Delicious French idioms with food
If you’d like to communicate like a French native, along with proper grammar and conjugation, you should start to learn a few French idioms. We have wonderful patisseries in Paris and in France, cosmopolite restaurants and tasty grocery stores. The list below related to food and drinks is quite long (and there are even more) but don’t worry. Just pick a few to begin with and remember the ones that you’ll be likely to use the most. C’est du gâteau (easy as pie) !
Today, we will cover the following expressions to add to your vocabulary :
- Tasty idioms with vegetables
- Sweet expressions in French with fruits
- Common idioms in French with meals and wine
Tasty French idioms with vegetables
1 – Les carottes sont cuites
- Literally : the carrots are cooked
- Meaning : It’s over now, the game is up
2 – Occupe-toi / Mêle-toi de tes oignons
- Literally : mind your onions
- Meaning : mind your own business
3 – Mettre du beurre dans ses épinards
- Literally : Put butter in your spinach
- Meaning : top up your income
4 – Ne pas avoir un radis
- Literally : not having a radish
- Meaning : be broke
5 – Raconter des salades
- Literally : to tell salads
- Meaning : to tell lies, tell stories
6 – Etre dans les choux
- Literally : to be in the cabbages
- Meaning : be all at sea, not be with it, be lost
7 – Se prendre le choux
- Literally : take yourself the cabbage
- Meaning : lose your temper, worry unnecessarily
8 – Etre un navet
- Literally : be a turnip
- Meaning : it’s a really bad movie
Sweet idioms in French with fruits
9 – Etre haut comme trois pommes
- Literally : high as three apples
- Meaning : knee hight to a grass hoper
10 – Tomber dans les pommes
- Literally : fall in the apples
- Meaning : faint, pass out
11 – Compter pour des prunes
- Literally : count as plums
- Meaning : count for nothing
12 – Lâcher la grappe
- Literally : lay off the grape
- Meaning : leave someone alone, give some space
13 – Avoir/Prendre le melon
- Literally : have/take the melon
- Meaning : be big-headed, have an inflated ego
14 – C’est la cerise sur le gateau
- Literally : it’s the cherry on the cake
- Meaning : icing on the cake
15 – Avoir la pêche / avoir la banane
- Literally : have the peach / the banana
- Meaning : be on form, good spirits, be happy
16 – Se fendre la poire
- Literally : red as a tomato
- Meaning : red as a beetroot
17 – Couper la poire en deux
- Literally : cut the pear in two
- Meaning : split your sides laughing
18 – Porter ses fruits
- Literally : carry their fruits
- Meaning : get results for your efforts
19 – Etre rouge comme une tomate
- Literally : red as a tomato
- Meaning : red as a beetroot
20 – Ramener sa fraise
- Literally : bring back your strawberry
- Meaning : stick your noise in, show off
Common French idioms with meals and wine
21 – Cracher dans la soupe
- Literally : spit in the soup
- Meaning : bite the hand that feeds you
22 – Être soupe au lait
- Literally : be a milk soup
- Meaning : be a hot head, quick-tempered
23 – Oh, purée !
- Literally : oh mash potato
- Meaning : oh, sugar ! oh, fudge !
24 – Casser du sucre sur le dos de quelqu’un
- Literally : break sugar on someone’s back
- Meaning : talk about somebody behind his/her back
25 – Avoir la moutarde qui monte au nez
- Literally : have the mustard getting into your nose
- Meaning : get upset, lose your temper
26 – Va te faire cuire un œuf !
- Literally : go to cook yourself an egg !
- Meaning : go jump in a lake ! get lost !
27 – Avoir le cul bordé de nouilles
- Literally : have the ass rimmed with noodles
- Meaning : be a lucky so-and-so, be a lucky sod
28 – En faire tout un fromage
- Literally : make a whole cheese of it
- Meaning : make a mountain out of a molehill
29 – Avoir du pain sur la planche
- Literally : to have bread on the plate
- Meaning : to have a lot on your plate
30 – Avoir un pépin
- Literally : to have a pip
- Meaning : to have a problem
31 – Pour une bouchée de pain
- Literally : for a bite of bread
- Meaning : for a trifle, for next to nothing
32 – Ne pas en perdre une miette
- Literally : not waste a crumb
- Meaning : take everything in, not miss a thing
33 – Mettre de l’eau dans son vin
- Literally : put water in his wine
- Meaning : back down
34 – Avoir du blé
- Literally : to have wheat
- Meaning : to be wealthy
For more vocabulary with yummy food, you can also read our list of useful French phrases at the restaurant.
A bientôt ! Feel free to contact me for more French idioms during my private French classes in Paris and/or online.
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