“Don’t make a whole cheese out of it”: 8 improbable French Expressions

French is a great language – especially when it comes to improbable idiomatic expressions. Discover some of them.

There is a feeling anyone who is passionate about languages knows: it is the moment when you find an expression in a foreign language that doesn’t exist in yours. Nothing can equal this sudden feeling of enlightenment and discovery, when your brain stretches to a new concept you had never even thought of. If you have ever lived in France, you know French gives countless examples of this (and you probably spent your first two months trying to learn how to use idiomatic expressions properly).

Here are 8 typical French expressions it would be impossible to translate literally into English:

Être comme un coq en pâte. It literally translates as “being as a rooster in dough”: it means to feel comfortable and pampered, to be in a state of absolute satisfaction. You may argue that the rooster may not feel so excited about being somebody’s dinner, but that’s just a matter of perspective.

Égarer quelque chose = to lose something temporarily. Whether you are looking for your keys, those documents that were on your desk or the glasses you were wearing one minute ago, don’t worry! You haven’t lost them forever (they would be perdus), but only for a while. If you belong to those who are always confident they will find everything in time, égarer is the verb for you.

Langue de bois = to talk in a way which sounds very good, but actually manipulating words to hide a lack of knowledge, logic or honesty – in one word, when you want to sound smarter than you actually are. It’s the kind of vague language typically used by politicians. An inexact translation would be “doublespeak”, but langue de bois literally means “wooden tongue”. The expression probably derives from a yeast infection that affects Bovidae, provoking a partial hardening of their tongue. French people don’t love their politicians much^[1].

Donner sa langue au chat = to give up on guessing something. It literally means “to give your tongue to the cat”. By the way, a kind of traditional French biscuits are known as langues de chat, or “cat’s tongues” – but that’s just a sweet coincidence.

Gueule de bois = hangover. The exact meaning would be “wooden face”: could you find a better description?

Les Anglais ont débarqué = literally, “the British disembarked”. It simply means that a woman’s period has arrived – English soldiers, known as “Redcoats” for their red uniforms, arrived in mass on the French shores during the Napoleonic Wars. If you thought French is a bit of a contorted language, you may now have the proof ^[2].

En faire tout un fromage = well, it literally means “to make a whole cheese out of it”. The expression is used when someone makes a huge deal out of a meaningless thing. There had to be something about cheese in an article about France, right? Share this expression with a moaner friend – we all have one.

Esprit de l’escalier = the feeling of knowing the perfect reply to a provocation when it’s too late. This one is especially known by foreigners, who will find the words they need to reply in French about one hour after the conversation. It would literally translate as “staircase wit”. It seems that the great philosopher Diderot was left speechless by a comment during a dinner, and only managed to pull himself together at the bottom of the stairs, while he was already leaving.

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