Cut the whistle
Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2025 6:46 am
Hello, dear friend! Thank you for joining me for this new episode of the podcast. Today, we will study together the French idiom “couper le sifflet”.
First of all, as usual, I remind you that you can go to the description of this episode to download your free PDF file which includes the explanations of the words, the meaning of the expression, its origin and the examples used in this podcast. So, here we go. You click on the link, you put your address and you immediately receive your PDF file.
So, this expression "couper le sifflet" is not necessarily very widespread. French speakers use it of course, so it is interesting for you to know it, to understand it, but it is not an expression that we hear every day. That being said, we move on to explaining each of the words "couper le sifflet". We will look at "couper" and we will study "sifflet".
The verb "to cut" means to divide an element that is solid, to divide it into several parts. Often, we can slice to separate and this can be done by hand or with an instrument. That is the literal iraq whatsapp number data meaning. For example, we can cut a piece of bread. I take some bread, I put it on the table, and with a knife, I cut it. So, I have a piece of bread, I cut it, I get two smaller pieces.
We can obviously cut off lots of other things, lots of other objects. And another meaning, a slightly more figurative meaning of the word "cut", is to interrupt. Cutting off someone, for example, or cutting them off, doesn't mean that we're cutting off a human being, it means that we're interrupting them. So, if I'm talking and you're talking at the same time, well, we say that you're cutting me off, you're interrupting me.
The word "whistle", the literal meaning, is a small instrument that makes a very high-pitched sound. For example, football referees, they have a whistle. They put it in their mouth and when they blow into it, it goes: "Triiiiiit". Of course I imitate the whistle very badly, but you get the idea, it's a small instrument that makes a very high-pitched sound. I took the example of the football referee. Sometimes, the police use a whistle. The idea is to attract someone's attention by blowing into this object and it ultimately allows you to attract someone's attention. We use whistles in the army too, etc.
First of all, as usual, I remind you that you can go to the description of this episode to download your free PDF file which includes the explanations of the words, the meaning of the expression, its origin and the examples used in this podcast. So, here we go. You click on the link, you put your address and you immediately receive your PDF file.
So, this expression "couper le sifflet" is not necessarily very widespread. French speakers use it of course, so it is interesting for you to know it, to understand it, but it is not an expression that we hear every day. That being said, we move on to explaining each of the words "couper le sifflet". We will look at "couper" and we will study "sifflet".
The verb "to cut" means to divide an element that is solid, to divide it into several parts. Often, we can slice to separate and this can be done by hand or with an instrument. That is the literal iraq whatsapp number data meaning. For example, we can cut a piece of bread. I take some bread, I put it on the table, and with a knife, I cut it. So, I have a piece of bread, I cut it, I get two smaller pieces.
We can obviously cut off lots of other things, lots of other objects. And another meaning, a slightly more figurative meaning of the word "cut", is to interrupt. Cutting off someone, for example, or cutting them off, doesn't mean that we're cutting off a human being, it means that we're interrupting them. So, if I'm talking and you're talking at the same time, well, we say that you're cutting me off, you're interrupting me.
The word "whistle", the literal meaning, is a small instrument that makes a very high-pitched sound. For example, football referees, they have a whistle. They put it in their mouth and when they blow into it, it goes: "Triiiiiit". Of course I imitate the whistle very badly, but you get the idea, it's a small instrument that makes a very high-pitched sound. I took the example of the football referee. Sometimes, the police use a whistle. The idea is to attract someone's attention by blowing into this object and it ultimately allows you to attract someone's attention. We use whistles in the army too, etc.