Menu
Menu
You are going to discover everything you want to know about the basic expression “J’ai du pain sur la planche”.
To be more precise, it includes a detailed definition of what it is and how you can use it in a normal conversation with an audio example. As well as the useful stuff we sprinkled like literal meaning, dialogue example, slow pronunciation audio and more!
In addition, you will also find more of these expressions explained on this page plus all our French words guides on this page. Ready to learn? C’est parti ! (Let’s go!)
Slow pronunciation
Normal pronunciation
Finally! A French idiom with bread! But where is it coming from and why does it mean: “To have a lot of work“?
Few centuries ago, it meant “To have a lot of resources” and it was a sign of prosperity/capacity to survive.
But weirdly, with time it became a way to say “I have a lot to do“. Just like every morning, the baker sees all the uncooked bread on the board as a sign of the hard work he still has to accomplish.
Whenever someone asks you if you are available for something, but you can’t because you have a lot of things to do. You can say: “Je ne peux pas, j’ai du pain sur la planche“. (I can’t, I have some bread on the board)
No, you can’t say “J’ai des baguettes sur la planche” sorry.