Que dalle !


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Familiar French Expression

Meaning	Absolutely nothing! Not a damn thing!
Literally	Only paving stone!
Register	familiar
Pronunciation		[keuh dahl]
IPA		[kə dal]

Usage notes: Que dalle ! is a familiar way of saying "absolutely nothing!" It’s often used on its own, as a response or interjection.

Par exemple…

Je cherche une voiture pas chère depuis des heures et qu’est-ce que je trouve ? Que dalle !		I’ve been looking for a cheap car for hours and what have I found? Not a damn thing!
– Hé ! Michel ! Qu’est-ce que t’as* fait hier ? – Que dalle !		– Hey! Michel! What’d you do yesterday? – Absolutely nothing!

* T’as is the informal contraction of tu as.

Que dalle can also be used as a negative pronoun, in place of rien.

Par exemple…

Je (ne)* pige que dalle !*		I don’t understand a damn thing!
J(e n)’entends que dalle !		I can’t hear a damn thing!

** Ne is generally dropped in informal French.

Linguistics

Une dalle is a paving stone or slab of concrete, so why does it mean “nothing"? According to Albert Dauzat in L’Argot de la guerre,

et je cite …

Le synonyme populaire de rien, qui signifiait à l’origine « quelque chose », est aujourd’hui dalle, employé exclusivement, pendant longtemps, sous la forme restrictive : je (n’) y vois que dalle, — la dalle étant le symbole plaisant de l’objet invisible, comme la tringle de l’objet introuvable.

The familiar synonym of rien (nothing), which originally meant "something," is today dalle, long used exclusively in the restrictive form: je (n’) y vois que dalle (I don’t see a damn thing), — the paving stone being the nice symbol of the invisible object, like the rod [holding up] the unfindable object.

Related expression: avoir la dalle – to be hungry