French is often regarded as the language of love. For good reason. It’s beautiful, and even if you can’t understand a single word, the melodic flow of French words can be music to the ears and heart.
This is what has made the language so popular around the world. You might not have time to become fluent in French, but you can learn some expressions that will impress even French people.
These are the cutest, most romantic and funniest things to say in French.
To Be Struck By Lighting
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Let’s kick off with a very romantic expression for love at first sight, which the French equate to being struck by lighting.
My Little Cabbage
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In French, cabbages are considered a very endearing vegetable. This expression is used to refer to someone for whom you feel tenderness, like a partner (usually in a playful and silly way) or a child.
My Flea
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Did you think calling someone your cabbage was odd? How about calling them your flea?
Though it sounds strange in English, this term of endearment is one of the cutest in French and is usually used by parents when referring to their small children.
“Mon lapin” or “my rabbit” is also common.
To Live on Love and Fresh Water
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What is hunger when one is filled with love (and fresh water)? This is undoubtedly one of the most romantic — if a bit naive — expressions in French.
It’s as Simple as ‘Hello’
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Use this expression when you want to tell someone that something is easy peasy.
We love the simplicity of this French saying and how cute it is.
Take Care of Your Onions
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This is one of our favorite French expressions ever. It is what you say to someone who is meddling in something that’s none of their business.
The Habit Doesn’t Make the Monk
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This is the French way of saying that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. But the image of a monk is definitely more vivid and entertaining in our mind.
To Little Happiness Chance
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Better translated as “with a little bit of luck,” we love this simple yet very cute French idiom.
It’s meant to convey that a little happiness comes from luck.
The Night Brings Advice With It
You can tell someone to sleep on a decision, sure.
Or you can give them the soothing mental image of the night carrying advice with it as it blankets the Earth.
The Heart Has Reasons of Which Reason Knows Nothing
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If you want something a bit more advanced, try memorizing this famous French quote by philosopher Blaise Pascal.
Love Makes You Blind
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In English, love itself is blind. But in French love is not blind. It makes you blind.
To Have the Cockroach
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Cockroaches aren’t normally cute, but there’s something so funny and adorable about referring to having the blues as “having the cockroach.”
A Little, A Lot, Madly
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This is the equivalent of “they love me, they love me not,” but instead of working with a binary, it works with degrees of affection.
Every flower petal represents a different level: Someone can love you a little, a lot, madly or not at all.
If You Want to Be Loved, Love
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A simple yet very true French saying about love.
To Make Cheese Out of Something
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Though this sounds like something positive, it actually means to make a big fuss or problem out of something.
It’s not the most positive French expression, but it’s definitely a fun one to know.
We Don’t Trifle With Love
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Love is serious business, as playwright Alfred de Musset knew very well. He wrote a play in 1834 whose title translates to “We Don’t Trifle With Love.”
The title is now a very common French word of warning for those who take the dangerous game of love too lightly.
Let’s Get Back to Our Sheep
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Use this to get back to the subject at hand when the conversation has been derailed to random topics. Though we admit this would be much cuter if it was literal and we were going back to a flock of fluffy sheep.
Go Cook Yourself an Egg
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This isn’t a suggestion for how to stop being hungry. Rather, it’s a soft and somewhat childish way of telling someone to go eat something that starts with “s” and ends with “t.”
Impossible Is Not French
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Attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, this quote is meant to inspire French people to strive for things that seem difficult, even impossible.
But we’d like to encourage anyone to use it, either as it is or by changing it to fit their own country.
It Is Only With the Heart That One Can See Rightly
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This famous quote by Antoine de Saint-Exupery is even more beautiful in French, perhaps because it is less wordy.
The full quote comes from the writer’s most famous work, “The Little Prince” and finishes with “the essential is invisible to the eye” (l’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux).
To Put a Rabbit
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Being stood up always sucks. But if you think of it as someone pulling off a rabbit, the cute mental image might help.
Life Is Too Short to Drink Bad Wine
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To this, we say “santé!” Cheers!
It’s the End of the Beans
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Beans are life, and the French apparently know this very well. To signal that something is done, over, finito, they express that there are no more beans.
Life Is a Good Night’s Sleep, And Love Is the Dream Within It
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French poet Alfred de Musset didn’t believe that life is a dream. Instead, life is the act of sleeping. Love itself is the dream — the sweetest part.
Nothing Is Real But Dreams and Love
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On the other hand, poet and writer Anna de Noailles doesn’t think love is a dream.
Rather, she thinks dreams and love are the only things that are real.
Life Is a Flower Whose Honey Is Love
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Since we’re discerning what love and life and dreams are, let’s hear from Victor Hugo, famous for novels like “Les Miserables” and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”
Hugo didn’t equate love to dreams, but rather to the honey of life. The sentiment, however, is pretty much the same.
To a Good Cat, a Good Rat
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Use this French idiom when someone meets their match.
Or if you want to change it completely and be very inaccurate but cuter, use it when someone forms an unlikely friendship with someone who is seemingly their opposite.
To Comb the Giraffe
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Few things could be as useless and time-consuming as combing a girafe.
Then again, few things could be as cute either.
The Most Difficult Roads Lead to the Most Beautiful Destinations
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A quote that’s as true for life as it is for travel.
I Love You
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Sometimes the most romantic thing you can say is simply “I love you.”