On lui donnerait le Bon Dieu sans confession
Meaning: He looks completely innocent — with the implication that he is not.
Language: French
Literally: You would give him the Lord without confession
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Communion is withheld until sins are confessed, so administering it without that step means judging someone guiltless on appearance alone. The phrase is almost always a warning.
More idioms — Daily Life
- À cor et à cri — Loudly and insistently; demanding something at the top of one's voice.
- La corde au cou — Entirely at someone's mercy; forced to submit on any terms.
- Tenir la corde — To be in the best position to win.
- Tenir les cordons du poêle — To be a pallbearer at a funeral, as a mark of honor.
- La corne d'abondance — A source of inexhaustible abundance.
- Un choix cornélien — A dilemma in which every option requires sacrificing something one is bound to.
More French idioms
- À son corps défendant — Reluctantly; against one's own will.
- Corvéable à merci — Available to be worked without limit and without recourse.
- Avoir la cote — To be well regarded; to be popular.
- Sans coup férir — Without any resistance at all; effortlessly.
- Un coup de fil — A telephone call.
- Tomber comme un couperet — To land suddenly and irrevocably, as of bad news.
From our tongue twisters
- Dans ta tente ta tante t'attend. — A gentle 'ta / ten / tan / t'' warm-up that sounds faster than it reads.
- Seize chaises sèches sur seize arches sèches. — A relentless collision of 'sei', 'sèch', and 's' — the tongue can't find traction.
- 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…
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