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French Expression
| Meaning | guess what, get this, can you imagine, if you can believe it, believe it or not | |
| Literally | imagine | |
| Register | normal | |
| Pronunciation |  | [fee gur twah] |
| IPA | [fi gyʁ twa] | |
Usage notes: Se figurer means “to imagine, picture”:
Par exemple…
| Si tu figures que tu vas y réussir … | If you imagine that you’re going to succeed … | |
| Figurez-vous une belle plage. | Picture a beautiful beach. |
In the imperative, figure-toi or figurez-vous has an additional, not entirely dissimilar meaning to the above so it’s technically not an idiomatic expression, but it is extremely common and useful. It’s used as a sort of filler to express surprise or mild disbelief:
| Il l’a perdu, figure-toi. | He lost it, imagine that/if you can believe that. / Get this, he lost it. | |
| Figurez-vous qu’on ne peut pas y aller ensemble. | Believe it or not, we can’t go together. |
Somewhat synonymous: Tu te rends compte – "Can you imagine?!"
Despite its structural similarity, figure-toi is not equivalent to "go figure," which is essentially an acknowledgment of Murphy’s law (la loi de l’emmerdement maximum). The French translation of "go figure" is allez comprendre.
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