Discover the French expression "Tu me casses les pieds"

You are going to discover everything you ever wanted to know about the basic idiom “Tu me casses les pieds”.

To be clear, it includes a complete guide of what it is and how you can use it in everyday life with an audio example. And also the cool informations we added like slow pronunciation audio, dialogue example, literal meaning and more!

If you want, you will find our others idioms pages on this page and the directory of all our French words content on this page. Have fun!

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Translation in English

How to pronounce it?

Slow pronunciation

Normal pronunciation

What does it mean exactly?

Definition

  • Tu me casses → You are breaking / crushing my
  • Les pieds → Feet

Sometimes you might get so annoyed by someone that you feel like a physical pain in your body. Like if someone was crushing a part of you… your feet, for example! Isn’t it annoying (and painful) to have someone crushing your feet?

How to use

Every time someone annoys you with their behavior, their words or even just their presence you can say: “Tu me casses les pieds“. For a more complete sentence, you can add before “Arrête !” (Stop!) or “Ça suffit !” (That’s enough!)

This is not something very nice to say, but it’s actually one of the nicest ways to express this feeling in French. The softest would be “Tu m’embêtes” (You annoy me).

But as you probably guessed, you should be careful with this one anyway and avoid using it in a formal situation, at work for example.

Fun fact

This structure is super powerful because you can adapt it to infinite situations. To be more precise, you can play with three things: the angriness level, the vulgarity level and reason why you are angry,

To increase the angriness level, you can replace the verb “casser” by “briser” (to crush) or “péter” (“to break” but more violent)

Then, if you are really pissed and don’t care about being vulgar you can replace “Pieds” (Feet) by “Couilles” (Balls).

Finally, if you want to be more precise about why you are pissed, you can replace “pieds” (feet) by the part of your body that is concerned. For example, if someone is talking loudly, you can say: “Tu me casses les oreilles.” (You are breaking my ears.)

Basically, you just have to start with “Tu me casses…” (You are breaking my…) and be creative.

Synonyms and similarities

  • Tu me casses les oreilles. (“You are breaking my ears.“)
  • Tu me casses les noisettes. (“You are breaking my hazelnuts.“)
  • Tu me casses les couilles. (“You are breaking my balls.“)(Vulgar)
  • Il me casse les pieds. (“He is breaking my feet.“)
  • Elle me casse les pieds. (“She is breaking my feet.“)
  • Vous me cassez les pieds. (“You are breaking my feet.“)(More “polite“)
  • Tu m’embêtes. (“You annoy me“)

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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Le coût de l'indifférence
The cost of indifference
___
Théo et Olivia sont sur le point d’aller à la plage.
Théo and Olivia are about to go to the beach.
Olivia:   Tu as tout mis dans le sac ?
Did you put everything in the bag?
Théo:   Oui, j’ai pris nos serviettes, la crème solaire et une bouteille d’eau.
Yes, I took our towels, sunscreen and a bottle of water.
Olivia:   Parfait, et nos maillots de bain ?
Perfect, and our swimsuits?
Théo:   Je pensais les mettre maintenant.
I thought of wearing them now.
Olivia:   Tu as raison. Donne-moi cinq minutes. Je vais me préparer.
You are right. Give me five minutes. I’m going to get ready.
Théo:   D’accord.
Alright.
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