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The French sentence "Tu me cours sur le haricot" explained

Are you ready to discover all the things you want to know about the funny idiom "Tu me cours sur le haricot"? More precisely, it includes a full definition of what it is and how you can use it in a dialogue with an audio example. Plus, we also added some super useful stuff like synonym, dialogue example, slow pronunciation audio and more!


Translation in English

  • Translation : You annoy me

  • Literal meaning : You're running on my bean

  • Register : Informal - Funny

Audio pronunciation

Slow

Normal

  • IPA : / ty mə kuʁ syʁ lə aʁiko /

aesthetic french quote courir sur le haricot

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What does it mean exactly?

Definition

This expression, born at the end of the 19th century, means that someone annoys us a lot. "To run someone" already meant in the 16th century "to annoy someone". As for the "bean", it corresponded, in slang, to a "toe".

So, it literally means "You are running on my bean (toe)" but means "You annoy me."

How to use it

Every time someone annoys you with their behavior, their words or even just their presence you can say: "Tu me cours sur le haricot". 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.

Synonyms

↓ Example in a story with slow audio ↓

Finally, let's see an example in a parallel story with slow audio.

La salle de jeux

The games room

Un jour, Emily et Philippe vont dans une salle de jeux.
One day, Emily and Philippe go to a games room.
Dans cette salle, ils pouvaient jouer à beaucoup de jeux :
In this room, they could play a lot of games:
Billard, bowling, fléchettes, baby-foot, machines à sous, etc.
Pool, bowling, darts, foosball, slot machines, etc.
Ils commencent par le billard. Philippe a gagné.
They begin with pool. Philippe won.
Ensuite, les fléchettes. Philippe a gagné aussi.
Then, darts. Philippe also won.
Puis le baby-foot, Philippe a encore gagné.
Then foosball, Philippe won again.
Peu importe le jeu... Philippe jouait à la perfection...
Regardless of the game... Philippe was playing perfectly...
Ensuite, ils ont décidé de jouer au bowling.
Then, they decided to play bowling.

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