Essential French Expression
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Meaning | too much, too many; unwanted | |
Register | normal | |
Pronunciation | ![]() |
[deu troh] |
IPA | [də tʀo] |
Usage notes: The French expression de trop means "too much" or "too many" when it follows a noun or verb.
Par exemple…
Tu as une valise de trop. | You have one too many suitcases / one suitcase too many | |
J’ai acheté deux billets de trop. | I bought two tickets too many. | |
Il mange de trop quand il est nerveux. | He eats too much when he’s nervous. | |
Vous vous plaignez de trop. | You complain too much. |
De trop vs trop (de)
These two phrases mean more or less the same thing, but they are different grammatically.
1) With nouns – de trop vs trop de
De trop | Trop de | |||
Placement | Follows the noun | Precedes the noun | ||
dix litres de trop ten liters too many |
trop de litres too many liters |
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Amount | Required | Optional | ||
une rame de papier de trop one ream of paper too many |
trop de papier, trop de rames de papier too much paper, too many reams of paper |
2) With verbs – de trop vs trop
De trop | Trop | |||
Simple conjugation | Follows the verb | Follows the verb | ||
Tu bois de trop. You drink too much. |
Tu bois trop. |
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Compound conjugation | Follows the past participle | Follows the helping verb | ||
J’ai bu de trop. I drank too much. |
J’ai trop bu. |
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Dual-verb conjugation | Follows the infinitive | Follows the semi-auxiliary verb | ||
Je ne veux pas boire de trop. I don’t want to drink too much. |
Je ne veux pas trop boire. |
Metaphorically speaking
De trop can also have a negative meaning: unwanted, unnecessary, uncalled-for, over the top:
Par exemple…
Elle se sentait de trop. | She felt unwanted. | |
Cette observation est de trop ! | That comment is uncalled-for! |
En anglais
The figurative meaning is also found in English:
Her last party was a bit de trop.
Don’t you think five cars are rather de trop?
Your comment was de trop.
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