📖LearnModule 14 · Lesson 6 of 30Proficient User · CEFR C2, continuedUnit 2 · Les expressions figées
Le corps dans les expressions
Module 14 of the free French course (CEFR C2, continued), lesson 6 of 30: French idiom lives in the body. On this page: 8 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's lesson 6.
The words
French
English
Say it
avoir le bras long
to have influence
ah-vwahr luh brah LOH(n)
coûter les yeux de la tête
to cost a fortune
koo-tay lay zyuh duh lah TEHT
avoir un poil dans la main
to be bone idle
ah-vwahr uh(n) pwahl dah(n) lah MA(n)
le bras
the arm
luh BRAH
l'œilmasculine — the article elides to l'
the eye
luhy
coûter
to cost
koo-TAY
en entier
as a whole
ah(n) nah(n)-TYAY
deviner le sens
to work out the meaning
duh-vee-nay luh SAH(n)S
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
Hear the words
Each word is read twice — say it back in the gap. Computer-generated voice; credits on the course page.
La règle · The rule
French idiom lives in the body. Avoir le bras long (to have influence), coûter les yeux de la tête (to cost a fortune), avoir un poil dans la main (to be bone idle).
Et aussi · And also
None of them can be worked out from the words, and all of them are printed in the dictionary as fixed expressions. Learn them whole, or not at all.
Attention · Watch out
A fixed expression is fixed in every word: avoir le bras long, never avoir un bras long or avoir les bras longs. Change the article and the idiom becomes a sentence about arms.
Do it now — on paper
Say all 8 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the French spelling alone — begin with avoir le bras long.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the French.
Write two sentences of your own that get the watch-out line right, then the two practice pages of workbook lesson 6 in Module 14 are the written half of this page.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The French Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Keep these words
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.