The French idiom "Tu as le cul bordé de nouilles"

On this page, we are going to teach you all the things you have to know about the basic French expression “Tu as le cul bordé de nouilles”.

Including a complete definition of what it mean and how you can use it in everyday life with an audio example. Plus, we also sprinkled useful informations like dialogue example, slow pronunciation audio, literal meaning and more!

Oh and in case you are interested, you will also find more of these expressions guides like this one on this page plus the ultimate directory of all our French words content on this page. Wishing you a good learning!

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English translation

Pronunciation example

Slow pronunciation

Normal pronunciation

What does it mean exactly?

Definition

  • Avoir → To have
  • Le cul → The ass
  • Bordé → Bordered (Full of)
  • De nouilles → Of noodles

Many languages have expressions associating the ass with luck, such as Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, for example: “Ter o cú virado prá lua” (To have the ass oriented toward the moon) means “To be lucky” in Portuguese.

(Please don’t do that at home.)

Now back to our French expression, it’s a popular variation of “Avoir du cul” (To have some ass) which means “To be lucky“.

Unfortunately, the precise origins of this variation are unknown. The classic explanation is that having a belly full of noodles is a sign of prosperity and luck. That’s why they mixed it with the original idiom.

How to use it

Obviously, this is highly familiar and vulgar, so don’t use it at work or in any formal situation.

Let’s imagine the context allows you to say such things and you are talking with someone telling you an anecdote where he/she got super lucky. Then you can say: “Tu as vraiment le cul bordé de nouilles !” (Your ass is really full of noodles!).

Synonyms and similarities

  • Avoir du bol. (“To have some bowl“)
  • Avoir du pot. (“To have some pot/jar“)
  • Avoir du cul. (“To have some ass“)
  • Il a le cul bordé de nouilles. (“His ass is full of noodles“)
  • Elle a le cul bordé de nouilles. (“Her ass is full of noodles“)

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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Jeu de hasard
Game of chance
___
Rémi et Karine regardent une émission à la télé.
Rémi and Karine are watching a TV show.
Karine:   Encore de la publicité… C’est tellement pénible !
Advertisement again… It’s so annoying!
Rémi:   Ouais… Oh, regarde ! On peut gagner mille euros en envoyant un SMS.
Yeah… Oh, look! We can win a thousand euros by sending a text message.
Karine:   C’est une arnaque, tu ne gagneras pas.
This is a scam, you won’t win.
Rémi:   Je vais essayer, on ne sait jamais !
I’ll try, we never know!
Karine:   Comme tu veux.
As you want.
Rémi envoie le message…
Rémi sends the message…
À la fin de l’émission, Karine demande à Rémi.
At the end of the show Karine asks Rémi.
Karine:   Alors ? Tu as gagné ?
So? You won?
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