Discover the French expression "Faire la grasse matinée"

Ready to learn all the things you have to know about the funny idiom “Faire la grasse matinée”?

To be clear, this includes a full guide of what it is and how to use it in a conversation with an audio example. But wait, we also added useful things like dialogue example, slow pronunciation audio, literal meaning and more!

Oh and you can also find more of these idioms pages on this page plus the ultimate directory of all our French words content on this page. Wish you a good learning!

Table of Contents

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Translation in English

Pronunciation

Slow pronunciation

Normal pronunciation

What does it mean?

Definition

It literally means:

  • Faire → To make
  • la grasse → the fat
  • matinée → morning

 

We use the expression “Faire la grasse matinée” about someone sleeping until very late. The closest translation in English is “To sleep in“.

Here, the term “grasse” (fat) can be associated with something soft and smooth, such as a bed in which one can relax for a long time. But it can also come from the Latin “crassus” (thick), to express a prolonged morning, because it’s “thicker” (longer) than usual.

How to use it

When talking about yourself, you can use for example “J’ai fait la grasse matinée” (I slept in) or “Ce week-end, je vais faire la grasse matinée” (This weekend, I’m going to sleep in)

Few more examples, if you are talking about someone else: “Tu as encore fait la grasse matinée ?” (Did you sleep in again?) or “Je te connais, tu vas faire la grasse matinée ce week-end” (I know you, you are going to sleep in this week-end.)

Everyday life dialogue example with audio

Audio dialogue by French natives

Dialogue audio

Dialogue script

” What do you want to do? “
” Faire la grasse matinée “
” Make the fat morning​* “
” Moi aussi ! “
” Me too! “
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