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Mine de rien and its meaning

french expressions Sep 26, 2022

If your French is more advanced, if you are surrounded by native French people or watching some French movies, you may encounter some expressions that you will understand only if they explain them to you.

Why?

Because if you try to translate word by word, it won’t work. These expressions come from a long time ago that we forgot the origin of the world and get it only because of the context and immersion.

In other words, if you don’t have the cultural reference and are not aware of the proper meaning in the context, it’s impossible to decipher these expression without any help from a native speaker or someone with a high level of French.

Today, we’ll be diving in a French expression that will allow you to explore different sides of “mine de rien”.



You can’t translate the expression “mine de rien”!

Just like I was telling you, the automatic translation is useless. Let’s have a look at our expression. There 3 words. Actually 2 words connected with the preposition “de”.

  • mine >>> mine / pencil lead / appearance, complexion
  • de >> of 
  • rien >> nothing

 When I checked on Google translate, the result was “casually”! It was far from the truth. Why? Because, Google gives you just one option without any context.



By the way, if you really want to use a virtual dictionary, I highly recommend you wordreference. This website not only explains word for word but also gives you all the expressions related to one word.

Let’s go back to our main expression “mine de rien”. The website offers all the various translations of the word “mine”. Then, you can explore other expressions with the same word like:

  • avoir bonne mine
  • avoir mauvaise mine
  • faire grise mine
  • une mine d’information…

 

These are a few examples. Thus, you learn a new word and in addition, you can expand your list of vocabulary.

 

What does “mine de rien” mean in French?

In our mini lesson, we are going to focus on the meaning of “mine” when it comes to complexion or appearance. Indeed, “mine” refers to your face.

And if you look happy, healthy, in a good mood, the expression is:

  • avoir bonne mine >>> looking good.

The opposite would be:

  •    avoir sale mine >>> looking grumpy / bad.

 

Now, with concrete examples, you’ll have the following:

  • Elle a bonne mine aujourd’hui. >>> She’s looking good today.
  • Hier, il était malade, il avait une sale (mauvaise) mine >>> Yesterday, he was sick and looked bad.

 




When “mine de rien” means innocent face.

Now that we have explained the word “mine”, you are ready for the whole expression.

Mine de rien” signifies “appearance of nothing”. To some extent, it implies that you show a face as if nothing happened and you pretend to be innocent. Therefore, you have an innocent face!

How do we use it in context? Like this:

  • Il a fait mine de rien, mais je sais qu’il est coupable. >>> He’s got that casual, innocent look but I know he’s guilty.

 

How to pretent to be innocent with “mine de rien”.

Again, the expression “mine de rien” is the equivalent of “it wasn’t me face”. Besides, the phrase “faire mine” means to pretend:

  • Elle a mangé tous les biscuits et mine de rien, elle a dit qu’elle n’avait pas vu les biscuits ! >>> She ate all the biscuits and despite of the appearances, she said she hadn’t seen the biscuits!




How to show your efforts with “mine de rien”.

Let’s have a look at another context. This time it doesn’t have anything to do with innocence. Instead, it is used when you make an effort but you don’t make it like you had planned.

In English, you would translate it by “all the same”.

  • Mine de rien, j’ai essayé. >>> All the same, I tried.




Show boredom with “mine de rien”.

Finally, we are going to explain another version of this expression. Do you want to express a face saying “whatever”?, Simply reply with “mine de rien”!

Here’s an example for you:

  • - “Tu es viré ! - Mine de rien !”. >>> You’re fired! Bothered!



What’s the real meaning of “mine de rien”?

To continue with the same idea, here’s a film based on a book with the same title “mine de rien”. The book cover should help you grasp the context. It’s someone lying on a sofa who clearly doesn’t care about the rest.

It screams “yeah, whatever”!

This is how you can understand the sense of humour of French people with this expression.



The various meanings of “mine de rien” in French.

I really hope you’ve understood the general meaning of this French expression because mine de rien, I tried to decipher each word and contexts.

First, you have seen 3 meanings of the word “mine”. Then, we saw some variations with the word in the context of appearance and compexion.

After, we explored the expression with 3 ways to use it:

  1. mine de rien >>> all the same 
  2. mine de rien >>> It wasn’t me face
  3. mine de rien >>> whatever face  

     
      

 So, which option(s) are you going to choose to practice with this fun expression? Are there any other French expressions you dream to understand? I am all ears!

 

 

 

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