Careful French expression N°15: Faire gaffe

This is one French expression which is very important to know : Faire gaffe. Especially if someone says to you ‘Fais gaffe’, you need to open wide your eyes 👁

Faire gaffe Meaning

This is one French expression which certainly comes in handy in every day life as we face life many hazards 🤞

Now what do you think is the signification of this popular French expression in English: let’s have a look at the picture :

a banana 🍌
Somebody walking towards it ! What do you think happens next ?

Two French words :
 “faire” = to do
“gaffe” = a mistake

It literally means “to do a mistake” ?!?

And incredibly, if you are walking in the street towards a banana skin, some helpful people might tell you : “Fais gaffe”

To understand this popular French idiom, let’s have a look at its origin

Faire gaffe Origin

The actual “gaffe” comes from the nautical world. It does exactly what it shows on the picture above. The gaffe is a thus long pole with a hook, which allows sailors to catch a mooring buoy, hold on to another boat or push back an obstacle. 😜

But this is not today’s meaning, to understand today’s meaning of ‘faire gaffe’, we need to look at my favourite cartoon character !

Faire gaffe Illustration with a cartoon character

Yes Gaston Lagaffe, as it names indicates is a ‘gaffer’. He is probably the Belgian equivalent of Mr Bean. He does nothing else but blunders all day long !

Yes the first meaning of “faire gaffe” is to make a mistake !

Maybe these people handling the “gaffe” were not that agile after all, maybe this is where this French expression comes from ! 🤣

Faire gaffe Translation in English

I think that a suitable translation for this quite extraordinary French expression would be :

Note that there is a distinction between :
“faire gaffe” = to pay attention
faire une gaffe” = to do a blunder

Faire gaffe French examples

Here you can find a few examples to illustrate this fine French idiom :

Or this way, as an infinitive verb :

Voilà, this was today’s French idiom in English, I hope you liked it. Click here to find out about the challenge of 50 French idioms in English.

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