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FRENCH WORD OF THE DAY

French Expression of the Day: Que dalle!

French people use it all the time and it's one of those snappy expressions that shows you've cracked it when it comes to speaking like a local. Plus its origin is pretty unusual.

French Expression of the Day: Que dalle!
Photo: Depositphotos
Why do I need to know que dalle?
 
You'll hear it all the time and unless you know what it means, it could be very confusing as the expression has nothing to do with the French word dalle meaning 'slab' (as in a slab of stone).
 
But once you know what que dalle means, you'll find using it very straightforward and it's an easy way to make your spoken French sound native.
 
What does it mean?
 
Que dalle is a French noun meaning 'nothing', 'very little' or 'not very much'. You can use it literally to mean 'nothing' or 'none', or in a more figurative way to mean a very small amount of something as in 'pittance' or 'peanuts'.
 
For example:
 
Qu'est-ce que tu as fais ce weekend? Que dalle. – 'What did you do this weekend? Nothing.'
 
Quelles sont tes perspectives de boulot? Que dalle. – 'What are your job prospects? I have none.'
 
Combien as couté ton repas? Que dalle. – 'How much did your meal cost? Peanuts.'
 
Where does it come from?
 
Que dalle has interesting origins. The expression is widely thought to come from the romani (the language spoken by Roma people) word 'dail' meaning nothing at all.
 
Surprisingly, a few dozen romani words have weaved their way into French slang, but out of them all, que dalle is by far the most commonly used. 
 
Some more examples:
 
Ton travail est bien payé? Non, que dalle – 'Is your work well paid? No, it pays very little.'
 
J'ai compris que dalle à son discours! – 'I didn't understand anything about his speech!'
 
Elles s'attendaient à un gros changement, mais finalement, il n'y a eu que dalle.  – 'They were expecting a big change, but in the end, nothing happened.'
 
For more French Expressions and French Words of the Day you can CLICK HERE to see our full list.
 

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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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