4 great expressions with money in French

Although it’s not so common to talk about money in public in France, once sitting at a table with friends, the conversation may well turn to talking about your future arrangements. 

If you’d like to sound French and slip in a few lovely idiomatic phrases, then here’s just the right place to add some nifty ones to your repertoire.

Why bother? Simply because we have the gift of a more colourful and interesting language. We won’t be beginners for life, and when we add one or two at a time, we not only sound more French, but we understand our French friends more easily when they use them. 

Pick up 4 great expressions with money right now: 

• 4 great expressions with money in French

• Examples for you to apply in your own life

• Ways to easily remember them for your own conversations

This expression describes wealth.

Whenever you want to describe someone who has a lot of money, you can say the following:

• Être riche comme Crésus >>> to be extremely wealthy

Here’s an example for you:

• Même si elle n’est pas riche comme Crésus, elle se sent comblée par sa vie. >>> Even if she’s not as rich as Croesus, she feels fulfilled in her life.

For your information, French people have no idea about the identity of Croesus. They only use this expression to talk about a wealthy person.

A French expression expressing a broke person.

The following one is the opposite. It describes someone broke:

• Être sur la paille >>> to be broke.  

Have a look at this illustration:

• Avec tous les cadeaux que j’ai achetés pour son anniv, je vais finir sur la paille ! >>> After all the gifts I bought for his birthday, I’m going to end up broke!

This idea behind it is that when you are poor to sleep on the straw because you can’t afford more.

“Anniv” or “annif” is a short word for “anniversaire” (birthday).

A French How do you express earning your salary in French? 

The next one refers to someone who works a lot to earn money:

• Gagner son pain à la sueur de son front  >>> to ear by sweat and toil.

I have a context for you:

• Pour réussir dans la vie, faut-il toujours gagner son pain à la sueur de son front ? >>> To succeed in life, is it always necessary to earn through hard labour?

Oui! In the past, you had to work a lot and sweat to earn money. However, nowadays, you don’t have to work that hard, but be strategic.

Use this French expression for saving money 

The last one is exactly the English translation of

• Se serrer la ceinture.  >>> to tighten your belt 

You could say:

• Pour acheter cette maison, nous avons dû nous serrer la ceinture pendant quelques années. >>> To buy this house, we had to tighten our belts for a few years.

Basically, it means to make sacrifices in order to own or buy something.

Tips to learn the idiomatic expressions in French.

To start with, choose one thing at a time and master it. Once you do, you can add more to your list.

Then, say it aloud to memorise it.

The word is not enough. Indeed, if you put it into context with your own example it will facilitate.

Then, you want to practice as much as possible or you will forget it.

In a nutshell, there is no need to learn a lot. You would better apply your learning in order to speak French simultaneously with confidence. 

In this mini-lesson, you have seen four idiomatic expressions dealing with money:

• Être riche comme Crésus >>> to be extremely wealthy
• Être sur la paille >>> to be broke.
• Gagner son pain à la sueur de son front  >>> to ear by sweat and toil.
• Se serrer la ceinture.  >>> to tighten your belt 

I have another mini-lesson about money:

Money matters Pièce vs monnaie

Which expressions do you think you will be using the most?