If you know these English idioms, you will get 10/10 in this test

Quiz – “a real beaver”, “spill the beans”… What is the French equivalent of these expressions? Le Figaro Invites you to test your knowledge.

They are to Shakespeare’s language what ours is to Moliere’s. We use these everyday expressions without necessarily thinking that they are specific to our language. From the Late Greek “idiotismos” (“the language of simple details”), “idiots” has no syntactic equivalent in another language. In French, it means “working for plums”, “having a toy in the drawer” or “telling salads”. Try to translate these phrases in writing… your interlocutor will look at you in bewilderment.

In English, if you say “I don’t have flies” and strictly mean “I’m not covered in flies,” it doesn’t make any sense in French. Then understand: “I was not born at the last rain.” Likewise, if an Englishman says he has “a frog in his throat,” don’t call the fire department. Their “frog” is equivalent to our “cat”. Both go away after drinking a glass of water.

Do you know what “spilling the beans” is? What is equivalent to “when chickens have teeth”? What is “breaking your leg”? Le Figaro This exam challenges you to score 10/10.