All about the French idiom "Tirer des plans sur la comète"

Get prepared to discover all the things you want to know about the basic French expression “Tirer des plans sur la comète”.

It includes a detailed explanation of what it mean and how you can use it in everyday life with an audio example. As well as the cool stuff we sprinkled like slow pronunciation audio, synonyms, dialogue example and more!

Finally, you can also find more of these expressions tutorials on this page and the ultimate directory of all our French words tutorials on this page. Enjoy!

Table of Contents

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Translation in English

How to pronounce it?

Slow pronunciation

Normal pronunciation

What does it mean?

Definition

  • Tirer → To pull (Here it has a meaning of “To build/to draw“)
  • Des plans → Plans
  • Sur la comète → On the comet

Comets passing close to earth are very rare and particularly brief events. Contrary to building projects, which requires a lot of time, patience and dedication.

This expression is based on this paradox. How would you jump on a comet, start making plans, and come back to earth in a few seconds?

You can’t, that’s why “Tirer des plans sur la comète” (Drawing plans on the comet) means “To make unrealistic plans“.

How to use it

Someone is talking to you about his revolutionary plan on how to become a billionaire in 45 minutes while sleeping. You can say: “Wow! That sounds awesome, I want to try!“.

Or, you can say “Je crois que tu tires des plans sur la comète…” (I think you are drawing plans on the comet…).

You will find more variations with other pronouns in the next paragraph.

Synonyms

  • Bâtir des plans sur la comète. (“To build plans on the comet“)
  • Bâtir des châteaux en Espagne. (“To build castles in Spain“)
  • Tu tires des plans sur la comète. (“You are building plans on the comet“)
  • Il tire des plans sur la comète. (“He is building plans on the comet“)
  • Elle tire des plans sur la comète. (“She is building plans on the comet“)
  • Vous tirez des plans sur la comète. (“You are building plans on the comet“)(More polite)
  • Ils tirent des plans sur la comète. (“They are building plans on the comet“)

Dialogue example with audio

Audio dialogue by French natives

Dialogue audio

Dialogue text

” Un jour je serai milliardaire “
” One day I will be a billionaire “
” Arrête de tirer des plans sur la comète. “
” Stop drawing up plans on the comet “
” Bon ok… peut être juste millionnaire “
” Alright…maybe just a millionaire “
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