C’est un panier de crabes is a French idiom that translates literally to “it’s a basket of crabs” and means “they’re at each other’s throats” or “they’re always fighting among themselves”. English equivalents are “crabs in a bucket” and “it’s a nest of vipers”.
C’est un panier de crabes
they’re at each other’s throats, crabs in a bucket
Example sentence
La capitale des États-Unis est un vrai panier de crabes : il semble que les deux partis politiques ne seront jamais d’accord.
They’re always at each others’ throats in the capital of the United States. It seems the two political parties will never agree.
This expression represents the crab-bucket effect, which is a mentality that individuals will stop at no expense to hold peers back from attaining success.
Explanations
- Il semble que is an impersonal expression that translates to “it seems that” or “it appears that”.
- Seront is the third-person plural (ils/elles) form of être (to be) in the futur simple tense.
- The negation ne + verb + jamais means “to never do something”.
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