Avoir la main verte
Meaning: To have a gift for growing plants.
Language: French
Literally: To have a green hand
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: The green is what rubs off on the hands of someone constantly handling stems and leaves. English says green fingers or a green thumb from the same stain.
More idioms — Body & Senses
- Entrer dans le vif du sujet — To get to the heart of the matter.
- Tomber dans les pommes — Suddenly losing consciousness — possibly derived from the older expression 'être dans les…
- Avoir la moutarde qui monte au nez — To be getting angry.
- Couper les cheveux en quatre — To over-analyze or split hairs.
- Se regarder le nombril — To be self-centered or narcissistic.
- Tomaten auf den Augen haben — To be oblivious to what's right in front of you.
More French idioms
- Une vérité de La Palice / Une lapalissade — A statement so obvious it is comic — a truism.
- Prendre des vessies pour des lanternes — To be grossly deceived about something.
- Être piqué de la tarentule — To be seized by frantic, uncontrollable agitation.
- Tonnerre de Brest ! — An exclamation of astonishment or annoyance.
- En voiture, Simone ! — Right then, off we go.
- Une tempête dans un verre d'eau — A great commotion over something trivial.
From our tongue twisters
- Didon dîna, dit-on, du dos d'un dodu dindon dont le dodu dos dodine. — A 'd' / 'din' / 'dod' avalanche that seems designed to jam the tongue in third gear.
- Un chasseur sachant chasser doit savoir chasser sans son chien. — The classic French 'ch' / 's' tangler.
- Les chaussettes de l'archiduchesse sont-elles sèches, archi-sèches? — A merciless duel between 'ch' and 's'.
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