Parler français comme une vache espagnole
Meaning: To speak French appallingly badly.
Language: French
Literally: To speak French like a Spanish cow
Category: Animals
Origin: Attested by 1640, and the cow is probably an accident. The tidiest theory has vache as a corruption of basque, since 17th-century French wrote vasces or vasque for a Gascon or a Basque, and a Basque from the Spanish side of the border had no particular reason to speak good French — a variant runs the other way, parler français comme un Basque parle l'espagnol, on the grounds that Basques on either side of the Pyrenees were attached to their own language above the national one. A second theory derives it from basse, an obsolete word for a maidservant, on the assumption that the servants were Spanish and their French imperfect; the word left so few traces that this is hard to test. Alain Rey's account is the least tidy and the most likely: no corruption at all, just two insults stacked. A vache was then, and remains, a strongly pejorative intensifier, and espagnol was itself an insult at the time — payer à l'espagnole meant to pay someone in blows, and a piece of bragging was an espagnolade. The same pairing turns up in il est sorcier comme une vache espagnole, meaning a hopeless incompetent. Two nasty words about a way of speaking, and the cow was never the point.
More idioms — Animals
- Une peau de vache — A vicious, pitiless person — a hard case, especially one with authority over you.
- La vache ! — An exclamation — either at someone's rottenness, or, just as often, at something impressi…
- Ça ne casse pas trois pattes à un canard — It's nothing special or impressive.
- Avoir le cafard — To feel depressed or down.
- Poser un lapin — To stand someone up on a date.
- Avoir d'autres chats à fouetter — To have more important things to do.
More French idioms
- Avoir une veine de cocu — To be outrageously, undeservedly lucky.
- Bon vent ! — Safe travels — or, said in the right tone, good riddance.
- Comme la vérole sur le bas clergé — Suddenly and with great violence — descending on something all at once.
- Des vertes et des pas mûres — Shocking or outrageous things — and, by extension, a very rough time of it.
- Prendre une veste — To suffer a defeat, especially at the polls.
- C'est comme pisser dans un violon — A completely pointless effort.
From our untranslatable words
- L'esprit de l'escalier — Thinking of the perfect comeback only after the moment has passed — on your way down the…
- Terroir — The unique character that a place — its soil, climate and tradition — gives to a wine or…
- Râler — To complain and grumble with a certain national flair — a beloved French pastime.
Browse all untranslatable words →
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