👉 See our full Word of the Day lesson on donner with examples here.
The French expression “donner du fil à retordre à quelqu’un” offers lots of imagery as it translates literally to “to give a thread back to somebody to spin (or twist) again”. Here’s the English meaning:
- to make somebody’s life difficult
- to give somebody the run-around
- to give somebody a hard time
Expressio.fr offers the following meaning in French: To cause somebody difficulties or trouble. Here’s an example sentence:
- Tout d’un coup j’ai plusieurs personnes qui m’appellent à la fois et ils me donnent du fil a retordre! I suddenly have lots of people that are calling me all at the same time and they’re making my life difficult!
