What does the idiomatic French expression avoir un petit creux mean? Click the link above to learn all about it, and then come back here to share your thoughts.
More: French expressions | Common French phrases
More: French expressions | Common French phrases
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Although “avoir un petit creux” originally denotes a slight hunger mentioned as an explaination to a sudden behavior related to food (such as ordering a pizza, “visiting” the fridge, going out to a fast-food restaurant in the middle of the night…), in fact its meaning is nolonger a matter of faintness of the hunger nore of a small quantity of the food involved in the subsequent events, but that expression is just a matter of making things sound benign, precisely because they might appear more or less inconsiderate, embarrassing or outrageous.
It is just the same as when you ask the waiter for your bill at the restaurant by saying “Est-ce que je peux avoir ma petite note, s’il vous plait ?”, which in fact, implies that you don’t mean to show any embarassing displeasure if the “petite note” happens to be sizeable, and that you are ready to confront it philosophically.
Thus, the discrepancy between the original quantitative meaning of “un petit creux” and its real use for making things benign, that discrepancy can prove extremely ironic and humorous, because an extremely inconsiderate guest who has looted your kitchen cupboards may rightly say “j’ai eu un petit creux”, although that “petit creux” may have resulted in a living-room floor littered with empty crisp bags and all sorts of rubish all over the place…
Trying to make things sound benign by qualifying them as small although they obviously aren’t sounds very funny when you come to think of it…
Bon, maintenant je crois que je vais arrêter ma petite explication.
Il faut peut être faire une petite pause et se prendre un petit cachet d’aspirine…
Humourously yours,
Christophe Brousse
Probably it is a French habit to tell the opposite of what you really mean. The expression “Tu m’étonnes” for example doesn’t mean at all “I’m stupefied by what you’re saying!”, but the contrary: “I know exactly what you mean.” Example:
- “Chaque année il m’offre le même cadeau, ça me soule!”
- “Tu m’étonnes.”
Another example is “Ce n’est pas terrible”, which does not mean “it isn’t bad” but “it’s not very good” / “it’s nothing special”
Greetings,
Pascal
Hi everyone. Sorry, but you all have wrong. I’m french native and this means that you’re beginning to have hungry. In other words, that you have a little bit hungry. And you can ask it as a question to someone else, it means that you have hungry and proposing to the other to go eat a little something.
Have a nice day, and sorry for my english.
Great comments- and I love Cs humour- Merci!
I never cease learning more French as I read the things here- which I appreciate very much! My French may perhaps be much more fluent than it was when I moved to France over 4 years ago, but it’s by no means ‘bilingual.’ Little things like this help me to learn more expressions in French- which I never really learned much of in French classes way back when!
Also- to J-C Martel…
I think that what you just wrote is what the others were saying, as well.. So, it’s all good!
Ciao… Leesa
Well, Christrophe Brousse, I love your humour, but am a little wary of saying that in french bec it might mean I love your humour as in disposition (good humour). J’aime les deux! J’ai un petit creux pour lire plus de ton stylo humoureux. And does your surname not mean “brush”. Enchanté de brouser des epaules avec toi, tho I doubt one can translate the english idiom “to brush shoulders with someone” quite so literally. Anyway je suis sur that someone, if not you, will enlighten me in this regard. Haha, this is such fun, I don’t get to this site si souvent as I would wish, but when I do, I like to make a meal of it, no petit creux pour moi, j’aime une banquette, oops is that the word for “banquet”, it sounds right. Best wishes to you Christophe et bon appetit to all around this delightful french table, Clarissa
RE: Creux . Sister Sourire used to sing
>> Au Creux du petit jour/ Quand perle la rosèe….>>
from ” Mets ton joli jupon, mon âme”.
Here Creux seems to be used as a noun. Please advise. I am trying to augment your excellent site and French Word a day with a French song a day. I am relearning French while teaching others.
Anyway I thought you might be interested in adding the”Creux du petit jour” expression to your vocabulary.
J’ai un petit creux,bon nuit