Avoir un poil dans la main is a French idiom that translates directly to “to have a hair in the hand” and means “to be very lazy” or “to never lift a finger”. French equivalent adjectives are paresseux and fainéant.
Avoir un poil dans la main
to be very lazy, to never lift a finger
Example sentence
Guillaume, tu ne fous rien ! Tu as un poil dans la main. Sois dynamique et mets-toi au travail !
Guillaume, you’re not doing anything! You’re lazy! Be motivated and get to work!
Notes on grammar
The following are some points explaining the grammar of today’s example sentence.
- Our sentence uses fous, which is the second-person singular (tu) form of the slang verb foutre (to do).
- The negation ne…rien means nothing or anything.
- Sois is the tu form of être (to be) in the imperative mood, meaning “Be!”.
- Mets-toi is the imperative tu form of se mettre à (to start, to begin), meaning “Start!” or “Begin!”.
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French expressions | Lessons by David Issokson
