The French expression “être pendu aux basques de quelqu’un” translates literally to “to be hanging from somebody’s tailes”. Les basques are old-fashioned garment which hung down from the waist. Here are some English meanings:
- to stick to somebody like glue
- to be clingy (to somebody)
- to hang onto somebody’s apron strings
A good French synonymous adjective is “collant” which literally means sticky but actually means clingy. Expressio.fr gives the following French definition: “suivre quelqu’un de très près”, to follow somebody very closely. Here’s an example sentence:
- La petite Marie est toujours pendu aux basques de sa grand-mère. Elle la suit partout! Little Marie sticks to her grandmother like glue. She follows her everywhere!
In French there’s another wonderful expression for “pendu aux basques”:
- ne pas lâcher qqn d’une semelle – Literal translation: to not let go of somebody by one shoe sole.
Here’s another great related expression:
- Lâche-moi les basques! – Leave me alone!
Bonjour! My name is David Issokson. I'm based in Victor, Idaho and have helped hundreds of students to learn French via Skype or Zoom since 2014. 
