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C'est du grand art

Meaning: That is masterfully done.

Language: French

Literally: That is great art

Category: Daily Life

Origin: The same older sense of art as mastered craft rather than fine art, so the praise is for execution and not aesthetics. It is often said with a touch of irony, of something done a little too well.

More idioms — Daily Life

  • L'enfance de l'art — Utterly elementary; child's play.
  • À l'article de la mort — At the very point of dying.
  • De bon augure — A promising sign; its opposite, de mauvais augure, means ominous.
  • Mesurer à l'aune de — To judge something by a particular standard.
  • L'avocat du diable — Someone who argues a position they do not hold in order to test it.
  • Dans tous les azimuts — In every direction at once; scattered and unfocused.

More French idioms

  • Une tour de Babel — A place of hopeless confusion, especially one where nobody speaks the same language.
  • Plier bagage — To pack up and clear off, usually in a hurry.
  • Ça fait un bail — It has been ages.
  • Un baiser de Judas — A show of affection that conceals a betrayal.
  • La balle est dans votre camp — It is your turn to act; the decision now rests with you.
  • Convoquer le ban et l'arrière-ban — To call in absolutely everyone available.

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.

Browse all tongue twisters →

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