/il fɛ yn ʃalœʁ a kʁəve/ lit. ‘it’s a heat to croak from’
French idiom, familiar. It is extremely hot.
Draft Not yet checked by a native French speaker.
How do people use Il fait une chaleur à crever
?
Familiar, what you say in a flat with no air conditioning in August. Crever is a blunt verb (an animal dying, a tyre bursting), so it’s fine with friends but too rough for a formal email. “Je crève de chaud” puts the same idea on yourself.
Also said on crève de chaud, il fait une chaleur d’enfer
Il fait une chaleur à crever
in real sentences
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Il fait une chaleur à crever dans la maison.
It’s boiling hot in the house.
Tatoeba, sentence by GuillaumeR, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Ce temps est à crever de chaud, j’ai tout simplement pas envie de sortir.
The weather is so hot, I just don’t want to go out.
Tatoeba, sentence by sysko, translation by sharris123, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Il fait une chaleur à crever
come from?
There’s no story behind the phrase itself, which French Wiktionary doesn’t list. The work is done by crever, which comes from Latin crepare and first meant to burst, then to split, then in familiar French to die. Wiktionary gives “crever de chaleur” as being far too hot, and “à crever” turns up as an intensifier elsewhere too, as in “s’ennuyer à crever” (to be bored to death).
Mistakes learners make with Il fait une chaleur à crever
Using crever in polite company. It’s the verb for an animal dying or a tyre bursting, so it’s rude about people; at work, “il fait une chaleur étouffante” is the safe version.
Other French idioms like Il fait une chaleur à crever
Spot a mistake in Il fait une chaleur à crever
?
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