Get ready to learn all the things you have to know about the basic saying "Les bons comptes font les bons amis". To be clear, this includes a complete guide of what it mean and how you can use it in a conversation with an audio example. Together with the cool stuff we sprinkled like synonyms, slow pronunciation audio, dialogue example and more!
Translation : A debt paid is a friend kept
Literal meaning : Good accounts make good friends
Register : Neutral - Basic
Slow
Normal
IPA : / le bɔ̃ kɔ̃t fɔ̃ le bɔ̃z‿ ami /
It literally means:
This proverb means that in order to maintain the friendship, each must pay their respective debts. There are two similar proverbs in English: "Short reckonings make long friends" and "A debt paid is a friend kept".
Because when you owe your friends money and take a lot of time to pay back or don't payback at all, the friendship is likely to suffer from this situation. So if you're borrowing money from a good friend, it's best to return the money as soon as possible.
If a friend is taking a lot of time to refund you and it pisses you off, you can use "Les bons comptes font les bons amis" as a reminder (and a minor threat...) that your friendship might suffer if this situation doesn't change soon.
On the other hand, if you owe a friend money you can say: "Je vais te rembourser dès que possible, les bons comptes font les bons amis" which means "I will refund you as soon as possible, good accounts make good friends". In this case, it means you value the friendship and will honestly do your best to honor your debt quickly.
Dialogue
Tiens, voilà l'argent que je te devais
Here is the money I owed you
Merci !
Thank you!
De rien ! Les bons comptes font les bons amis
Good accounts make good friends
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