We’ve all been there –  in the middle of a conversation in French, maybe it’s going really well this time, and then BOOM. You don’t know how to translate a that one English expression you’re trying to communicate into French.

Here are a few common English expressions translated into French to keep in your back pocket for that moment in the future:

Not my cup of tea

In English, you’d use this expression when something is not quite your thing. Maybe your new French friend invited you to go biking with them, but you’re not really into city biking (and maybe you’re a bit scared of Paris traffic). In English, you might just say “thanks, but that’s not really my cup of tea”.

C’est pas mon tasse de thé (the direct translation of this) is sometimes used, but it’s not the most common form of the expression.

In French, you have a few options:

You could use C’est pas mon genre (pronounced: say pah mohn jahn-ruh) or, for a less formal version, you could replace “genre” with “truc” (thing).

If you want to be a bit more strong, maybe saving this one for an uncomfortable offer you want to decline, you could say Ce n’est pas du tout à mon goût (pronounced: suh nay pah due two ah mohn gew), which literally translates to “It is not at all to my taste.” 

The key thing with these phrases is that you’re not criticising the thing on offer, it’s just not to your personal taste.

Here’s how you might use it in a sentence:

Merci pour l’invitation au concert, mais malheureusement, le heavy metal n’est pas mon genre. – Thank you for your invitation to the concert, but unfortunately heavy metal is not my cup of tea.

Feeling under the weather

As allergy season flares, many of us have probably thought of using this phrase once or twice.

Trying to describe the feeling of being a bit sick, but not totally unwell is tricky in French. You could go with the usual je ne suis pas en forme (pronounced: juh nuh sweez pah ahn form), which basically means “I am not in good shape.”

Another option is to just say je me sens un peu malade (pronounced: juh muh sahn uhn puh mal-ahd) which literally means “I feel a little ill.”

If you want a more fun option, you could also use the French idiom je ne suis pas dans mon assiette (Juh nuh swee pah dahn mohn ah-see-ette), which, when translated literally, means I am not in my plate.

Here’s how you’d use it in a sentence:

J’ai eu le nez qui coule toute la journée. Je ne suis pas en forme aujourd’hui – I have had a runny nose all day. I am feeling under the weather.

Beat around the bush

Trying to get someone to just speak their mind, but the conversation keeps avoiding the point? You just want to tell them to ‘stop beating around the bush’ and maybe you’ve maybe wondered whether there is a way to say this in French during a spam call trying to offer you a new gas service.

Surprising for a nation that has made direct speech into an art form (do not ask a French person if your new haircut makes you look like Elton John unless you’re prepared to hear their honest opinion), French actually has a few of its own idioms for this phenomenon.

Ne pas y aller par quatre chemins (pronounced: nuh pah ee ale-ay pahr kat-ruh shuh-mahns). This expression dates all the way back to the 17th century, and it literally means “do not go there by four different routes.” If you want someone to be a bit more efficient with their words, this will work perfectly.

Another option would be to say Tourner autour du pot (pronounced: tore-nay oh tore due poe) which would be used when you want to describe someone who was beating around the bush. 

Here’s how you’d use it in a sentence:

Elle a hésité à me raconter toute l’histoire. Elle a tourné autour du pot – She hesitated to tell me the full story. She was beating around the bush.

Il a refusé d’être franc avec moi, alors je lui ai dit de ne pas y aller par quatre chemins différents – He refused to be blunt with me, so I told him not to beat around the bush.

You can also use the phrase “Allez droit au but” which means ‘go directly to the goal’ or get straight to the point.

Elephant in the room

It’s the subject that everyone in the room knows about but no-one wants to point out. If you’ve ever wondered how to reference a situation that felt like there was ‘an elephant in the room’ in French, some French people actually use the exact French translation of this phrase (l’éléphant dans le salle).

If you want to use a French idiom, you could use the phrase “secret de polichinelle” (pronounced: suh-cray duh poh-lee-shee-nell), which is a reference to a children’s show where the bad guy would hide very obviously behind the good guy. It carries a similar meaning of something being obvious, though unspoken. It more exactly translates to “open secret.”

Here is how you would use it in a sentence:

Nous savions tous que Sarah avait l’intention de démissionner bientôt. C’était un secret de polichinelle – We all knew Sarah was planning to quit soon. it was an open secret.

Rule of thumb

The kind of rule that you don’t need to learn in school, it’s just the widely accepted way to go about something.

In French, you could use either “règle d’or” (pronounced: reh-gluh door) “principe de base” (pronounced: prahn-seep duh baz) or “principe général” (pronounced: prahn-seep jen-eh-rail) to say this phrase.

Here is how you might use it in a sentence:

La règle de base pour manger au restaurant aux États-Unis est de ne pas oublier de donner un pourboire à votre serveur – The rule of thumb for eating out in the United States is to remember to tip your server.

The grass is always greener

This phrase may come up a lot in the life of a new arrival: when you’re in your home country it may feel that the grass is greener in France, and again vice versa when you’re back in France. Similar to elephant in the room, French people also use the direct translation of this phrase (l’herbe est toujours plus verte).

But if you want to replicate this idiom in French in a different way you can simply use the phrase “on croit toujours que c’est mieux ailleurs” (pronounced: ohn cwah two jor keh say mee-uh aye-yers).

This literally means “we always believe that it is better elsewhere.”

Here is how to use it next time you’re a bit homesick:

Chaque fois que je suis chez moi aux États-Unis, les croissants de France me manquent. On croit toujours que c’est mieux ailleurs – Whenever I am home in the United States I miss croissants in France, the grass is always greener on the other side.

Spill the tea

This one is an hommage to the millennial and Gen-Z readers out there.

If you haven’t heard “spill the tea” in English before, it essentially means “share the gossip” or “tell the dirty details.”

If you are looking to get your French coworker to tell you the latest office gossip, you could use the phrase “Racontez-moi les potins” (pronounced: rah-cont-eh muah lay poe-tans), which means tell me the gossip. You could also use 

Here is how you would use it in a sentence:

Je veux entendre ce qui s’est passé à l’after work la semaine dernière. Raconte-moi les potins ! – I want to hear about what happened at the work happy hour last week. Spill the tea!