Today’s lesson covers an expression that’s very useful in conversational French: laisse tomber, which translates literally to “let fall” and means never mind, drop it, forget it.
Laisser tomber
Never mind, drop it, forget it
Pronunciation [les tɔ̃be]
Laisse tomber
Example sentences
This first example sentence uses both commonly used French past tenses: the passé composé and the imperfect.
Qu’est-ce que tu as dit ? – Laisse tomber. Ce n’était pas important.
What did you say? – Never mind. It wasn’t important.
This second example sentence uses the expression arriver à + infinitive, meaning “to manage to (or succeed in) doing something”. The negation structure ne…jamais means “never”.
Ah, je laisse tomber ! Je n’arriverai jamais à réparer ce truc !
Ah, forget it! I’ll never succeed in fixing this thing!
Related lessons
- Ce n’est pas grave – It’s no bid deal
- Truc – Thing
- Machin – thing (slang)
- Dire – to say, to tell
- Jamais – never
Word of the Day archive | Lessons by David Issokson
