It goes in one ear and out the other.
Posted: Tue Feb 11, 2025 6:11 am
Hello everyone! I am very happy to welcome you back to a new episode of the Français Authentique podcast, a podcast in which we discover together a French idiomatic expression. Last week, we saw the meaning of the expression " mon petit doigt m'a dit ", which is a very cute expression that we use a lot with children. Don't hesitate to listen to it when you have a moment. Today, we are going to see the meaning of the expression "ça entre par une oreille et ça sortie par l'autre".
Before moving on to the explanations, I invite you to register and discover Johan's free course, " 7 rules for speaking French without getting stuck ". It is an ultra-rich and relevant course to effectively launch you into learning French, whether in terms of comprehension or expression. The link to register is in the description.
Here we go with our expression for today: "it goes in one ear and out the other". Let's start with the explanation of the words.
As for the meaning of the expression, then originally, the expression was born in the 15th century. At that time, people said "to enter through one ear, to protrude through the other". It is a iraq whatsapp number data figurative expression. We imagine the path of speech that enters the body through one ear and immediately leaves without being fixed in the memory.
So here, maybe you understood what it meant. It means to pay no attention to what is said to him. It means to hear something and immediately forget it. It means to retain nothing through inattention or lack of interest.
So, I'm going to give you three examples, three contexts so that you can understand the meaning of this expression a little better.
First example: "Philippe doesn't retain anything. You can tell him whatever you want, it goes in one ear and out the other." So, what we understand here is that Philippe doesn't retain what he's told, he doesn't pay any attention to what he's told. In fact, the information goes in one ear and immediately comes out the other. He doesn't retain anything that he's told.
Second example: "I don't give him advice anymore because, no matter what I say, it goes in one ear and out the other." So, here, we understand that the person is not paying attention to what is being said to him. He hears, but he immediately forgets the advice, probably due to lack of interest. So, the person says that he will not give him advice anymore.
Third example: "Sorry, but I don't care about this broken nail stuff, it goes in one ear and out the other." So, here, the person says that she doesn't care at all, she is aware of it and she shares it. She says that, well, she doesn't pay attention to what she is told about broken nails because she doesn't care. So, the information goes in one ear and out the other.
Now let's do a little pronunciation exercise. Now, you should know that for this expression there are a few small variations in the expression and they are all OK. We can use it with or without the "and". And instead of the verb "to enter", we can use the verbs "to return" or "to come out". So, I'm going to pronounce these three forms of the expression, and then I'll give you time to repeat after me.
Before moving on to the explanations, I invite you to register and discover Johan's free course, " 7 rules for speaking French without getting stuck ". It is an ultra-rich and relevant course to effectively launch you into learning French, whether in terms of comprehension or expression. The link to register is in the description.
Here we go with our expression for today: "it goes in one ear and out the other". Let's start with the explanation of the words.
As for the meaning of the expression, then originally, the expression was born in the 15th century. At that time, people said "to enter through one ear, to protrude through the other". It is a iraq whatsapp number data figurative expression. We imagine the path of speech that enters the body through one ear and immediately leaves without being fixed in the memory.
So here, maybe you understood what it meant. It means to pay no attention to what is said to him. It means to hear something and immediately forget it. It means to retain nothing through inattention or lack of interest.
So, I'm going to give you three examples, three contexts so that you can understand the meaning of this expression a little better.
First example: "Philippe doesn't retain anything. You can tell him whatever you want, it goes in one ear and out the other." So, what we understand here is that Philippe doesn't retain what he's told, he doesn't pay any attention to what he's told. In fact, the information goes in one ear and immediately comes out the other. He doesn't retain anything that he's told.
Second example: "I don't give him advice anymore because, no matter what I say, it goes in one ear and out the other." So, here, we understand that the person is not paying attention to what is being said to him. He hears, but he immediately forgets the advice, probably due to lack of interest. So, the person says that he will not give him advice anymore.
Third example: "Sorry, but I don't care about this broken nail stuff, it goes in one ear and out the other." So, here, the person says that she doesn't care at all, she is aware of it and she shares it. She says that, well, she doesn't pay attention to what she is told about broken nails because she doesn't care. So, the information goes in one ear and out the other.
Now let's do a little pronunciation exercise. Now, you should know that for this expression there are a few small variations in the expression and they are all OK. We can use it with or without the "and". And instead of the verb "to enter", we can use the verbs "to return" or "to come out". So, I'm going to pronounce these three forms of the expression, and then I'll give you time to repeat after me.