à la bourre
To be running late (colloquially, “to be at the beet”)
Être à l’ouest
To be out of it (literally, “to be in the west”)
Être un cordon-bleu
To be a great cook (literally, “to be a blue ribbon”)
Être aux anges
To be over the moon (literally, “to be with the angels”)
Être dans de beaux draps
To be in a tricky situation (literally, “to be in beautiful sheets”)
Être en train de
To be in the process of (literally, “to be in train of”)
Être un vrai mouton
To be a follower (literally, “to be a real sheep”)
