/œ̃ fʁwa d(ə) kanaʁ/ lit. ‘a duck cold’
French idiom, familiar. It is bitterly cold.
Draft Not yet checked by a native French speaker.
How do people use Un froid de canard
?
Familiar but polite enough for anyone, from a weather presenter to your grandmother. It almost always comes with “il fait”: “il fait un froid de canard”, “il a fait un froid de canard hier”. It’s about the weather or a cold room, not a cold person.
Un froid de canard
in real sentences
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Il fait un froid de canard.
It’s bitterly cold.
Tatoeba, sentence by sacredceltic, translation by sundown, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Il a fait un froid de canard hier.
It was terribly cold yesterday.
Tatoeba, sentence by GeeZ, translation by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Un froid de canard
come from?
Nobody’s sure. French Wiktionary dates it to the late 19th century and quotes an 1887 issue of L’Intermédiaire des chercheurs et curieux in which a reader is already asking why ducks, of all animals. The most-repeated theory is duck hunting: hard frost drives ducks off frozen ponds onto open water, where hunters sit freezing while they wait. Another says it’s short for a cold that freezes a duck’s feet into the ice. Neither has evidence behind it.
Mistakes learners make with Un froid de canard
Using “il est” instead of “il fait”. Weather in French is “il fait”: “il fait un froid de canard”, never “il est un froid de canard”.
Other French idioms like Un froid de canard
Spot a mistake in Un froid de canard
?
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