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French Expression of the Day: Enculer les mouches

The Local France
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French Expression of the Day: Enculer les mouches
Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

You do what to the flies??

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Why do I need to know enculer les mouches?

Because you might want to use this French expression to complain about your friend who cannot resist correcting your grammar.

What does it mean?

Enculer les mouches roughly pronounced ahn koo lay lay moosh – is a French expression that is certainly colloquial, and slightly profane, so you might want to be careful who you use it around.

It essentially means to be overly attentive to detail or fussy - in English we might say nit-picking or in the weeds - but it translates precisely to “sodomise the flies.” You might also hear it as enculer des mouches.

Interestingly, French is not the only language to have a profane way of describing the person who loves to correct their friends’ grammar. The Dutch expression also has to do with being sexually aggressive toward insects, while the Finns talks about 'comma fuckers'. 

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The word enculer in normal conversation is extremely strong, but used as part of the phrase enculer les mouches it becomes less offensive - although it's probably not one to wheel out in front of in-laws or your kids' teachers. 

If you are looking for a softer alternative, you could say that someone is “pointilleux” or “tatillon” instead.

Use it like this

J'ai légèrement mal prononcé le nom de l'acteur français et, tout à coup, toutes les personnes présentes à la table ont sauté pour me corriger. Ce sont tous des enculeurs des mouches. – I just barely mispronounced the French actor’s name, and all of a sudden, everyone at the table jumped to correct me. They are all so nit-picky.

La prof est vraiment tatillon. Elle demande que toutes les compositions soient soumises avec une taille des caractères et des marges parfaites, et que le nombre de mots soit exact.  – The professor is really fussy. She demands that all essays be submitted with perfect font size and margins, and that the word count be accurate. 

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