“Donner sa langue au chat” is a funny little French expression which has a meaning that’s impossible to guess. The literal translation is “to give one’s tongue to the cat”. English translations include:
- to give up
- to give in
According to expressio.fr, a French-to-French definition is “to give up trying to find or guess a solution. Another French definition is “abandonner l’idée de faire quelque chose” or giving up the idea to do something.
Speed up your learning with an app
Many of our students have greatly enhanced their learning by using an app. On these pages we've examined the top-30 apps for learning French. On this pages we've written comprehensive reviews for Pimsleur (great for people struggling with pronunciation), Rosetta Stone and FrenchPod101 (both great for visual learners).
example sentence:
- Les problèmes d’algèbre sont tellement difficiles: je finis toujours par donner ma langue au chat. Algebra problems are so difficult. I always give up in the end.
If you've found this post useful you might want to considering looking at our post covering the best apps for learning French. We've looked a total 33 apps and have written comprehensive reviews of Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur and FrenchPod101.
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Bonjour! My name is David Issokson. I'm based in Victor, Idaho (near Jackson, Wyoming) and have helped hundreds of students to learn French online since 2013.
