8 Common Idioms and Expressions That Are Simply Better in French

Guaranteed to knock your chaussettes off!

A typical lonely Tuesday afternoon. Photo by M on Unsplash

Well bonjour! Are you perhaps learning French but feel a bit frustrated at the masculine and feminine nouns, antiquated verb tenses, and illogical conjugation? How about we give up all that and focus on something much more fun.

Idioms and expressions allow us to peer into the culture behind the languages we learn. For English speakers learning French, you’ll find some expressions are direct translations of one another, like “an eye for an eye” becomes “oeil pour oeil” or “better late than never” becomes “mieux vaut tard que jamais.”

Others can easily be deduced, like “two birds one stone” is “d’une pierre deux coups” — literally “two hits one stone,” as the French don’t seem to have a vendetta against our feathered friends.

Then there are those you wouldn’t guess in a million years, like “courir sur le haricot” (running on the bean) when you’re annoyed, or to be “aux petits oignons” (at the little onions) when you’re taking scrupulous care of someone.

For now though, I’d like to focus on expressions of a different kind. Those that have their equivalent in English, but where the French version is simply better.

1. Roll up your sleeves