To ask what your favourite French words and expressions are?

[WellAlwaysHaveParis]

Very random AIBU, but I’d be interested to find out: what are your favourite French words and expressions? :)

I’m restarting a weekly post on French expressions for my blog on French language and culture, and I’ve run out of inspiration

Shameless plug alert.... if you’d like to know more about the blog or if you or anyone you know might like to contribute to it, please let me know on here or via private message :)

and are all up for grabs as prizes for the best words

Sorry rouler I should have changed to my French keyboard for this thread!

@ TeiTetua Sat 31-Mar-18 22:50:38

J'en ai ras-le-bol!

I of-it have scrape-the-bowl!

Everything's gone, I've run out of patience. I quit!

This bowl is definitely not empty! You are mistaking "ras" for "racler" to scrape.
e.g. racler les fonds de tiroirs: scrape the bottom of the barrel ("drawers" in French)....
"ras-le-bol is in fact quite the opposite: "my cup runneth over" - but where in English this is a positive expression in French it means "I've had it up to here" ..... any second the final drop will come to make the vase overflow (la dernière goutte qui fait deborder le vase: the staw that broke the camel's back).... it's quite close to "fed up" in the idea it gives.

@cuirderussie I love how language travels! :-) I've just learned some Polish and the numbers are really similar to a language my Granddad taught me as a child, which he called Hindustani, and which I think might be Punjabi!

Bol is the same as cul, in fact.
J'en ai ras le bol = j'en ai ras le cul.= I have had enough
Il a du bol = il a du cul. = He is lucky (also the delightful 'il a le cul bordé de nouilles').
Another charming one: je m'en bats les couilles = I couldn't care less.

"Ah, mais la voiture elle connait la route"

A very dubious expression used by French friends who live in the countryside to justify driving home when over the legal alcohol limit.