Cherchez la femme

Expression: Cherchez la femme !

Pronunciation: [shehr shay la fahm]

Meaning: Same problem as always!

Literal translation: Look for the woman!

Register: normal

Notes: If cherchez la femme sounds sexist, that's because it is. The French expression dates back to at least the 19th century, when Joseph Fouch, a police officer in Alexandre Dumas père's Les Mohicans de Paris, proclaimed that

Il y a une femme dans toutes les affaires ; aussitôt qu'on me fait un rapport, je dis : "Cherchez la femme."
There's a woman in every case; as soon as someone gives me a [crime] report, I say, "Look for the woman."

The idea being that whenever a man gets into any sort of trouble, there must be a woman behind it. It's caused by her jealousy, greed, spite, or whatever, so just find her in order to clear the poor man's good name.

In English, cherchez la femme is found with its original meaning mainly in "airport novel"-grade detective stories. But it's also used, particularly in British English, in a wider sense: for seemingly different problems that always boil down to the same root cause.

   -Mon ordi marche très lentement et je ne peux pas lancer certains programmes.
   -Cherchez la femme !
   -My computer is running slowly and I can't open certain programs.
   -Same problem as always! (e.g., your computer is infected with another virus)

Variations: cherche la femme, chercher la femme, il faut chercher la femme


More

• Expressions with chercher
• French expressions used in English
• Most common French phrases