French Expression of the Day: Dire des âneries
You may not like this French expression if you think highly of donkeys.
Why do I need to know dire des âneries?
Because you might know someone who has an unfortunate habit of speaking like this.
What does it mean?
Dire des âneries – roughly pronounced dear daze ahn-eh-rees – technically translates to “to say the donkeys”.
If this sounds nonsensical to you, then that would be a perfect example of this French expression in action. Dire des âneries actually means to “talk rubbish” or to “speak nonsense”.
Similar to English, French has many words that invoke donkeys (les ânes), and usually to mean that something is either ridiculous or dumb.
Likewise, faire une ânerie means to do something stupid.
You can also use the word ânerie on its own to mean ignorance, stupidity or flaw.
A synonym for this expression is dire des conneries - which is a more harsh version and essentially means ‘to talk bullshit’.
Use it like this
Il disait des âneries sur le fait que les vacances ne coûteraient que €200. Ne se rend-il pas compte qu'il ne s'agit que du prix du vol ? – He was full of nonsense when he tried to say that the holiday would only cost €200. Does he not realise that’s just the price of the flight?
Ton père dit des âneries avec toutes ses théories du complot. – Your father is talking nonsense with all his conspiracy theories.
Legal warning
Best not to use this phrase in the Brittany village of Saint-Léger-des-Prés. In 1991 the town mayor - who owned three donkeys - banned in his town donkey-related insults such as dire des âneries, bête comme un âne (stupid as a donkey) un bonnet d'âne (a dunce's cap) and faire l'âne (acting dumb).
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Why do I need to know dire des âneries?
Because you might know someone who has an unfortunate habit of speaking like this.
What does it mean?
Dire des âneries – roughly pronounced dear daze ahn-eh-rees – technically translates to “to say the donkeys”.
If this sounds nonsensical to you, then that would be a perfect example of this French expression in action. Dire des âneries actually means to “talk rubbish” or to “speak nonsense”.
Similar to English, French has many words that invoke donkeys (les ânes), and usually to mean that something is either ridiculous or dumb.
Likewise, faire une ânerie means to do something stupid.
You can also use the word ânerie on its own to mean ignorance, stupidity or flaw.
A synonym for this expression is dire des conneries - which is a more harsh version and essentially means ‘to talk bullshit’.
Use it like this
Il disait des âneries sur le fait que les vacances ne coûteraient que €200. Ne se rend-il pas compte qu'il ne s'agit que du prix du vol ? – He was full of nonsense when he tried to say that the holiday would only cost €200. Does he not realise that’s just the price of the flight?
Ton père dit des âneries avec toutes ses théories du complot. – Your father is talking nonsense with all his conspiracy theories.
Legal warning
Best not to use this phrase in the Brittany village of Saint-Léger-des-Prés. In 1991 the town mayor - who owned three donkeys - banned in his town donkey-related insults such as dire des âneries, bête comme un âne (stupid as a donkey) un bonnet d'âne (a dunce's cap) and faire l'âne (acting dumb).
Did you know you can get notifications of all our French words and Expressions of the Day on our new app as soon as we publish? Just open up The Local app, click on 'user' and 'notifications' and then select France and French Word of the Day
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