Né avec une cuillère d'argent dans la bouche
Meaning: Born into wealth and advantage.
Language: French
Literally: Born with a silver spoon in the mouth
Category: Food & Drink
Origin: A borrowing of the English phrase, which refers to the christening spoons wealthy godparents gave — a child of means arrived with the silver already in place. French took it whole in the 20th century.
More idioms — Food & Drink
- Des économies de bouts de chandelle — Petty economies that save nothing worth having.
- Un étouffe-chrétien — Food so dense and stodgy it is hard to swallow.
- Mettre de l'eau dans son vin — To moderate one's demands or soften one's position.
- De derrière les fagots — The very best, kept back for a special occasion.
- À la fortune du pot — Taking potluck; sharing whatever happens to be cooking.
- Séparer le bon grain de l'ivraie — To distinguish what is valuable from what is worthless.
More French idioms
- Avoir les coudées franches — To have complete freedom of action.
- Battre sa coulpe — To publicly acknowledge one's own wrongdoing.
- Le petit doigt sur la couture du pantalon — Standing rigidly to attention; obeying without question.
- Ôter une épine du pied à quelqu'un — To relieve someone of a persistent difficulty.
- Un écorché vif — Someone painfully hypersensitive to everything around them.
- Se croire sorti de la cuisse de Jupiter — To have an absurdly high opinion of one's own importance.
From our tongue twisters
- 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.
- Les chaussettes de l'archiduchesse sont-elles sèches, archi-sèches? — A merciless duel between 'ch' and 's'.
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