l'origine de l'expression

[mint]

En avoir les bras qui en tombent.

I know what it means but can anyone tell me where the expression comes from?[:)]

[NormanH]

This site is often quite good at that sort of thing, although not very helpful this time:

http://www.expressio.fr/expressions/les-bras-m-en-tombent.php

You can do a search if you click on recherche about 5 from the top left

[Clair]

You do have the oddest questions... [8-)]

Quick google search:

http://www.expressions-francaises.fr/expressions-l/2062-les-bras-men-tombent.html

(poor google translation here)

[mint]

Thanks for the link.  I can see myself having great fun with it so I have added it to my Favourites.

[woolybanana]

Perhaps, my Sweet little donut filled with delicious rasberry jam, you might consider having a couple of serious gin and tonics and playing some music as the transmutation of these phrases is very difficult and much less satisfying than other activities that OAPs might indulge in!!![6]

[Pierre ZFP]

I am so glad I checked out the links Clair gave.  I thought the expression was something about ladies undergarments falling off [:$]

[5-element]

[:D][:D][:D]

 

and not to be confused with "baisser les bras" - or is it just one "s"??[blink]

[mint]

OK, OK, enough amusement already![:D]

Didn't see Clair's post so thanks to Pierre for pointing it out, even though he seems to have a er...penchant for ladies' undergarments...[:P]

Me, I just love your French expressions.  English ones too for that matter ... 

 

[mint]

Tied myself up in knots a bit last night when I was telling my neighbours about the new Governor of the Bank of England being a Canadian.  I wanted to use this latest expression in my repertoire.

Hier, j'en ai eu les bras qui en sont tombés....etc.

Didn't have access to Sid's useful conjugaison site and didn't realise when I started speaking that the passé composé of this phrase is going to be so tricky!

Still, don't they say that the more mistakes you make, the more you learn, or something like that?[:$]

Thought I'd mention this so that people who are interested could now post to say they'd have known what to say all along .......[;-)]

See, you can't just be the one asking the questions all the time, sometimes you have to give others a chance to laugh at you and have a snigger at your expense!

[idun]

So what is the difference between your expression Sweet17 and 'baisser les bras'. I only know and use 'baisser les bras' and cannot remember ever hearing the 'falling arms' one before![:D]

[mint]

I'm not sure that there IS a difference, id.  I just love the weird picture of someone's arms falling off and they are left with bleeding stumps![:D]

Gory, I know, but some mental pictures are not easily erased, don't you think?

Edit:  I think also that, as well as being powerless to do something as in baisser les bras (I understand, a boxing term), it also means something like, I am completely amazed as in "I don't BELIEVE it!"

[5-element]

There is a big difference.

"Baisser les bras" is "to give up".

"Les bras m'en tombent" is "I am so shocked that my arms are falling off!"

[idun]

[:D]Thankyou 5E. I cannot remember hearing anyone say 'les bras m'en tombent'.

[5-element]

You are welcome Idun. It is like saying "I am speechless" - or "Je suis sidérée".[:)]

[mint]

Or even, you could have knocked me down with a feather?[:D]

[andrew44]

"You could have knocked me down with a feather."

Exactly !

@+

Andrew 44

[Loiseau]

Well at least in English we can say we are "legless" !

Angela

[mint]

[quote user="Loiseau"]Well at least in English we can say we are "legless" ! Angela[/quote]

We can say we are "armless" as well: that is, we don't cause no 'arm to nobody; what's wrong with that?

[Chancer]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

Tied myself up in knots a bit last night when I was telling my neighbours about the new Governor of the Bank of England being a Canadian.  I wanted to use this latest expression in my repertoire.

Hier, j'en ai eu les bras qui en sont tombés....etc.

[/quote]

Is the first "en" correct in that expression?

I would have used j'en if I were saying that everyones arms were dropping off last night and mine were the first of them to do so.

However its only relatively recently that en has clicked with me and I have the confidence to exploit it, perhaps misplaced?

[5-element]

AFAIK, the really correct expression would be "J'ai eu les bras qui M'en sont tombés"  - I believe that the "m'en" refers to the cause, the initial reason  why my arms fell off. Something like "in this particular event,  my arms fell off".

I am not the best kind of French teacher there is, as my knowledge and interest in obscure grammatical rules have always quickly reached their limit. Maybe someone who is a bit more "à cheval sur les principes" of ultra-correct grammar can expand further.[:D]

[mint]

Well, the expression as written out for me, no less, is "en avoir les bras qui en tombent".

So, I just used that with which to make the passé composé.

As for grammar [:-))] ben, ç'est pas mon truc, hein!

[5-element]

Very timely: I just heard Jean-Francois Copé on the news (those who are vaguely following the latest UMP psychodrama will know who he is) - he was of course, referring to his arch-rival Francois Fillon, who had done something or other, and he said about this very thing that Fillon had just done: "Les bras m'en sont un peu tombés"

So there you go. Politicians do use that expression.[6]

[mint]

[quote user="5-element"]

So there you go. Politicians do use that expression.[6]

[/quote]

Thank you, 5-e.  I just KNEW it'd come in useful......[:D]

[5-element]

Sweet, I would never have taken you for the kind of person whose idea of fun is to impersonate Jean-François Copé.......eeeeeeeeeeek[:'(]

[NormanH]

But surely the UMP now is Copé en deux? [6]