/il plø de kɔʁd/ lit. ‘it’s raining ropes’
French idiom, familiar. It is raining very heavily.
Draft Not yet checked by a native French speaker.
How do people use Il pleut des cordes
?
Familiar, everyday French, polite enough for anyone. “Il tombe des cordes” means the same. In the past: “il pleuvait des cordes”.
Also said il tombe des cordes
Il pleut des cordes
in real sentences
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Il pleut des cordes dehors.
It’s raining buckets outside.
Tatoeba, sentence by U2FS, translation by Eldad, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Il s’est mis à tomber des cordes.
It began to rain cats and dogs.
Tatoeba, sentence by sacredceltic, translation by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Il pleut des cordes
come from?
The picture is the shape: rain so heavy it falls in long lines that look like ropes. The oldest example French Wiktionary quotes is from a travel journal published in 1886. Before that, in 1852, the same words were used poetically for music falling from a lyre’s strings, because “corde” also means a string.
Mistakes learners make with Il pleut des cordes
Translating the English word for word. French Wiktionary does list “pleuvoir des chiens et des chats”, but “il pleut des cordes” is the one people say.
Other French idioms like Il pleut des cordes
Spot a mistake in Il pleut des cordes
?
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