Have you heard of “idiomatic expressions”? These are figurative expressions specific to French, that are usually not translatable directly, as each language uses its own references! Therefore, you need to learn them directly in the language, as well as learning French equivalents to the ones you use in English! Knowing idiomatic expressions is key when learning a new language and it will definitely help you sound like a true Français 😊
Want to learn more about this fun expression, what it means, and hear some in-context examples? Then listen to Aurélie and Céline‘s related mini-podcast below:
“Parler français comme une vache espagnole” is a rather strange French idiom meaning “to speak French really badly”. It mockingly describes someone who is trying to speak French with such a heavy foreign accent or by making many bad grammatical mistakes that it is rather hard to understand what they are saying. French Native speakers will use this expression with humour rather than malice.
This expression appears to date back to the 17th century with one of its early versions being “parler comme un Basque espagnol” (= to speak like a Spanish-speaking Basque) with the word “Basque” being replaced over time with “vache” (=cow), supposedly to remove its vexatious nature.
Whatever its origins, this phrase has stuck around as a playful way to talk about really messy, hard-to-understand French.
To help you commit this expression to memory, here are some useful examples of how to use it in context:
Challenge yourself to use this expression in a French conversation or piece of writing, and let us know how your French friends reacted to it in the comments 🙂
À toi de jouer !
For over ten years now, Céline has been teaching French and Italian to students of all ages and abilities in the UK. This French native speaker comes from Brittany, and likes crafts, Breton dance (of course!) and Breton music which she actually played for four years. She also has a fondness for European cinema and British History.
Aurélie is our resident French Expert. She has created most of the wonderful content you see on the site and is usually the person answering your tricky help questions. She comes from a small village near Chartres in Central France, country of cereal fields and not much else. She left (in a hurry) to study English at the world-famous Sorbonne in Paris, before leaving France in 2007 to experience the “London lifestyle” - and never looked back! She's worked as a professional French teacher, translator and linguist in the UK since. She loves to share her love of languages and is a self-professed cinema and literature geek!
I have been learning French for 5 years, only making small improvements but......je besoin a faire de plus grands progrès avec ma structure de phrase et ma grammaire..
I persevere with help from Kwiziq and Fluent U
Anyway this article and podcast was great and I have nevwr heard this expression before, hilarious 😂 Merci Celine et Aurelie
This was hilarious article and podcast
Merci beaucoup pour vos compliments Matt, nous sommes ravies que le podcast vous ait plu 😊
Bravo pour votre persévérance et bon courage pour votre étude du français 👏👏👏
J'aime ecouter vos e-mails au sujet d'expressions idiomatiques mais je souhaite qu'il y a une transcription (en français) complète pour vérifier ma compréhension auditive. Merci pour tout!
Bonjour Lauren et merci pour votre gentil feedback 🤗
Nous avons bien noté votre suggestion pour une transcription (que vous n'êtes pas la seule à avoir mentionnée!) et nous travaillons dessus 😉
Merci encore !