Home » Blog » 10 French expressions with numbers

10 French expressions with numbers

 

Doing the 100 steps, never two without three, eating like four. The French love to put numbers in their idiomatic expressions with numbers .  Today, I will explain 10 French expressions in which you will hear numbers and it will help you better understand French speakers.

Hello and thank you for joining me for this new video. Today, I’m going to explain the meaning of 10 expressions in which you will hear a number. These are 10 idiomatic expressions. So, today is really a vocabulary video. And these expressions are us! by native speakers. So, follow this video to the end to try to better understand French speakers when they express themselves.

Before that, I invite you to take a look at the first link in the description. It will take you to the presentation page of the Authentic French Academy . So, if you want to go further, if you want to go faster in your progress, well I invite you to discover the link.

We present you the Zoom meetings with the tutors

the modules that will allow you to consume lots of interesting content in French and also the SOS sheets in which we explain vocabulary, grammar, conjugation in a synthetic way, and we also help you improve your pronunciation. There are too many things in the academy for me to tell you everything right now. The best thing is to follow the link in the description.

Registration is currently clos!, it is clos! 90% of the year, but if you  india whatsapp number data  follow the link you can join the waiting list and you will be inform! of the next openings, it will be on July 3rd. I hope to meet you in person at the academy.

Let’s go. Now let’s discover 10 French expressions that contain a number.

It was one less.

It means we narrowly avoid! a problem, we avoid! a catastrophe, it was almost too late. A more common, slightly more familiar variant is “it was minus one”. Instead of saying “it was minus one”, we tend to say orally and in a slightly more familiar way “it was minus one”.

To understand this expression, you have to think about how the French say time or indicate time. For example, the French will rarely say “9 hours 55”, they will say “10 hours minus 5”. So, rather  sara fulford vice president – sales & scientific initiatives than saying “9 hours and 55 minutes”, we say “10 hours minus 5”. We take what is closer. So, if we say “minus one”, it means minus one minute and, therefore, it means that something is very close. So, basically, one more minute and it would have been a disaster.

For example, imagine, you are at the train station and you run because you are a little late. You run, you get on the train, and as soon as you get on the train, it leaves. Well you will say: “Phew! It was one to” or “Phew! It was one to” to indicate that a few moments later, you would have had a big problem since you would have miss! your train.

Second expression: to have zero morale

It means to be sad, to be depress!, to be down, to be demoraliz!. Here, the explanation is clear, the number zero is the lowest. There is no less than zero. It is the lowest number. And so, if your morale is at zero, well your morale is at its lowest.

For example, you might hear: He fail! his exams, he’s feeling down. That means he’s sad, he’s depress!.

Third expression: to be on the verge of.

It means to be on the verge of, to be very close to doing something. If you look at your fingers, two fingers that are side by side, well you see that they are close. There is a notion of proximity between our fingers. Two fingers are always close, are right next to each other. So, that’s why when we say “I’m on the verge of doing something”, it means I’m almost doing it, it’s very close, this action is very close.

For example, imagine, you had an appointment  a complete list of unit phone numbers  a friend, you’ve been waiting for 15 minutes, and then, here he is, he’s late. Well you tell him: “Ooh, I was about to leave”, that means I was about to leave, I almost left, my departure was imminent, was as close as two fingers are close to each other.

Fourth: never two without three.

Here, it is more of a proverb, eh, which indicates that in fact an event that has happen! twice has a good chance of happening a third time, never two without three. It is us! to show that events tend to repeat themselves and it is us!, it is us! for happy or unhappy events.

For example, imagine this dialogue: “This is the second time he’s gotten marri!.” Someone answers: “Three is a charm.” This means that he anticipates that this person will get marri! a third time. Or, you’re watching a football match with your friends and someone comes up and says: “What’s the score?” You answer: “It’s 2-0 for France.” And then your friend says: “Three is a charm.” This means that if France scor! two goals, they can score a third.

Scroll to Top