You are in the right place to discover everything you want to know about the funny expression "Il n'y a pas le feu". Including a full explanation of what it is and how you can use it in a casual conversation with an audio example. But wait, we also added useful things like dialogue example, slow pronunciation audio, synonyms and more!
Translation : There is no hurry
Literal meaning : There's no fire
Register : Informal - Funny
Slow
Normal
IPA : / il nj‿ a pa lə fø /
It literally means:
In the middle of the 20th century, French people started to use this expression to express "There is no hurry /emergency". Because if there is no fire, there is no reason to panic.
Instead of saying the basic: "Ça ne presse pas" (There is no hurry) you can use this expression to make it funnier.
It also good to know that in everyday French, we almost always end up saying "Ya pas l'feu" which is shorter and more informal.
We can also use this expression this way: "Il n'y a pas le feu au lac" (There is no fire on the lake).
The addition of "on the lake" is a way of making fun of the slowness of the Swiss, supposedly unable to hurry even in an emergency according to the cliché. And the lake refers to the "Lac Léman" (Lake Geneva), the symbol of Switzerland.
And because it's impossible to have a fire on a lake, it makes it even more ironic...
Dialogue
Désolé, je suis en retard
Sorry, I'm late
Dépêche-toi ! Tout le monde t'attend !
Hurry up! Everybody is waiting for you!
C'est bon ! Il n'y a pas le feu !
Relax, there is no fire!*
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