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The French idiom "Ça coûte la peau des fesses" revealed

Get prepared to discover everything you ever wanted to know about the funny French expression "Ça coûte la peau des fesses". Including a full explanation of what it is and how you can use it in a casual conversation with an audio example. And that's not all, we also added useful informations like synonym, dialogue example, slow pronunciation audio and more!


French to English

  • Translation : It's very expensive

  • Literal meaning : It costs the skin of the butthocks

  • Register : Informal - Funny

Pronunciation guide

Slow

Normal

  • IPA : / sa kut la po de fɛs /

aesthetic french quote peau des fesses

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What does it mean exactly?

Definition

The literal meaning is:

I don't know for you but I would really appreciate not losing my skin in this area, not in any other area, actually.

That's why we use this expression when we judge that something is extremely expensive. So expensive that if we pay for it, it would be like losing a part of ourselves.

How to use it

Don't forget that it's a vulgar expression and you shouldn't use it in formal contexts, even though there is an even more vulgar version: "Ça coûte la peau du cul" (It costs the skin of the ass).

For informal contexts, you would be fine using "Ça coûte la peau des fesses" or any of the synonyms below.

In case you are not sure, you can stick with the neutral way to express this idea: "Ça coûte une fortune" (It costs a fortune) or even simpler "Ça coûte très cher" (It's very expensive).

Synonyms / Related

Example in a dialogue with audio

Dialogue

C'est combien ?

How much is it?

Mille euros

One thousand euros

Wow ! Ça coûte la peau des fesses !

Wow! It costs the skin of the butt!*

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