FrenchCasser les pieds à quelqu'un
Meaning: To annoy or bore someone greatly.
Literally: To break someone's feet
Example: “Tu me casses les pieds avec tes questions, laisse-moi travailler !” — You're driving me crazy with your questions; let me work!
English equivalent: To be a pain in the neck
Origin: Pairing casser with a body part to mean annoying someone goes back to the start of the 12th century, but feet only enter the picture at the end of the 19th, and by way of a detour through ears: casser les oreilles (to deafen someone with noise or chatter) comes first, and casser les pieds takes over the same job. Walking was simply how people got anywhere, so sore or damaged feet meant every errand became a small ordeal — which is exactly the friction an insistent, tiresome person creates without laying a hand on you.
Other ways to say this
Hindi: नाक में दम करना (naak mein dam karna) Literally: To make someone's breath come through their nose
German: Jemandem auf den Keks gehen Literally: To go on someone's biscuit- French: Taper sur le système Literally: To run on the bean / to bang on the system
English: be a pain in the neck- English: get on someone's nerves
More French idioms
- Avoir le beurre et l'argent du beurre To want to have it both ways.
- Noyer le poisson To confuse the issue deliberately; to dodge a question.
- Chercher midi à quatorze heures To overcomplicate a simple matter.
- Appeler un chat un chat To call things by their proper name; to speak bluntly.
- Donner sa langue au chat To give up trying to guess the answer.
- C'est la croix et la bannière It is an enormous effort or ordeal.
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- Espèce de patate You dim bulb — a potato being the very picture of inert, unthinking stodginess.
- Quel râleur / quelle râleuse You never stop moaning — everything is a complaint, nothing is ever good enough.
- Peau de vache A mean, difficult, and unpleasant person — tough and unyielding like tanned hide.
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