Common French Idioms Trivia Quiz

Answer: Call a spade a spade

"Appeler un chat un chat" literally translates as "to call a cat, a cat". The French poet and critic Nicolas Boileau was the first to use this idiom in his first Satire (Satire I, l. 51) where he exposed and derided a prosecutor named Charles Rollet: "Je ne puis rien nommer si ce n'est par son nom; J'appelle un chat un chat, et Rollet un fripon."(I can call nothing by name if that is not his name. I call a cat a cat, and Rollet a rogue).

Answer: Rain cats and dogs

"Pleuvoir des cordes" literally translates as "to rain ropes". When it rains very heavily, drops look like ropes falling from the sky.

Answer: Have other fish to fry

The literal transltion of "avoir d'autres chats à fouetter" would be "have other cats to whip". The origin is unknown but references to this French idiom can be traced back to the 17th century where the expression "il n'y a pas de quoi fouetter un chat" (there is no reason to whip a cat) was used to mean that a problem was unimportant.

Answer: Split hairs

"Couper les cheveux en quatre" literally translates as "to cut hairs in four". The origin of this French idiom goes back to the 17th century where the phrase "cleave a hair in four" was used to mean the same thing.

Answer: Turn a blind eye

"Faire la sourde oreille" literally translates as "to do the deaf ear". The exact origin of this idiom is unknown, but it appears to be an old one since the adjective is placed before the noun (in modern French, the adjective is placed "after" the noun it describes.)

Answer: Throw in the towel

"Jeter l'éponge" literally translates as "to throw the sponge", which is also correct in English. Just like its English counterpart, this French phrase comes from the world of boxing. Throwing a towel into the ring in boxing is what a fighter does to signal that he can no longer fight. It signifies acceptance of defeat.

Answer: Put the cart before the horse

"Mettre la charrue avant les boeufs" literally means "put the cart before the ox". This French idiom dates back to the 16th century, and refers to the farmer who would put the cart before the ox, when he was done working at the end of the day. So, if the farmer did that at the beginning of the day, he would be reversing the correct order of things.

Answer: Have the blues

"Avoir le cafard" literally translates as "to have the cockroach". This idiom was introduced by the French poet Charles Baudelaire in his collection of poems "Les Fleurs du mal" (flowers of evil), where he used the word "cafard" to mean "melancholy".

Answer: Have a frog in the throat

"Avoir un chat dans la gorge" literally translates as "to have a cat in the throat". In the end of the 11th century, the word "maton" which meant "curds", started to be used to describe all kinds of lumps and heaps but also "cats". So, the original phrase "avoir un maton dans la gorge" changed as the the word "chat" gradually replaced "maton".

Answer: Prevention is better than cure

This idiom "mieux vaut prévenir que guérir" existed in medieval Latin before entering the French language. The literal translation would be "better to prevent than to cure". This phrase is the French equivalent of "prevention is better than cure" as well as "better safe than sorry".