“Prevention is better than cure”
,
“as you make your bed, you go to bed”
... These little phrases that we slip in all the time perfectly translate the present moment.
Proverbs are like the Proust madeleines of our childhood.
They are familiar to us, our parents and grandparents passed them on to us, and we will pass them on to our children.
Full of charm and imagery, these popular expressions activate our imagination and, often, reassure us about the conduct to adopt in our lives.
To discover
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Also read “Oignon”: a spelling that reflects the errors of the French language
Borrowed from the Latin
“proverbium”,
the proverb is a
“short and pictorial sentence, in common use, which expresses a truth of experience or a piece of wisdom and to which the speaker refers”
.
These maxims come to us from a figure of wisdom.
Don’t we often say:
“as the proverb says”
?
And on the contrary, we sometimes
“make the proverb lie”
that is to say
“disprove its generality, by a particular situation”.
Do you know the origin and etymology of some of these sayings?
Le Figaro
invites you to test your knowledge with this test.
So, are you knowledgeable about French proverbs?