French Vocabulary: Idioms Related to the Life Cycle

French Vocabulary: Idioms Related to the Life Cycle

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Identify:

French Vocabulary: Idioms Related to the Life Cycle
le vocabulaire français: des expressions idiomatiques reliées au cycle de vie

  • Idioms are fixed expressions with a figurative meaning.
  • Learn to use idioms related to the life cycle to sound more like a native speaker of French.

Study:

avoir le démon de midi
to have a midlife crisis

avoir quarante ans bien sonnés
to be well past forty (years old)

avoir un polichinelle dans le tiroir
to have a bun in the oven / to be pregnant

casser sa pipe
to kick the bucket

d’un certain âge
middle-aged

c’est la vie!
that’s life!

en bas âge
at an early age / young / little

être dans la fleur de l’âge
to be in the prime of (one’s) life

être né(e) coiffé(e)
to be born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth

faire les quatre cent coups
to sow one’s wild oats / to lead a wild life

friser la cinquantaine
to be pushing fifty (years old)

un gamin / un gosse
kid / child / little boy

une gamine / une mioche
kid /child / little girl

manger les pissenlits par la racine
to be pushing up daisies / to be dead

mourir de sa belle mort
to die of old age

Quel âge me donnez-vous?
How old do you think I am?

Sa vie ne tient qu’à un fil
His (her) life is hanging by a thread / He (She) is deathly ill

se faire vieux
to be getting old / to be getting on in years

sentir le sapin
to have one foot in the grave / to be close to death

Si jeunesse savait, si vieillesse pouvait
Youth is wasted on the young

trouver la mort
to lose one’s life

vivre centenaire
to live to be one hundred

vivre vieux / faire de vieux os
to live to a ripe old age

voir la vie en rose
to look on the bright side of life

Adapt: 

Son grand-père est mort de sa belle mort.
His grandfather died of old age.

Mes parents frisent la cinquantaine.
My parents are pushing fifty.

Le soldat a trouvé sa mort dans la bataille.
The soldier lost his life in the battle.

Essaie toujours de voir la vie en rose.
Always try to look on the bright side of life.

Elle est une dame d’un certain âge.
She is a middle-aged woman.

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