/kɔm ky e ʃəmiz/ lit. ‘like backside and shirt’
French idiom, very familiar. Two people who are very close friends.
Draft Not yet checked by a native French speaker.
How do people use Comme cul et chemise
?
Very familiar, because cul is a rude word for your backside. Among friends it’s funny and affectionate; in a speech at your boss’s retirement party you’d say “inséparables”. It comes after être or s’entendre and always about two or more people: “ces deux-là sont comme cul et chemise”.
Also said être comme cul et chemise, s’entendre comme cul et chemise
Comme cul et chemise
in real sentences
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Ils sont comme cul et chemise.
They’re thick as thieves.
Tatoeba, sentence by felix63, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Tom et Ken sont comme cul et chemise.
Tom and Ken are like peas in a pod.
Tatoeba, sentence by nimfeo, translation by Eccles17, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Comme cul et chemise
come from?
French Wiktionary’s explanation is anatomical: the tail of a shirt sits right against the buttocks and goes wherever they go. It gives no first date, but quotes Jean Giono using it in Un roi sans divertissement (1947), and the singer Boby Lapointe flipped it round to “copains comme chemise et cul” in La Fille du pêcheur.
Mistakes learners make with Comme cul et chemise
Using it in a formal setting because the meaning is so friendly. The meaning is sweet, the vocabulary isn’t: keep it for friends and family.
Other French idioms like Comme cul et chemise
Spot a mistake in Comme cul et chemise
?
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