In this video I explain 5 proverbs about love in French! They're important because they can help you learn French and better understand French culture.
List of love proverbs
- 0:00 - Introduction
- 1:01 - Happy at play, unhappy in love
- 2:05 - Rainy wedding, happy wedding
- 2:43 - Out of sight, out of mind
- 3:18 - Love is blind
- 4:05 - Living on love and fresh water
Transcript of the video
Hello everyone. I hope you're doing well and that your learning French is going well.
When learning a foreign language, it's very interesting to learn proverbs in that language. Proverbs are quotations and popular adages that people use. Proverbs are used to give advice or to remind people of truths that are known to everyone in society. It's interesting to learn proverbs because they'll take your French to the next level. So you'll find it easier to make jokes or witty remarks in French.
It's also interesting, because these expressions and proverbs will tell you a little more about French culture. Today, we're going to take a look at 5 French proverbs that talk about love. "je t'aime" in French. So, the first proverb is "happy at play, unhappy in love". This proverb, happy at play, unhappy in love, means that you can't have it all. So if you're happy at play, you're bound to be unhappy in love.
In French, le jeu refers to the casino, the lottery. In fact, all games of chance where you can win money. The expression really means that, well, you're happy gambling. Well, you had to choose. Since you're happy gambling, you don't have anyone in your life. So it's very similar to another French expression that's much more popular and much more colloquial, which is "avoir une chance de cocu".
This means that if you've had a lot of luck at one time or another, there's obviously something behind it, and it's not normal to be so lucky. So, when we say in French that we have a cuckold's luck, it means that it's not possible to be so lucky. So, inevitably, your wife or husband cheats on you, sleeping with someone else.
The next proverb is "rainy wedding, happy wedding". This means that if it's raining or the weather is bad on our wedding day, we're bound to be happy with the person we've married.
So you'll be happy with the person you're getting married to. In reality, we say this to reassure the bride and groom, because nobody wants to get married in the rain, in bad weather. So we tell them: today, it's raining, but that means you're going to spend a wonderful life together, a very good life for both of you.
The next proverb is "out of sight, out of mind". So when we say this proverb, it actually means that when we're far from the person we love, when we're not close to them, our love diminishes.
We think less of her, we forget her. For example, I could say: "Pierre cheated on Caroline while he was on vacation in Spain with his friends, as they say, out of sight, out of mind". Since she wasn't near him, he didn't think about her.
The next proverb is "Love is blind". Blind in French means that you can't see, that you've lost your sight. So when we say that love is blind, it means that it's irrational, that we can't explain it.
For example, you're going to be in love with someone and other people aren't going to understand that love. There's also a saying: "Love makes you blind", which means that everyone will see your boyfriend's or girlfriend's faults, for example, but you won't see them because you're blinded by your love for him or her. So, for example, you could say he's making really unfunny jokes, but his girlfriend won't stop laughing: love really does make you blind. To say that she's the only one who can't see that he's not funny. Finally, the last proverb we're going to look at today is "vivre d'amour et d'eau fraiche". When we say that we live on love and fresh water, we mean that we are content with very little. You need very, very little, not very much in your life to be happy. So this expression is often used to talk about people in the early stages of a relationship.
So, when you've got butterflies in your stomach, you're a bit... all you think about is the person you love and you lose your appetite. So, for example, I could say: "Since Caroline met Pierre, she doesn't eat anything, she lives on love and fresh water". And that's it for today. I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, don't hesitate to put a like or subscribe to the channel.
You can also visit www.hellofrench.com to discover other expressions. See you soon.