Sauter du coq à l’âne

How do people use Sauter du coq à l’âne?

Everyday French that works in any company, from a dinner table to a staff meeting. Most people say “passer du coq à l’âne” today, often as a complaint about someone else (“il passe du coq à l’âne”) or as an apology for yourself (“pardon, je passe du coq à l’âne”). A sudden change of topic can also be called “un coq-à-l’âne” as a noun.

Also said passer du coq à l’âne, faire un coq-à-l’âne

Sauter du coq à l’âne in real sentences

• Il est passé du coq à l’âne.

  He jumped from one subject to another.

  Tatoeba, sentence by U2FS, translation by U2FS, CC BY 2.0 FR

• Reste sur le sujet, ne passe pas du coq à l’âne.

  Stick to the subject, don’t go off on a tangent.

  Tatoeba, sentence by lbdx, translation by earthsophagus, CC BY 2.0 FR

Where does Sauter du coq à l’âne come from?

French Wiktionary traces the phrase to the poet Jean Le Fèvre de Ressons, who wrote “saillir du coq en l’asne” in 1376 (“saillir” meant to jump), citing an article by Christopher Lucken. A Larousse book by Delphine Gaston-Sloan (2016) suggests “asne” might come from Latin “anas” (duck), which would make the jump from rooster to duck, but that’s a theory. Either way the joke is two farm animals with nothing in common, and the 1814 story by Étienne de Jouy about a lawyer who mixed up a rooster case and a donkey case is a later anecdote, not evidence.

Mistakes learners make with Sauter du coq à l’âne

Reaching for the English “go off on a tangent” and saying “prendre la tangente”. In French that means slipping away or dodging something, so you’d be saying the speaker sneaked out of the room.

Other French idioms like Sauter du coq à l’âne

• passer d’un sujet à l’autre (go from one subject to another)
• sauter d’un sujet à l’autre (jump from one subject to another)
• un coq-à-l’âne (a rooster-to-donkey, the noun for an abrupt change of topic)