To celebrate National Dog Day on August 26, we take a look at the many popular (and charming) French phrases that refer to dogs in order to express certain human situations or emotions.
1. Dogs do not make cats
Perhaps the best known is les chiens ne font pas des chats (literally: dogs do not make cats), which is used when expressing the notion that we inherit most of our key personality or aesthetic traits from our parents.
Travelling in the other linguistic direction, there is one obvious trap to avoid: the English phrase 'it’s raining cats and dogs' does not have the feline/canine equivalent in French.
2016 otsphoto/Shutterstock
Instead, they would say il pleut des cordes (literally: it is raining rope).
If you have ever translated this phrase word-for-word and uttered 'il pleut des chats et chiens' you would definitely get a strange look from a befuddled French person.
However, if the weather is very bad in general you might say that: il fait un temps de chien.
3. Dogs bark but the caravan passes by
Ad
A popular expression you may also hear people say is: les chiens aboient et la caravane passe (the dogs bark and the caravan goes by).
Originally coming from a Persian expression, it references Arabic trade caravans passing through the deserts.
Dogs would bark angrily at the passing traders, but the camels would take little notice of the animals and keep going along their route.
In much the same way, humans can drown out the criticism levelled at them and keep on doing what they are doing.
4. To have the dog
Although it is never nice to tell someone they look like a dog, in French it is perfectly acceptable to say someone has the dog (avoir du chien).
This means that someone has an allure, some charisma, maybe something we cannot put our finger on... a little je ne sais quoi as we might say in English.
5. To look like a beaten dog
However, telling someone that they have une tete de chien battu (to have the face of a beaten dog), implies that they appear very upset.
This expression can be used with both avoir (to have) and faire (to make).
It is similar to the English idea of 'moping', and can sometimes suggest that a person is overreacting or exaggerating their sadness.
'Ca va, arrête de faire ta tête de chien battu un peu,' would mean: 'oh boo hoo, stop being such a cry baby about it.'
6. To be sick like a dog
Similarly, 'être malade comme un chien' has the same meaning as its direct English equivalent: to be as sick as a dog.
It describes someone who very unwell and can be traced to the early 1700s when dogs were seen as common carriers of disease.
7. Going bowling with your dog
Allow us to set the scene: you are invited to an activity with your French neighbours, perhaps a game of pétanque, but you have never played before.
You decide to join in anyway but are absolutely terrible. In fact, you arrive comme un chien dans un jeu de quilles, (did it like a dog in a game of bowling).
This is not just limited to sport, but to any activity you fail spectacularly at, such as trying to cook Christmas dinner or picking up a guitar for the first time.
It similar to another French animal expression: comme un elephant dans un magasin de porcelaine (to be like a bull in a china shop).
