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FRENCH WORD OF THE DAY

French phrase of the day: Ne pas vendre la peau de l’ours

Even if you are not a professional bear-hunter, you may still need to talk about selling bearskins in France, metaphorically, of course.

Published: 12 April 2021 13:27 CEST
French phrase of the day: Ne pas vendre la peau de l'ours
Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

Why do I need to know ne pas vendre la peau de l’ours?

Because it’s one of those many French animal expressions that show you’re really mastering the language.

READ ALSO: 15 everyday French expressions inspired by animals

What does it mean?

Ne pas vendre la peau de l’ours translates as ‘not to sell the bearskin’, which sounds like something you wouldn’t need to worry about unless you are a bear hunter.

However it’s really a figurative expression meant to provide useful advice for everyone – no bears needed.

The full proverb goes: il ne faut pas vendre la peau de l’ours avant de l’avoir tué, which means ‘you mustn’t sell the bearskin before having killed the bear’.

As you probably have understood, it’s caution against acting prematurely, or giving promises you might not be able keep. 

The idea is that presuming something will happen before it has happened is a bad idea. Don’t throw a victory party before you have actually won, the warning goes.

The English equivalent is ‘don’t count your chickens before they have hatched’.

Use it like this

Allez les gars, le match n’est pas encore terminé ! Ne vendez pas la peau de l’ours avant de l’avoir tué. – Come on guys, the game isn’t over yet! Don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched.

Je pense qu’on s’est bien entendus, mais enfin je ne veux pas vendre la peau de l’ours trop tôt.. Je ne sais pas encore si elle voudra me revoir. – I think we got along well, but hey, I don’t want to count my chickens too soon. I don’t know yet if she wants to see me again.

Cette réforme ne passera pas. Le gouvernement a vendu la peau de l’ours avant de l’avoir tué, et ils en payeront le prix lors de la prochaine élection. – This reform won’t pass. The government celebrated too soon, and they will pay the price in the next election.

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For members

FRENCH WORD OF THE DAY

French word of the Day: Jours ouvrés

You'll need to check the calendar carefully when you see this.

Published: 17 May 2024 12:36 CEST
French word of the Day: Jours ouvrés

Why do I need to know jours ouvrés?

Because you need an accurate time estimate.

What does it mean?

As most French learners will know, jours means days, while in this context ouvrés means ‘working’. Therefore jours ouvrés – roughly pronounced jzoor-ouv-ray – means ‘working days’. You may also see jours ouvrables, which means the same thing.

You’re most likely to come across this in the context of estimates on how long things will take – for example a delivery or the processing of an official task or perhaps the results for a test or exam.

And this is where the calendar comes in – ‘working days’ doesn’t include the weekends, but also excluded are public holidays, of which France has quite a lot. So an estimate for livraison dans les cinq jours ouvrés – might actually take almost two weeks to reach you, if there are weekend days and public holidays in between.

Days on either side of public holidays (known as ‘pont‘ days) are technically working days, but don’t be too surprised if things don’t happen on these days either. 

Although ouvrés looks similar to ouvrir (to open) the root of the work is actually ouvrer – an archaic verb meaning to work or to labour.

This word was gradually supplanted by travailler in around the 16th century, but some derivatives of it are still used – most commonly ouvrier (or ouvrière for women) which means a worker – it can be used for all types of salaried workers, but is more commonly used for people who do manual labour or work with their hands. 

It’s often used in a political sense too – one of France’s leftist political parties is Lutte ouvrière, which translates as Worker’s struggle. 

Use it like this

La livraison est estimée à trois jours ouvrés – Delivery is estimated within three working days

Les résultats seront communiqués sous 48 hours (jours ouvrés) – the results will be sent within 48 hours (on working days)

Not to be confused with 

If you want to talk about ‘open days’ – days when institutions including schools, the military or artists workshops open up to the public – in France these are known as portes ouvertes (literally ‘open doors’).

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