Un tiens vaut mieux que deux tu l'auras
Meaning: A certain small gain beats a larger promised one.
Language: French
Literally: One here-you-are is worth more than two you-shall-haves
Category: Daily Life
Origin: The grammar is the joke: two verb forms are used as nouns, the imperative of giving against the future of promising. English says a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Mieux vaut tenir que courir — Better to keep what you have than chase what you might get.
- Un travail de Titan — An undertaking of enormous scale.
- À tombeau ouvert — At reckless, life-threatening speed.
- Être mis sur la touche — To be sidelined and left out of things.
- Botter en touche — To dodge a question by changing the subject.
- Une tour d'ivoire — A position of deliberate detachment from ordinary life.
More French idioms
- La tournée des grands-ducs — A lavish night out taking in every fashionable establishment.
- Un coup de Trafalgar — A sudden catastrophic reversal, often felt to be underhand.
- Doré sur tranche — Extremely wealthy; luxuriously appointed.
- Le bout du tunnel — The first sign that a long difficulty is ending.
- Brûler ses vaisseaux — To destroy any possibility of retreat.
- Vérité en deçà des Pyrénées, erreur au-delà — What counts as true depends on which side of a border you stand.
From our false friends
- Actuel — Actually means 'current' or 'present-day'. Actuellement = currently — not 'actually'.
- Blesser — Actually means 'to wound' or 'to injure'. Je suis blessé = I am injured — not blessed.
- Location — Actually means 'rental'. Une location de voiture = a car rental. For location (place), sa…
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