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The French idiom "Ce n'est pas ma tasse de thé"

Are you ready to learn all the things you need to know about the funny French expression "Ce n'est pas ma tasse de thé"? To be more specific, this includes a complete guide of what it is and how to use it in a dialogue with an audio example. And that's not all, we also added some useful things like slow pronunciation audio, synonym, dialogue example and more!

English translation

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  Translation : It's not something that I enjoy

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  Literal meaning : It's not my cup of tea

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  Register : Neutral - Funny

Pronunciation example

Slow

Normal

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  IPA : / sə nɛ pa ma tas də te /

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What does it mean?

Definition

It literally means:

• Ce n'est pas → It's not
• ma→ my
• tasse de thé→ cup of tea

This quite recent expression in France is the literal translation of the same expression in English "It's not my cup of tea", not surprising considering that the United Kingdom is the realm of tea...

It is used to express that we are not in our favorite activity, that the thing in question is not something that suits us or that we like to do.

How to use it

The next time someone asks you to climb Mount Everest, you can say: "Non merci, ce n'est pas ma tasse de thé" (No thanks, it's not my cup of tea.)

For informal contexts, you can use instead: "Ce n'est pas mon truc" (Literally: "It's not my thing").

Synonyms / Related

• Ce n'est pas mon truc → It's not my thing
• Ce n'est pas ce que je préfère → It's not what I prefer
• Je n'aime pas ça → I don't like that
• Ça ne me plaît pas → I don't like that

Example in a dialogue with French audio

Dialogue

Tu aimes les croissants ?

Do you like croissants?

Entre toi et moi, ce n'est pas ma tasse de thé

Between you and me, it's not my cup of tea*

Va-t'en ! Je ne veux plus te voir !

Go away! I don't want to see you anymore!