/ɛtʁ‿o.z‿ɑ̃ʒ/ lit. ‘be with the angels’
French idiom, everyday. To be extremely happy and delighted.
Draft Not yet checked by a native French speaker.
How do people use Être aux anges
?
Everyday French that fits any situation, from a child opening a present to a grandmother at a wedding. You conjugate être and leave the angels alone: “je suis aux anges”, “elle était aux anges”, “ils vont être aux anges”. It describes a state of delight, so it usually follows good news rather than coming with a reason clause.
Être aux anges
in real sentences
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Je suis aux anges.
I’m over the moon about it.
Tatoeba, sentence by gillux, translation by sundown, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Il était aux anges.
He was over the moon.
Tatoeba, sentence by lbdx, translation by sundown, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Être aux anges
come from?
Nobody has pinned down where it comes from: French Wiktionary marks its etymology as incomplete and gives no date. The picture is easy enough to read, since someone this happy seems already up among the angels in heaven. Its oldest quoted example is from Jules Vallès’s novel L’Enfant (in an 1889 edition), and Simone de Beauvoir uses it in her 1958 memoirs.
Mistakes learners make with Être aux anges
Skipping the liaison. Said properly, “aux anges” sounds like “o-zanj”, with a z joining the two words; “o anj” with a gap sounds wrong to French ears.
Other French idioms like Être aux anges
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?
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