/a.ʃə.te ʃa ɑ̃ pɔʃ/ lit. ‘buy a cat in a pocket’
French idiom, old-fashioned. To buy or agree to something without checking it first.
Draft Not yet checked by a native French speaker.
How do people use Acheter chat en poche
?
Understood by French speakers but a little old-fashioned and bookish; Molière and Théophile Gautier both use it. It’s most often a warning: “il ne faut pas acheter chat en poche”. It conjugates like any “acheter” phrase: “j’ai acheté chat en poche”.
Also said acheter un chat dans un sac
Acheter chat en poche
in real sentences
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Hier j’ai acheté chat en poche.
I bought a pig in a poke yesterday.
Tatoeba, sentence by Bruno, translation by U2FS, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Je ne te conseille pas d’acheter chat en poche.
I wouldn’t advise you to buy something without seeing it first.
Tatoeba, sentence by Julien_PDC, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Acheter chat en poche
come from?
French Wiktionary says the expression was already in use in the 15th century, and that “poche” here means a sack, not a pocket. It suggests a Latin source, “emere catulum in sacco” (buy a puppy in the sack), but marks it as probable only. Molière used it in Monsieur de Pourceaugnac (1669), as Littré’s dictionary records.
Mistakes learners make with Acheter chat en poche
Adding articles. The set phrase has none: “acheter chat en poche”, not “acheter un chat dans la poche”. The fuller “acheter un chat dans un sac” exists, but mixing the two sounds off.
Other French idioms like Acheter chat en poche
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