Sound French with 330 Animal Expressions and Idioms

330 French expressions about animals + meaning and example

The French language is full of idioms and our daily life is full of animals. No wonder we have so many idioms about animals in French ! Animals are part of the daily life of French people and of course you will find a lot about pets (dogs, cats,…) but also about Animals that we traditionally raise and feed in French agriculture like cows, chicken, sheep, pigs. We also have strong and scary animals that appears in fairy tales like wolves, bears, and also birds like eagle. These animals all have their own characteristics and they can sometimes apply to someone’s attitude, character or physical appearance. In my opinion, animal idioms are the most fun to use. They can often bring a humorous part in the conversation, and the image is strong and easy to remember.

Although there are a lot of French proverbs with animals (hundreds of them), this book is about idioms that we can adapt to the context. However I chose to include some proverbs that are still good to know, like Les chiens ne font pas des chats and Qui vole un œuf, vole un bœuf.

I sorted the most relevant, to give the idioms that you might hear the most in France. You will find that some of them can be used in the medias and newspapers, but most of them are used in daily spoken French ! Have fun !