IdiomDaily LifeFrench

L'enfance de l'art

Meaning: Utterly elementary; child's play.

Literally: The infancy of the art

Example: “Pour un plombier, changer ce joint, c'est l'enfance de l'art.” — For a plumber, replacing that seal is child's play.

English equivalent: Child's play

Equivalents in other languages

Origin: The infancy of a discipline is its first and crudest stage, so anything belonging to it requires no skill at all. Note that the sense inverts the English 'in its infancy', which describes something undeveloped rather than easy.

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