/sə nə sɔ̃ pa mez‿ɔɲɔ̃/ lit. ‘not my onions’
French idiom, familiar. This isn’t my problem, so I’m not getting involved.
Draft Not yet checked by a native French speaker.
How do people use Ce ne sont pas mes oignons
?
Familiar, so keep it for friends, family and relaxed colleagues. In speech the negation often shrinks to “c’est pas mes oignons”. Change the possessive to point at someone else: “c’est pas tes oignons” (none of your business), and the related order “occupe-toi de tes oignons” (mind your own business) is ruder.
Also said c’est pas mes oignons, ce n’est pas mes oignons
Ce ne sont pas mes oignons
in real sentences
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Ce ne sont pas mes oignons.
It’s none of my business.
Tatoeba, sentence by sacredceltic, translation by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Ce n’est vraiment pas mes oignons.
It’s really none of my business.
Tatoeba, sentence by lbdx, translation by Hybrid, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Ce ne sont pas mes oignons
come from?
French Wiktionary dates “s’occuper de ses oignons” to 1946 and links it to oignon as slang for the backside, which would make it a cousin of the vulgar “s’occuper de ses fesses”. It gives no source for that explanation, so treat it as one theory. Its oldest quotation is from Paul Berna’s novel Le Cheval sans tête (1955).
Mistakes learners make with Ce ne sont pas mes oignons
Pronouncing the i in oignons. It’s /ɔɲɔ̃/, like “ognon” (the spelling the 1990 reform allows), and you need the z sound of liaison after mes: “mes‿oignons”.
Other French idioms like Ce ne sont pas mes oignons
Spot a mistake in Ce ne sont pas mes oignons
?
Send a correction, or a sentence you’d actually say with it. Everything is read before anything on this page changes.