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French Expression of the Day: Avoir la dalle

The Local France
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French Expression of the Day: Avoir la dalle
Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

This French expression is a cool way to say that you're ready to be fed.

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Why do I need to know avoir la dalle?

It's one of those French expressions that are a bit too cool for school (in the sense that you won't learn them there), but that you will undoubtedly encounter when living in France.

What does it mean?

Avoir la dalle - roughly pronounced ah-vwar lah dahl - is slang for 'I'm very hungry'. Normally, people say j'ai très faim to describe feeling famished, but this is a more colloquial way to go about it.

As such, you wouldn't hear a fancy French lady say j'ai la dalle

The origin of the phrase goes back to medieval times, and it has nothing to do with the Indian lentil dish (that is spelled dal, not dalle).

The French word dalle was first used in the 14th century, when it was a term for ‘mouth’ or 'throat', according to the French web dictionary l’Internaute.

The expression avoir la dalle came much later, sometime during the 19th century.

Another expression including dalle is avoir la dalle en pente, which means being able to drink a lot of alcohol. You might also hear someone say crever la dalle, which also means 'I'm starving'.

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Aside from using the word dalle, the French language has several other ways to describe being hungry. You can also try the expression crever de faim (also quite colloquial), or the less informal options of mourir de faim (dying of hunger) and avoir un faim de loup (hungry as a wolf). 

Use it like this

J’ai la dalle, on va bouffer? - I’m starving, let’s eat?

J'ai la dalle, je vendrais ma grand-mère pour un tic-tac - I'm so hungry, I'd sell my grandmother for a Tic-Tac.

On va faire du sport? Non, j'ai trop la dalle - Let's work out? No, I'm too hungry.

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