Hello everyone! Thanks for joining me for this new episode of the Français Authentique podcast. And like every Sunday, I'm going to explain the meaning of a French idiomatic expression, namely "être sur les dents". I hope you'll like it.
Before we begin, a little reminder. I wanted to inform you or re-inform you that you could join the free newsletter of Français Authentique . You have the link in the description of this episode, it's the first link, and you will receive exclusive content every week. That's it for this information. You can do it right now. It's the first link in the description. That being said, that being done, we can move on to today's episode and the explanation of this expression "être sur les dents".
The verb "to be" is one of the most basic, best-known verbs in the French language. It means to have a reality, to exist, the verb "to be".
"On" to something and that thing is lower. If I'm on a chair, well the chair is lower, it's under me. If I'm on it, it's under me. So the "on" marks a position relative to something that is lower.
And teeth, that's it, huh. You spain whatsapp number data won't see, but you'll hear, I'm going to tap on my teeth. It's a hard organ that is found in the mouths of humans and many animals and that allows us to chew, quite simply. Teeth allow us to chew food. That's the meaning of these different words.
As for the origin of the expression, "être sur les dents", it's not 100% clear. There could be several explanations. One of them would be that an animal that is used for work and that gets tired tends to lean on its face to rest and therefore on its teeth. And it's by extension, it seems that men too could rest their face on a table or a desk to rest. So they would put their face, their teeth, on a desk to rest when they get tired, a bit like animals, a horse for example that gets tired, that rests on its head and therefore on its teeth. That would be an explanation of the origin of the expression.
Because this expression, "to be on edge", we use it to mean to be... so it can be "to be overworked", when you have too much work, to be very tense or to be very angry. But in general, when we say that someone is on edge, we mean that they are very angry, that they are very tense. In general, that's what it means.
For example, the first thing that would come to mind is: He really needs a vacation, he's starting to get on edge. So that means he tends to be tired, overworked, and so he gets angry very easily, he's very tense, he's on edge.
Another meaning or another example rather: I hope she won't see that I damaged the car, she'll be on edge. So I damaged the car, I want to hide it, which is not a good idea, I think, because I tell myself that the owner of the car will be very angry, very tense, when she sees that I damaged her car. They say that she will be on edge.
Last example, at work: The meeting this morning was a disaster. Everybody is on edge today. That means everybody is upset, everybody is tense. And the reason for that is that everybody is overworked, everybody has too much work. And like a horse that is very tired and sits on its head, with its teeth forward, they do the same thing, they are overworked, tired, they sit their head down and we say figuratively that they are on edge, very tired, overworked, tense, upset.