Discover the French expression "J'ai la pêche"

We are going to show you all the things you need to know about the basic idiom “J’ai la pêche”.

To be clear, it includes a complete explanation of what it is and how to use it in a casual conversation with an audio example. Along with the cool informations we sprinkled like literal meaning, dialogue example, slow pronunciation audio and more!

Oh and before I forget, you will find our others idioms guides on this page and all our French words tutorials on this page. C’est parti ! (Let’s go!)

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Translation in English

Pronunciation

Slow pronunciation

Normal pronunciation

What does j'ai la pêche mean?

Definition

  • Avoir → To have
  • La pêche → The peach

The most common explanation for the origin of this idiom bring us to… China. There, peaches are a symbol of health, fecundity and immortality. 

Then, when we feel full of energy, what a better image than using this fruit to say so?

How to use

Whenever someone asks you how you feel and you feel super good, you can use: “J’ai la pêche !” (I feel great!).

A more conversation friendly way would be “Aujoud’hui, j’ai la pêche ! Et toi ?” (Today I feel great! And you?).

And don’t forget that this is a familiar expression, not fitted to most work environments. In this case you should use instead: “Je suis en pleine forme” (I feel great).

Fun facts

You don’t like peaches? No worries, you can replace it by “Patate” (Potato) or even by “Frite” (French fry).

You can also replace it by “Banane” (Banana) but in this case the meaning is slightly different. 

In fact, the “banana variation” is more about being smiling (because bananas are smile-shaped) than being full of energy. Even though most of the time these things are linked…

Synonyms and similarities

  • Avoir la patate. (“To have the potato“)
  • Avoir la frite. (“To have the french fry“)
  • Avoir la banane. (“To have the banana“)
  • Tu as la pêche. (“You have the peach“)
  • Il a la pêche. (“He has the peach“)
  • Elle a la pêche. (“She has the peach“)
  • Vous avez la pêche. (“You have the peach“)(More polite)
  • Ils ont la pêche. (“They have the peach“)(Masculine and neutral)
  • Elles ont la pêche. (“They have the peach“)(Feminine)

Example in a story with translation

Now, let’s see a complete example of this idiom in a story with slow French audio and the English translation below.
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Comment arrêter de procrastiner
How to stop procrastinating
___
Alice entre dans la cuisine. Elle a l’air terriblement fatiguée…
Alice walks into the kitchen. She looks terribly tired…
Jacques:   Wow, Alice, tu vas bien ?
Wow, Alice, are you okay?
Alice:   Pas vraiment. C’est si évident que ça ?
Not really. Is it that obvious?
Jacques:   Oui, honnêtement, tu as l’air très fatiguée.
Yes, honestly, you look very tired.
Alice:   C’est normal, je n’ai pas dormi de la nuit et j’ai encore du travail à faire.
That’s normal, I didn’t sleep all night and I still have work to do.
Jacques:   Toute la nuit ?! Tu es folle ?!
All night?! Are you crazy?!
Alice:   Non, mais je suis stupide. J’ai trop procrastiné sur une tâche importante et maintenant je le paie.
No, but I’m stupid. I procrastinated too much on an important task and now I’m paying for it.
Jacques:   Quand est la date limite ?
When is the deadline?
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