Idiomatic French Expression
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| 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?
Related lessons
More French expressions with chat
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Is your French as rusty as an old can? Did you live in France years ago or study it in high school—and promptly forget everything upon leaving? The fact is that language ability fades with lack of practice. If you used to know French but haven’t spoken it in years or decades, the bad news is that it probably won’t come rushing back all at once. But the good news is that you can relearn it much more quickly than if you were starting out without that previous knowledge.
N’importe literally means “no matter” or “(it) doesn’t matter.” This indefinite expression can precede an interrogative adjective, adverb, or pronoun when talking about something indefinite or non-specific.
