/kute lez‿jø də la tɛt/ lit. ‘cost the eyes of your head’
French idiom, familiar. To cost a huge amount of money.
Draft Not yet checked by a native French speaker.
How do people use Coûter les yeux de la tête
?
Familiar but perfectly polite, the standard way to grumble about a price in France. Use it with the thing as subject (“ce sac coûte les yeux de la tête”) or add who paid (“ça m’a coûté les yeux de la tête”). The spelling “couter” without the circumflex is the 1990 reform spelling and counts as correct.
Also said couter les yeux de la tête
Coûter les yeux de la tête
in real sentences
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Ça coûte les yeux de la tête.
It costs an arm and a leg.
Tatoeba, sentence by TRANG, translation by CM, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Cette bague en diamant a coûté les yeux de la tête.
That diamond ring cost an arm and a leg.
Tatoeba, sentence by GB3, translation by CM, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Coûter les yeux de la tête
come from?
French Wiktionary dates it to the 19th century, with its oldest quote from Théodore Leclercq’s “Proverbes dramatiques” (1827-1828). It also notes that a Spanish grammar for French readers by Joseph Molas (1808) suggests Spanish already said “costar un ojo de la cara” while French still said “coûter un doigt de la main” (cost a finger off your hand), so the eyes may have come from Spanish. Why eyes nobody knows for sure; the obvious reading is that you’d be paying with the thing you’d least want to give up.
Mistakes learners make with Coûter les yeux de la tête
Skipping the liaison: it’s “le-z-yeux”, never “le | yeux”. Learners also translate the English and say “coûter un bras et une jambe”, which sounds like a translation; French has “coûter un bras” on its own.
Other French idioms like Coûter les yeux de la tête
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