IdiomFood & Drink
French
FrenchSéparer le bon grain de l'ivraie
Meaning: To distinguish what is valuable from what is worthless.
Literally: To separate the good grain from the darnel
Example: “Sur Internet, il faut savoir séparer le bon grain de l'ivraie.” — On the internet, you have to know how to separate the wheat from the chaff.
English equivalent: To separate the wheat from the chaff
Equivalents in other languages
English: separate the wheat from the chaff
Origin: From the parable of the tares in Matthew: darnel is a weed that closely resembles wheat while growing, so the sorting can only happen at harvest. That delay is the whole point of the parable and is usually forgotten.
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