/pedale dɑ̃ la s(ə)mul/ lit. ‘pedal in semolina’
French idiom, familiar. To be stuck and unable to work something out.
Draft Not yet checked by a native French speaker.
How do people use Pédaler dans la semoule
?
Familiar and a bit jokey: you’re working hard and getting nowhere, like riding a bike through a bowl of grain. People say it about themselves stuck on a problem, a team that isn’t making progress, or a politician floundering in an interview. Past: “il a pédalé dans la semoule”.
Also said pédaler dans la choucroute, pédaler dans le yaourt, pédaler dans le couscous
Pédaler dans la semoule
in real sentences
-
On pédale dans la semoule.
We’re getting nowhere.
Tatoeba, sentence by sacredceltic, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Pédaler dans la semoule
come from?
French Wiktionary quotes Pol Corvez’s explanation: “pédaler” comes from Old French “pédeler”, to pack down with your feet, and the oldest versions were about foods that were trodden, sauerkraut and cancoillotte cheese. Semolina, yogurt and couscous are later jokey swaps. Annie Ernaux’s “Les années” (2008) lists the sauerkraut and semolina versions as dated sayings, so it’s a phrase with a few generations behind it.
Mistakes learners make with Pédaler dans la semoule
Picturing a bicycle and stopping there. “Pédaler” here keeps an older sense of treading with your feet, so the phrase is about effort that goes nowhere, and it can describe a muddled speech as easily as a stuck project.
Other French idioms like Pédaler dans la semoule
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?
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