Donner sa langue au chat

Idiomatic French Expression


Il donne sa langue au chat © Normand Gaudreault, Cahiers NG
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Meaning		to give up, stop guessing
Literally		to give one’s tongue to the cat
Register		informal
Pronunciation		[duh nay sah la(n) go shah]
IPA		[dɔ ne sa lɑ̃ go ʃa]

Usage notes: Guess what? Come on, guess! Give up? You can use the French expression donner sa langue au chat to indicate that you have no idea and don’t want to guess any more.

Par exemple…

– Tu ne devineras jamais qui ce qui s’est passé !		– You’ll never guess what happened!
– Tu t’es fiancé ?		– You got engaged?
– Non !		– No!
– Tu as une promotion ?		– You got a promotion?
– Non !		– No!
– Alors, je donne ma langue au chat.		– OK, I give up.

According to Les 1001 expressions préférées des Français, the original expression was jeter sa langue aux chiens. When you couldn’t guess any more, your tongue was useless, so you threw it away like so much leftover food.

But how did “throw it to the dogs” become “give it to the cat”? It’s either due to the influence of the expression mettre quelque chose dans l’oreille du chat, meaning “to confide in the cat,” or perhaps just a gradual softening of jeter into donner, and chien to chat.

Related expression: Tu as avalé/perdu ta langue ? – Cat got your tongue?