/a dø pa/ lit. ‘two steps away’
French idiom, everyday. A very short distance away.
Draft Not yet checked by a native French speaker.
How do people use À deux pas
?
Everyday French, fine anywhere from small talk to real estate listings. It works alone (“j’habite à deux pas”) or with “de” plus a place: “à deux pas de la gare”, “à deux pas d’ici”. “Juste” or “tout” in front makes it even closer, and it can also stretch to time (“les vacances sont à deux pas”).
Also said à deux pas de, à deux pas d’ici
À deux pas
in real sentences
-
J’habite à deux pas du métro.
I live right by the metro station.
Tatoeba, sentence by gillux, translation by zogwarg, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Le bureau de poste est à deux pas d’ici.
The post office is a stone’s throw from here.
Tatoeba, sentence by Lumpawurump, translation by tieguy, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does À deux pas
come from?
There isn’t much of a story here: two paces is simply a very short distance, and the phrase says what it means. French Wiktionary has no etymology for it, and we found no record of when it started to be used figuratively.
Mistakes learners make with À deux pas
Translating “steps” as “marches”, which are stairs. The word here is “pas”, a footstep, and its s is silent, so the phrase sounds like “a deu pa”.
Other French idioms like À deux pas
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?
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