Get prepared to learn all the things you want to know about the funny idiom "Tous les 36 du mois". This include a complete guide of what it is and how to use it in a dialogue with an audio example. Together with the cool stuff we added like synonym, dialogue example, slow pronunciation audio and more!
Translation : Never
Literal meaning : Every 36th of the month
Register : Informal - Funny
Slow
Normal
IPA : / tu le tʁɑ̃tsis dy mwa /
The literal meaning is:
The French expression "Tous les 36 du mois" or "Tous les trente-six du mois" is an ironic way to say "Never / Almost never". It is an absurd reference to a situation that will certainly never happen, since there isn't a 36th day of the month.
It's very similar to the English expression "Once in a blue moon"
If someone asks you how often you do sport, you can say "Tous les 36 du mois !" a.k.a. never...
You can also use similar expressions, for example, if someone asks you when you will stop eating fast food, you can answer: "À la Saint-Glinglin" → During Saint-Glinglin's day (A day that doesn't exist) or "Quand les poules auront des dents" (When the hens will have teeth).
You might wonder about the number 36. Because, any number above 31 works too, right?
Well, there are tons of French expressions with the number 36...here are some:
And what's crazy is that we don't know for sure why... One of the most common theories is that it comes from ancient Egyptian astronomy and their 36 decans (small constellations), but nothing is certain...
↓ Example in a story with translation ↓
Finally, let's see an example in a parallel story with slow audio.
Oh le menteur !
Oh the liar!
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