French idioms

Le monde francophone · 44 destinations · Choisissez votre départ

Idioms do not travel as well as the language does. The map has the ones tied to a particular place. Plenty of others are used everywhere French is spoken, and you can hear those in all eight accents.

Tap a country to pick a destination. Pinch or use the corner buttons to zoom.

Francophone destinations

14 more destinations, no expressions yet
  • BurundiNo expressions yet
  • CambodiaNo expressions yet
  • ComorosNo expressions yet
  • DjiboutiNo expressions yet
  • French Polynesia (France)No expressions yet
  • GuineaNo expressions yet
  • LaosNo expressions yet
  • MadagascarNo expressions yet
  • MauritaniaNo expressions yet
  • Mayotte (France)No expressions yet
  • MonacoNo expressions yet
  • SeychellesNo expressions yet
  • VanuatuNo expressions yet
  • VietnamNo expressions yet

Why the counts are uneven

A country's number counts the expressions tied to that place, not everything used there. 180 of 421 carry no country at all, so an idiom everyone knows in France usually sits there rather than under France.

Quebec has been the easiest place to source from, so it is further along than the rest. The aim is the whole French-speaking world, so if you know one that is missing, send it over.

After you pick a country

Pick one and you get the collection filtered to it, with a literal translation and audio for every idiom. If you would rather guess than read, the quiz draws its questions from the same set.

Eight accents

Most idioms here are read in all eight: France, Quebec, Belgium, Switzerland, Haiti, Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Togo. One tied to specific places is read only in the accents of those places.

Each voice is cloned from a real person's recording. It is still generated audio though, so some clips come out wrong. If one sounds off to you it probably is. Tell me and I'll fix it.