Bien mener sa barque is a French idiom that translates literally “to steer one’s boat well” and means “to do all right for yourself” or “to run a tight ship”. A French definition is bien gérer ses affaires (to manage one’s one business well).
bien mener sa barque
to do all right for yourself, to run a tight ship
Pronunciation [bjɛ̃ məne sa baʀk]
Example sentence
Après une carrière de 25 ans dans l’informatique, il a bien mené sa barque et a pu prendre la retraite à soixante-deux ans.
After a career of 25 years in IT, he did all right for himself and was able to retire at 62 years-old.
Explanations
- The verb mener has many usages including to lead, to direct and carry out.
- The feminine noun informatique translates to information technology (IT) and computer science.
- Bien (well) is considred a “short” adverb and hence comes between the auxiliary verb and past participle in the passé composé.
- A barque (feminine noun) is a small boat. The more commonly used word for boat is le bateau.
- Pu is the past participle of pouvoir (can to, to be able to)
- There are two ways to say retired: prendre la retraite (verb) and retraité (adjective).
- This lesson explains an vs année, the two words for year in French.
- The related idiom charger sa barque (literally to load your boat) means “to overdo it”.
Related lessons
French expressions | Lessons by David Issokson
