/avwaʁ de papijɔ̃ dɑ̃ lə vɑ̃tʁ/ lit. ‘have butterflies in your belly’
French idiom, everyday. To feel a nervous, fluttering excitement, before something important or around someone you’re attracted to.
Draft Not yet checked by a native French speaker.
How do people use Avoir des papillons dans le ventre
?
Everyday French, used mostly about falling in love: the first date, the text you’re waiting for, seeing your crush across the room. You conjugate avoir and keep the rest: “j’ai des papillons dans le ventre”, “elle avait des papillons dans le ventre”. English Wiktionary says it can also come from plain nervousness or excitement, but in French it leans heavily toward romance.
Avoir des papillons dans le ventre
in real sentences
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J’ai des papillons dans le ventre.
I have butterflies in my stomach.
Tatoeba, sentence by sacredceltic, translation by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Avoir des papillons dans le ventre
come from?
We couldn’t find a documented origin. French Wiktionary has no entry for it, and English Wiktionary lists it only as a noun phrase without any history. The same image turns up in many European languages (English, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Swedish), which suggests it spread from one to the others, but no source we checked says which came first.
Mistakes learners make with Avoir des papillons dans le ventre
Putting a possessive on the body part. French says “dans le ventre”, so “j’ai des papillons dans mon ventre” sounds clumsy. Learners from English also reach for “estomac”, while ventre (belly) is the usual word here.
Other French idioms like Avoir des papillons dans le ventre
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