Chanter comme une casserole
Meaning: To sing badly out of tune.
Language: French
Literally: To sing like a syringe / like a saucepan
Example: “Mon oncle adore le karaoké, mais il chante comme une casserole.” — My uncle loves karaoke, but he can't carry a tune in a bucket.
English equivalent: Can't carry a tune in a bucket
Category: Daily Life
Origin: From the start of the 19th century, and no lexicographer has produced a probable explanation. Walter Gottschalk notes only the sound of seringue against sirène and serin — you meant to sing like a canary and came out a siren — which would make the syringe a joke slid in on the resemblance. There may also be a link to the old slang sense of seringue for a thoroughly stupid person, on the reasoning that an idiot could hardly be expected to sing in tune. And seringue does come from Greek syrinx, meaning a tube but also a shepherd's pipe, which leaves room for a sound judged according to the shepherd. The saucepan needs no defense: it is the sound of the pans traditionally tied behind a wedding car.
Equivalents in other languages
- English: can't carry a tune in a bucket
More idioms — Daily Life
- Vaincre le signe indien — To break a run of bad luck.
- Faire un tabac — To be a huge success.
- Passer à tabac — To be given a severe beating, especially in police custody.
- Être au taquet — To be flat out, giving everything — or to have hit a limit that will not move.
- Le téléphone arabe — Word of mouth — news traveling by rumor, fast and increasingly wrong.
- Le torchon brûle — There is open discord — most often between a couple.
More French idioms
- Un coup de tabac — A sudden violent squall at sea; by extension, a brutal turn of events.
- À tire-larigot — In enormous quantities; to excess.
- Y a pas à tortiller du cul — Enough hesitating — a decision has to be made. Also: this is simply undeniable.
- Ne pas valoir tripette — To be worthless; to be of no interest whatsoever.
- Ne pas avoir les yeux en face des trous — To be unable to see what is right in front of you — usually because you are barely awake.
- Fort comme un Turc — Extremely strong and robust.
From our tongue twisters
- Les chaussettes de l'archiduchesse sont-elles sèches, archi-sèches? — A merciless duel between 'ch' and 's'.
- Si six scies scient six cyprès, six cents scies scient six cents cyprès. — An 's' / 'si' minefield.
- Dans ta tente ta tante t'attend. — A gentle 'ta / ten / tan / t'' warm-up that sounds faster than it reads.