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

On this page, we are going to show you everything you have to know about the funny idiom "Ça me passe par dessus la tête". It includes a complete guide of what it mean and how to use it in a casual conversation with an audio example. But wait, we also added useful things like synonym, slow pronunciation audio, dialogue example and more!

French to English

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  Translation : I don't care

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  Literal meaning : It's going over my head

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  Register : Informal - Funny

Pronunciation

Slow

Normal

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  IPA : / sa mə pas paʁ dəsy la tɛt /

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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")