The French expression "Ça me passe par dessus la tête"

We are going to teach you all the things you have to know about the basic French expression “Ça me passe par dessus la tête”.

Are included a complete guide of what it mean and how to use it in a normal conversation with an audio example. But that’s not all, we also sprinkled useful informations like dialogue example, slow pronunciation audio, synonym and more!

Oh and if you are interested, more of these expressions are available on this page and the ultimate directory of all our French words tutorials on this page. Enjoy!

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French to English

Pronunciation

Slow pronunciation

Normal pronunciation

What does it mean?

Definition

This expression is one of the most polite ways to say “I don’t care” in French.

It literally means that something is passing above your head so you don’t feel concerned: you don’t care about it.

An even more polite way to say it would be: “Peu importe” (It doesn’t matter much) or “Ça m’est égal.” (“It’s egal to me“).

Check the “Synonyms” chapter below for all the variations (including the informal ones).

How to use

Someone asks you which is your favorite football team, but you don’t care about football… you can say “Le foot, ça me passe par dessus la tête.” (I don’t care about football)

Now your boss asks you if you prefer working tomorrow or the day after, you can say: “Peu importe.” (It doesn’t matter much).

Fun stuff

There are infinite ways to express this feeling in French, most of them very vulgar, but I personally have a favourite one…

And it’s: “Ça m’en touche une sans faire bouger l’autre.” which means “It’s touching one without the second one moving“. And it’s talking about…men’s genitals. Classy, huh?

Check the list below if you want to find your favorite one!

Synonyms

They are sorted from the more “formal” to the more “vulgar“, even though this is not an exact science and can vary depending on people, culture, religion, etc.

  • Peu importe. (“It doesn’t matter much“)
  • Ça m’est égal. (“It’s equal to me“)
  • Je m’en moque. (“I’m mocking it“)
  • Ça me passe par dessus la jambe. (“It’s going above my leg“)
  • J’en ai rien à faire. (“I have nothing to do with it“)
  • Rien à cirer. (“Nothing to wax“)
  • Je m’en fiche. (“I don’t care“)
  • Je m’en fous. (“I don’t care“)
  • Je m’en bats l’oeil. (“I’m beating my eye with it“)
  • Je m’en balance. (“I’m swinging with it“)
  • Je m’en tape. (“I’m beating myself with it“)
  • Je m’en contre fiche. (“I don’t give a f**k“)
  • Je m’en contrefous. (“I don’t give a f**k“)
  • J’en m’en tamponne le coquillard. (“I’m stamping my shell with it“)
  • J’en m’en tamponne le coquillard avec une queue de hareng. (“I’m stamping my shell with a herring’s tail“)
  • Ça m’en touche une sans faire bouger l’autre. (“It’s touching one without the second one moving“)
  • J’en ai rien à foutre. (“I have nothing to f**k with it“)
  • J’en ai rien à branler. (“I have nothing to masturbate with it“)
  • Je m’en branle. (“I’m masturbating with it“)
  • Je m’en bats les steaks. (“I’m beating my steaks with it“)
  • Je m’en bats les couilles. (“I’m beating my balls with it“)
  • Je m’en bats la race. (“I’m beating my race with it“)

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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Allergique à la téléréalité
Allergic to reality shows
___
Karine est fan d’une émission de téléréalité Française appelée “Koh-Lanta”.
Karine is a fan of a French reality show called “Koh-Lanta”.
C’est une émission très connue en France.
It’s a very well-known TV show in France.
D’autre part, son mari Rémi, déteste cette émission.
On the other hand, her husband Rémi, hates this show.
Plus précisement, il déteste la télévision en général…
More precisely, he hates television in general…
Karine:   Hier, j’ai regardé un autre épisode de “Koh-Lanta”.
Yesterday, I watched another episode of “Koh-Lanta”.
Rémi:   Oh, s’il te plaît, ne commence pas…
Oh, please, don’t start…
Karine:   Attends, tu vas voir, il s’est passé un truc incroyable !
Wait, you’ll see, something amazing happened!
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