Are you ready to discover all the things you have to know about the basic French saying "Quand on parle du loup on en voit la queue"? To be more precise, this includes a complete explanation of what it mean and how to use it in a casual conversation with an audio example. Not to mention the useful informations we sprinkled like dialogue example, synonym, slow pronunciation audio and more!
Translation : Speak of the devil and he appears
Literal meaning : When you talk about the wolf you see its tail
Register : Informal - Basic
Slow
Normal
IPA : / kɑ̃ ɔ̃ paʁlə dy lu ɔ̃n- ɑ̃ vwa la kø. /
It's a beautiful day, you are walking in the forest and talking with your friend. The conversation turns to how safe you feel of not meeting any wild wolf... and suddenly... a wolf appears.
Your survival instinct makes you freeze and stop talking. What were the odds of this wolf appearing right when you spoke about him?!
This proverb takes its source into these crazy moments where you talk about someone and this person comes out of nowhere, as if your words attracted him/her.
This situation above is (hopefully) not likely to happen, but similar ones happen all the time. Imagine you are talking about someone, this person ("The wolf") suddenly appears and the conversation stops.
Then you can say this proverb to the person you were talking to, but be careful! If "the wolf" heard that, he might think you were saying awful things about him.
On the contrary, if you have nothing to hide and want to say to the wolf you were talking about him, you can use it in front of him.
Pro tips: if you want a shorter version, just say "Quand on parle du loup..." because the proverb is so famous that you don't even need to finish the sentence, people will understand perfectly.
Also, this proverb has a pejorative / bad connotation. If you want a similar proverb with a positive connotation, use instead: "Quand on parle du soleil, on en voit les rayons" (When you talk about the sun, you see its sunrays).
Dialogue
Tu as vu ta mère ?
Did you see your father?
Non... Ah ! Elle vient d'arriver
No... Oh! He just arrived
Quand on parle du loup on en voit la queue.
When you talk about the wolf you see its tail.
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