![]() To connaître la musiqueis when you’ve done something so often you know exactly how it goes. “ Regarde ce tableau, mine de rien l’artiste a mis un an à le peindre.” (“Look at this painting, it looks so simple but it took the artist a year to make.”) 4. “ Johnny n’a pas l’air sportif, mais mine de rien, il est arrivé premier dans la course ce matin” (“Johnny doesn’t look athletic, so you wouldn’t have guessed, but he came first place in the race this morning.”) Mine refers to the air or appearance of something or someone, so literally the phrase mine de rien translates to having an “air of nothing.” It tends to insinuate that something appears to be simple when in fact there’s a lot more to it. It has many different nuances in usage and we don’t have a direct translation in English. ![]() ![]() “J’ai choisi au pif! “ (“I picked something randomly!”) 3. However the term can be used in other contexts in relation to doing something “by feel” without absolute precision. You could say “ j’ai préparé la pizza au pif” which directly translates to “I prepared the pizza by guessing all the measurements of ingredients.” It’s most commonly used in the context of cooking. Jazz up your speech by using it in all sorts of situations that have to do with measuring or estimating. Au pifĪu pif will really have you sounding like a native speaker. “Bah, je te dis pas, occupe-toi de tes oignons!” (“Well, I’m not telling you, mind your own business!”) 2. “Combien tu gagnes?” (“How much do you earn?”) One way is to tell someone “c’est pas tes oignons” which has the same figurative meaning but a different literal translation, meaning “it’s not your onions.” The French clearly don’t like to share their onions. To put it simply, the expression means “mind your own business” and there are various ways that the expression is used. Of course, that’s just the literal meaning, but sometimes these things can throw a French learner off guard. The first time I heard this, I had no idea why someone would want to go and occupy themselves with their onions. (Download) 9 Incredibly French Expressions They Don’t Teach You in School 1. This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that youĬlick here to get a copy. You’ll finally start to sound much more like a native! ![]() Now it’s time to step up your game by using colloquialisms as native speakers do!īy getting a grip on these popular French expressions, you can throw them into your conversations naturally and effortlessly. You’re getting a good handle on the structures of French sentences. You know your personal pronouns from your indirect object pronouns. You’ve done your fair share of studying and you’ve got cultural immersion covered. They need a little something extra to reach perfection.įrench expressions can put the cherry on top of your French sundae. Janu9 Incredibly French Expressions They Don’t Teach You in Schoolĭo you find that your French conversations are missing a certain je ne sais quoi? ![]()
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