French expression: Tenir le coup
Friday November 14, 2008
What does the idiomatic French expression tenir le coup mean? Click the link above to learn all about it, and then come back here to share your thoughts.
More: French expressions
More: French expressions
Comments
Isn’t “il/elle tient le coup” more or less equivalent to saying “s/he’s gonna make it” in English? Likewise, “je crois pas qu’il va tenir le coup” is like saying “I don’t think he’s gonna make it.” Coping is one way way of describing it, but doesn’t “pulling through” work too? Thanks, Laura!
Bonjour Law -
As is often the case, the French expression has numerous possible translations: to cope, to handle something, to deal with something, to survive, to make it, to pull through, to be okay eventually, etc., etc. I can’t list them all.
Laura K. Lawless
Learn French at About
In your comment to Law, it was very interesting to note the many English expressions relating to the concept of “coping” to which “tenir le coup” is applicable. This appears to be a very useful expression. Thank you for sharing it with your subscribers.
ron
Hello,
I am interested in “tenir le coup” because in my language (Maltese) we use “izzomm il-kolp” to mean something like “not to give in”, “to stear the course” etc. French has only a very insignificant influence on Maltese (unlike English, Italian and Arabic) so this expression could have been adopted either through one of these 3 languages or directly through seafarers’ contact.
Pierre
bonjour.
in the Tenir le coup examples it states.
Ça a été un choc atroce,mais il tient le coup.Here a été = passé composé.Oui ?
What I would like to know is- could I use the
imparfait in this situation and still be correct? C’était un choc atroce,mais il tient
le coup,or does it alter the meaning in some
way? Thanks.
Bien à vous.