Spotlight on Brittany: Idioms

Spotlight on Brittany: Idioms
Idioms 2
Bonjour!
To recap, idioms are phrases or expressions where the literal meaning of the
words doesn’t match the meaning we put on the whole phrase. When you get into
using idioms in everyday language, they get easier. The main thing is to work
them out, try them and practise! Here are a few idioms having the letter “a” at
the start or at the beginning of a key word.
First, some idioms to do with “affaire” – which means business, a matter, an
affair or even a scandal.
Ca fera l’affaire! - That’ll do the job or that’ll do. I think some might even say
“That’s the business” or “That’ll do the trick.” - an English idiom for the same
thing. You can also apply this idiom to people: “Il or Elle fera l’affaire” will be
intended to mean that someone or something is right for doing a job, for
example. You can extend this: “Il/Elle or Ça ne peut pas faire l’affaire’’ He/she/it/that won’t do. An English idiom comes to mind here, maybe : He can’t
cut the mustard! So “faire l’affaire” can be useful.
How about this: Ça a très bien fait l’affaire! That was just the job! A nice, cold
lemonade on a hot day….Ah, ça a très bien fait l’affaire!
Finally: Où est Michel? Oh, il est allé faire son affaire à Claude ! It might be
© Don Whittle 2009
AIKB Spotlight on Brittany
that the business he has to do with Claude, but the underlying meaning is likely
to be that Michel has gone to sort him out in whichever way the context or your
previous knowledge of their affairs might suggest. Heaven forbid that it’s the
most extreme possible meaning and that he’s gone to bump him off !!
All for this time, au revoir!
© Don Whittle 2009
AIKB Spotlight on Brittany