Les Bons Mots

While perusing the French Language section at my library I stumbled upon the book, "Les Bons Mots: How to Amaze Tout le Monde with Every Day French."  It is basically a collection of sayings or colloquialisms in French that don't translate out word for word en Anglais.  I thought it would be fun to read through it every now and again to pick some phrases up.  So for lack of better posts, I will post a few "bons mots" that I particularly enjoy....

il y a loin de la coupe aux lèvres 

there's many a slip between cup and lip

The message is clear: "nothing is certain til you have it in hand"; literally, "it's a long way from the cup to the lips."  So maybe it's a good thing to take your stock market profits from time to time. 

être noyé

be all at sea

Also translated as "be out of one's depth," more literarily as, "fail to understand."  A state I plan to be in consistently.  

casser les pieds à quelqu'un 
bore someone to death 
Less dramatically translated as "wear someone out," "bore someone stiff," or "get on somebody's nerves."  The literal translation is "break someone's legs."  The French take boredom seriously.