/la səʁiz syʁ lə ɡato/ lit. ‘the cherry on the cake’
French idiom, everyday. Something extra that makes a good thing even better.
Draft Not yet checked by a native French speaker.
How do people use La cerise sur le gâteau
?
Everyday French, in speech and in journalism. It’s often used on its own at the start of a sentence, like “what’s more”: “Cerise sur le gâteau, ...”. French Wiktionary quotes it ironically too, for the final bit of bad luck, as when the alarm and cameras turn out to have been switched off during a burglary.
La cerise sur le gâteau
in real sentences
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C’était la cerise sur le gâteau.
That was just icing on the cake.
Tatoeba, sentence by Scorpionvenin14, translation by CM, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Cerise sur le gâteau, l’espéranto est une langue sympathique.
And to top it all off, Esperanto is a friendly language.
Tatoeba, sentence by sacredceltic, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does La cerise sur le gâteau
come from?
The picture is the cherry placed on top of a finished cake. French Wiktionary gives no date or origin, and its oldest quoted example is from Muriel Barbery’s novel L’Élégance du hérisson (2006). English Wiktionary only notes that it matches English “cherry on the cake”, and we found no record of how old the French phrase is.
Mistakes learners make with La cerise sur le gâteau
Translating the English icing. “Le glaçage sur le gâteau” isn’t an expression in French: the cherry is what goes on top.
Other French idioms like La cerise sur le gâteau
Spot a mistake in La cerise sur le gâteau
?
Send a correction, or a sentence you’d actually say with it. Everything is read before anything on this page changes.