La goutte qui fait déborder le vase

Expression: La goutte qui fait déborder le vase

Pronunciation: [la goot kee fay day buhr day leu vahz]

Meaning: the last straw, the straw that broke the camel's back

Literal translation: the drop that makes the vase overflow

Register: normal

Notes: The French expression la goutte qui fait déborder le vase is used when you've had enough of something, when there's just one glitch or complaint too many and you're fed up. The vase is full, and that last drop of water made it overflow. The equivalent idiomatic expression in English is "the straw that broke the camel's back."

Variation: la goutte d'eau qui fait déborder le vase

Example
   J'ai accepté le nouveau poste et la réduction de salaire, mais la mutation en banlieue est la goutte qui fait déborder le vase.
   I accepted the new job and the pay cut, but the transfer to the suburbs is the last straw.

Note that vase is masculine in this expression; la vase means "silt." Just one of over 100 dual-gender French nouns for your learning aggrava— um, pleasure. :-)

Grammar note: faire followed by an infinitive is a very common construction known as the causative.

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