Today, I’ve decided to look at the French translation of ‘to call a spade a spade’ – mostly because it gives me the chance to go a bit overboard with cat photos.
Hope you like this week’s mot de la semaine!
And as always, if you’ve enjoyed reading it, please feel free to share this on your email and social networks – and to leave a comment below to let you know what you think!
What are your favourite French words?
Word of the Week:
‘Appeler un chat un chat’.
How to pronounce it:
‘Ah-puh-lay uhn shah uhn shah’.
What it means in English:
This means ‘to call a spade a spade’, although it would literally be translated into English as ‘to call a cat a cat’ (which I prefer!)
The expression apparently comes from Ancient Greek, and seems to be connected to their sayings ‘to call a fig a fig’, and ‘to call a boat a boat’. Read more about the expression in French here.
How to use it in a sentence:
‘Il faut appeler un chat un chat, cette idée ne marchera jamais.’
English translation:
‘You’ve got to call a spade a spade, that idea will never work.’
Similar words:
Être direct = To be direct
Parler franchement = To speak frankly
Aller droit au but = To get straight to the point
Ne pas tourner autour du pot = To not beat around the bush.
If you’ve enjoyed reading this, why not check out my previous Word of the Week and language posts here?
French Affliction 