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WORD OF DAY

French word of the day: A tombeau ouvert

An expression full of imagery, with a dark meaning

French word of the day: A tombeau ouvert
Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

Why do I need to know à tombeau ouvert ?

Because once you've spent some time driving on French roads you might find this one very apt.

What does it mean ?

A tombeau ouvert dates back to the end of the 18th century and is always used after verbs that indicate a movement, for instance to gallop.

A tombeau ouvert was first used to raise awareness of the danger of high speed while riding a horse.

Tombeau means tomb, and ouvert means open, so to gallop à tombeau ouvert basically meant that you were running the risk of being in an accident, and therefore a wide open tomb was waiting for you if you kept on going fast.  

Following the invention of the internal combustion engine à tombeau ouvert came to be used primarily with the verb conduire (to drive) and it remains the case today.

So literally, if you are driving à tombeau ouvert, it means that you will be heading straight for the grave if you don't slow down.

It's similar to its English equivalent 'to drive at breakneck speed' in that it doesn't literally signify that you are about to die, just that you are travelling dangerously fast.

Use it like this

J’ai vu une Porsche rouler à tombeau ouvert sur l’autoroute – I saw a Porsche going like a bat out of hell on the highway.

Elio pédalait à tombeau ouvert pour rejoindre ses amis – Elio was riding his bike at breakneck speed to meet his friends.

Synonyms

A bride abattue – At full tilt

A toute allure – Flat out  

Comme un dératé – Like a bat out of hell

A fond la caisse – Hell for leather

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FRENCH WORD OF THE DAY

French Expression of the Day: Caillou dans la chaussure

This one might come in handy when you’re complaining about French bureaucracy.

French Expression of the Day: Caillou dans la chaussure

Why do I need to know Caillou dans la chaussure?

Because, sometimes, you just need to tell someone about your frustration with life’s little, annoying, metaphorically painful niggles.

What does it mean?

Caillou dans la chaussure – roughly pronounced kay-oo don la shass-your – translates as ‘stone in the shoe’, is a phrase as old as time, and means exactly what it says.

You can use this in a literal sense, for example if you’re hiking and get gravel in your boots, but it’s more usually used as a metaphor.

When someone says they have a pebble in their shoe, it means that something is not right – and it describes the metaphorical feeling of something troublesome that is more painful than it really needs to be and is creating bigger problems than its size would suggest.

You can use it about your own problems, and it’s also used to describe something that is a big problem for someone else – in English you might say something is the ‘millstone around their neck’ to describe a big, weighty problem that won’t go away.

Use it like this

Nouvelle-Calédonie : le gros caillou dans la chaussure de Macron – New Caledonia is the millstone around Macron’s neck

Nous connaissons tous cette sensation désagréable d’avoir un caillou coincé dans notre chaussure – We all know that unpleasant feeling of having a stone stuck in our shoe.

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