words you don’t learn in evening class

Just randomly, as they pop into my head

            

• se remonter les bretelles. Literally to “pull up your braces” (trouser braces). In other words to pull your socks up
• grimper les rideaux. Literally to “climb up the curtains”, in other words to swing from the lampshades.
• je surf sur la vague.  Literally to “surf on the wave”, or to go with the flow.
• je suis le sens du vent.  Literally “I follow the direction of the wind” – same as above.
• on ne va pas se mettre la rate au court bouillon. Literally “we won’t put the spleen in the stew”. In other words we won’t make a song and dance over it.
• ca me casse la tête. Literally “it breaks my head”. Or, it does my head in.
• je ne suis pas très sucre. Literally “I am not very sugar”. We’d say “I haven’t got a sweet tooth”.
• rire aux éclats. To “laugh to the bursts”. In English “to roar with laughter”.
• j’ai d’autre chats a fouetter. Horrid – it means “I have other cats to whip”. We have bigger fish to fry.
• s’occuper de ses oignons.  To look after your own onions.  For English speakers it becomes to mind your own business.
• bidouiller. This means to fiddle around with something to get it to work. 
• avoir le coup de foudre.  This means to “have the hit of thunder”, which in English is love at first sight, be it for a person or a thing.
• être dépaysé – to be de-countrified.  This can mean homesick, but it can also mean a fish out of water.
• le bricolage – DIY.  I think all Brits in France know that word. “Je fais de bricolage” means I am doing a bit of DIY.
• avoir l’ésprit d’escalier.  To have the staircase spirit. Work that one out !  It means to wish you had said or done this or that after it is too late.
• traverser une période difficile – to traverse a difficult time. For us, to weather the storm.
• mon toutou.  My doggie.  The French use toutou, or sometimes loulou far more than we ever say doggie in English.
• ce n’est pas rien – it is not nothing. In English “it’s quite something”.
• le fric is slang for “money”.
• à la bouffe !  Grub’s up !
• la question ne se pose pas – no need to ask
• jouer le tout pour le tout – to risk everything
• arrondir les fins du mois – I love this expression. It means to round-off, or to soften, the end of the month from a financial point of view; to help when we’re running short of money. I don’t know what we say in English … 

There’s probably little point in learning these, but at least you’ll know what they mean when you hear them.  There are variations, of course, and I’d love to hear them please !

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