Ce n'est pas une sinécure
Meaning: It is not an easy job.
Language: French
Literally: It's no sinecure
Category: Daily Life
Origin: A sinecure was a church benefice held sine cura, without the care of souls — an income with no duties attached. The word survived the practice by several centuries.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Une chasse aux sorcières — A campaign of persecution driven by suspicion rather than evidence.
- Pas besoin de sortir de Saint-Cyr — It doesn't take a genius to work that out.
- Faire table rase — To sweep everything away and start from nothing.
- Rendre son tablier — To resign, usually in protest.
- Sans tambour ni trompette — Discreetly, without any announcement.
- Prendre la tangente — To slip away, or to dodge a question.
More French idioms
- Prendre le taureau par les cornes — To tackle a difficulty head-on instead of avoiding it.
- Les vaches maigres — A period of hardship and scarcity — the opposite of les vaches grasses.
- Les vaches grasses — A period of plenty.
- Aller comme un tablier à une vache — To suit someone appallingly badly.
- Adorer le veau d'or — To make money one's god.
- Une tunique de Nessus — A gift that destroys the person who accepts it.
From our tongue twisters
- Un beau ver vert dans un verre vert verra un ver vert. — Ver (worm), vert (green), and verre (glass) are near-homophones — distinguishing them at…
- 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.
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