📖LearnModule 14 · Lesson 8 of 30Proficient User · CEFR C2, continuedUnit 2 · Les expressions figées
La table
Module 14 of the free French course (CEFR C2, continued), lesson 8 of 30: Food gives French some of its best idioms. 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 8.
The words
French
English
Say it
mettre les pieds dans le plat
to put your foot in it
mehtr lay pyay dah(n) luh PLAH
raconter des salades
to talk nonsense
rah-koh(n)-tay day sah-LAHD
ce n'est pas de la tarte
it is no easy matter
suh neh pah duh lah TAHRT
tomber dans les pommes
to faint
toh(n)-bay dah(n) lay POHM
le plat
the dish
luh PLAH
la salade
the salad
lah sah-LAHD
ancien
old (long-standing)
ah(n)-SYA(n)
l'explication manquantefeminine — the article elides to l'
the missing explanation
lehks-plee-kah-syoh(n) mah(n)-KAH(n)T
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
Food gives French some of its best idioms. Mettre les pieds dans le plat (to put your foot in it), raconter des salades (to talk nonsense), ce n'est pas de la tarte (it is no picnic).
Et aussi · And also
Tomber dans les pommes means to faint, for reasons nobody agrees on. When an expression has no explanation, that is a sign it is genuinely old and genuinely fixed.
Attention · Watch out
ce n'est pas de la tarte means it is NOT easy — the negative is the form you will meet. tomber dans les pommes is to faint; nobody falls into anything.
Do it now — on paper
Say all 8 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the French spelling alone — begin with mettre les pieds dans le plat.
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 8 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.