Some French expressions with numbers 0 to 9
0 Zéro
Avoir la boule à zéro. -----> Being bald or shaving your head. (Être chauve ou se raser la tête.)
Avoir le moral à zéro. -----> To be depressed.
Remettre les compteurs à zéro. -----> Cancel and restart everything.
1 Un
Un "tiens" vaut mieux que deux "tu l'auras". -----> We use this expression when we want to dissuade someone to take some risks, or to teach someone to be happy with what he already possess.
Un homme averti en vaut deux. -----> We someone is aware about some risks, and / or has knewledge, we say that this person is worth twice.
Tomber sur un os. -----> To find and face a difficulty : it can be some abstract, like a problem, or a it can be a person.
2 Deux
Couper la poire en deux. -----> It means sharing, distributing something fairly. It is also used to decide on a compromise.
Être assis entre deux chaises. -----> This a metaphora which means to hesitate a lot to make a choice.
Faire d'une pierre deux coups. -----> This expression is attested to by Montaigne in the 16th century, but it is likely that it existed in one form or another long before. The metaphor is extremely simple to understand: if someone, with a single stone throw, succeeds in hitting two different targets, he kills two birds with one stone.
3 Trois
Être haut comme trois pommes. -----> To be small, like a child.
Trois pêlés et un tendu. -----> In an assembly or meeting, very few people, and only people of little consideration, uninteresting.
Jamais deux sans trois. -----> If something happens twice, it usually happens again (a third time.)
4 Quatre
Se saigner aux quatre veines. -----> To deprive yourself of something or go to great lengths to get it.... The metaphor conveyed by this "vein" indicates the idea of extreme deprivation because cutting one's veins is like bleeding out and losing one's life.
Faire les quatre volontés de quelqu'un. -----> Accepting someone's every whim, complying with their demands.
Se couper les cheveux en quatre. -----> Be too precise or too meticulous.
5 Cinq
Recevoir quelqu'un cinq sur cinq. -----> To perfectly ear and understand what someone says.
Le monton à cinq pattes. -----> A person is looking for something rare that is impossible to find, or designates someone exceptional or out of the ordinary
Un rendez-vous galant de cinq à sept. -----> A date at the end of the afternoon.
6 Six
A six pieds sous terre. -----> This expression dates back to the 16th century. Indeed, it was around this time that strict rules began to emerge regarding burial and cemetery. It was then decided that, to avoid dogs disturbing the coffins, they had to be buried at a legal depth of 1m80, or six feet.
Le tournoi des six nations. -----> Rugby-15 competition, played each year in February and March by teams from England, Scotland, France, Wales, Ireland and Italy.
À la six-quatre-deux -----> With an extreme speed.
7 Sept
Être ravi au septième ciel -----> To be in one's seventh heaven.
La semaine du travailleur a sept jours, la semaine du paresseux a sept demains...
-----> French proverb
8 Huit
Faire les trois huit. -----> Work scheduling system which consists of rotating three shifts on the same workstation for eight consecutive hours, in order to ensure continuous operation over 24 hours.
Exécuter un huit sur la glace. -----> Art executed on the ice.
Monter dans le grand huit. -----> Going up in the roller coaster.
9 Neuf
La preuve par neuf. -----> A technique for verifying a mental or "manual" calculation.
Neuf fois sur dix. -----> Very often.
Une grossesse de neuf mois. -----> The 9 months pregnancy.
6 Aralık 2019
