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Discover the French expression "J'ai les dents longues"

Are you ready to discover all the things you want to know about the basic French expression "J'ai les dents longues"? More precisely, it includes a complete explanation of what it is and how to use it in a normal conversation with an audio example.Additionally, we also added some useful informations like slow pronunciation audio, dialogue example, synonym and more!

Translation in English

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  Translation : I am ambitious

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  Literal meaning : I have long teeth

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  Register : Neutral - Basic

How to pronounce?

Slow

Normal

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  IPA : / ʒe le dɑ̃ lɔ̃ːɡ /

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What does it mean?

Definition

• Avoir → To have
• Les dents longues → Long teeth

This idiom used to mean: "To be hungry" which seems logical, but with time it ended up meaning: "To be ambitious".

Why? Because teeth are a symbol of strength / aggressivity and because "hunger" is an image for ambition. Just like in English we have: "I'm hungry for the power".

So having "long teeth" represents having a lot of ambition and having a shark mindset: ready to do anything to succeed.

How to use it

You can use it about yourself "Je ferai de grandes choses, j'ai les dents longues." (I will achieve big things, I'm ambitious.)

But also about someone else: "Ça ne m'étonne pas, il a les dents longues." (I'm not surprised, he is ambitious.)

Fun stuff

We have an even more extreme expression: "Avoir les dents qui rayent le parquet" which means "To have teeth (so long that they are) scratching the floor".

That's a lot of ambition!

Synonyms / Related

• Avoir les dents qui rayent le parquet. ("To have teeth scratching the floor")
• Être un requin. ("To be a shark")
• Tu as les dents longues. ("You have long teeth")
• Il a les dents longues. ("He has long teeth")
• Elle a les dents longues. ("She has long teeth")