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We are going to explain you everything you have to know about the basic French idiom “Tu as un poil dans la main”.
More precisely, it includes a full guide of what it is and how to use it in a casual conversation with an audio example. Together with the cool informations we sprinkled like dialogue example, slow pronunciation audio, literal meaning and more!
Oh and if you want, you will find more idioms tutorials like this one on this page and all our pages about French words on this page. Wish you a happy learning!
Slow pronunciation
Normal pronunciation
You might think: “How did this expression end up meaning you are lazy?“.
Simple, let’s imagine someone so lazy that he/she is never using his/her hands. Then, just like nature coming back in abandoned cities, the hairs would start to grow up, claiming back their untouched territory.
Another theory is that, if you lend a hair to someone very lazy (a very common situation indeed). They will keep it in their hand and use it as an excuse for not doing anything else, because they “can’t“.
Instead of just saying “You are lazy“, you can add some fun and color to your sentence by saying “Tu as un poil dans la main.” (You have a hair on your hand).
This is a very informal idiom, so use it only with friends and relatives, ideally not at work since people might not appreciate it…
Below, you will find some variations in case you need more details.
If the person is extremely lazy, you can use “Tu as un baobab dans la main.” (You have a baobab on your hand).
If this is your case, take care of it and don’t forget that a healthy baobab needs daily sun and fresh water.