The French language has a wide range of fun and colorful expressions toutes faites (set expressions) involving parts of the body. Some of these coincide with English ones, but most of the time, it's necessary to find equivalents. Let's look at a few of these expressions in this lesson.

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But first, Manon and Clémentine will explain what expressions toutes faites are:

Expressions toutes faites. Qu'est-ce que c'est ? Ce sont des phrases ou des locutions qui ont une tournure assez imagée et qui sont souvent très difficiles à traduire.

Set expressions. What is that? These are sentences or phrases that have a rather colorful phrasing and that are often very difficult to translate.

Captions 2-4, Manon et Clémentine Expressions toutes faites

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Manon and Clémentine then give us a variety of examples, some of which involve parts of the body like l’œil (the eye). Be careful not to take this one literally: to have un compas dans l’œil (a compass in one’s eye) is not as painful as it sounds. Metaphorically speaking, it means having a knack for assessing measurements accurately just by looking:

Manon a le compas dans l'œil...

Manon has the compass in her eye [can measure things by sight]...

Caption 10, Manon et Clémentine Expressions toutes faites

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Or you could gauge distance with your nose, à vue de nez (literally, "by sight of nose")! That’s how Clémentine goes on to describe Manon’s guessing abilities:

Elle le fait à vue de nez.

She does it by sight of nose [roughly, at a glance].

Caption 14, Manon et Clémentine Expressions toutes faites

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However, Manon does not think Clémentine’s statement is much of a compliment, as the expression implies measuring somewhat inaccurately. So, Manon tells Clémentine she is mistaken, using the expression se mettre le doigt dans l’œil (literally, "to put one's finger in one's eye"):

Mais moi je pense que tu te mets le doigt dans l'œil quand tu dis « à vue de nez ».

but me, I think that you're putting your finger in your eye [entirely mistaken] when you say "by sight of nose."

Caption 17, Manon et Clémentine Expressions toutes faites

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Being good friends, they are not going to argue about finer points like that and prefer to avoid couper les cheveux en quatre (literally "splitting hairs in four"):

Bon, ne commence pas à couper les cheveux en quatre !

OK, don't start splitting hairs!

Caption 19, Manon et Clémentine Expressions toutes faites

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Speaking of things to avoid, it’s best not to mettre les pieds dans le plat (to put one's feet in the dish). This is roughly equivalent to "to put one's foot in one's mouth," or to speak too bluntly. Barbara decides to risk doing this by telling her mother that she's a bad cook:

Il était grand temps que je mette les pieds dans le plat.

It was high time that I put my feet in the dish [put my foot in my mouth, risk offending her].

Caption 7, Mère & Fille Cuisine Monster

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There is another expression using pied (foot). If you wake up in a bad mood, or get up on the wrong side of the bed, this is what you can say in French:

Et « se lever du pied gauche » ? -C'est être mécontent, de mauvaise humeur.

And "to get up on one's left foot"? -That's to be unhappy, in a bad mood.

Caption 45, Manon et Clémentine Expressions toutes faites

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A person in a bad mood is likely to be a pain in the neck, or un casse-pieds ("feet breaker"):

Mais tu es casse-pieds aujourd’hui !

But you’re a pain in the neck today!

A similar expression is un casse-tête ("head breaker"). When something is so difficult (like, say, French grammar) that it gives you a headache, you can call it un casse-tête. In this video, we learn that the production of too many books can be un casse-tête (a headache) for a bookstore:

Une production très importante en France de livres qui est plutôt une bonne chose, mais qui est parfois un casse-tête...

A very significant production of books in France, which is rather a good thing, but which is sometimes a headache...

Captions 19-21, Gaëlle Librairie "Livres in Room"

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Un casse-tête is also the word for a puzzle or brain-teaser:

J'aime faire des mots croisés et d'autres casse-tête.

I like doing crossword puzzles and other brain-teasers. 

Exploring French expressions should hopefully be neither un casse-pieds (a pain) nor un casse-tête (a headache)! You can learn some more expressions toutes faites (set expressions) in the rest of Manon and Clémentine’s lesson and remember that our Yabla videos are a great source of interesting expressions as well. Thank you for reading!