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Trust you to be punctual, turning up well into a meeting!

This colloquial expression is used here to point out sarcastically that he has arrived with typical punctuality; he can be predictably trusted to be always late for an appointment.

This is where AmE speakers might say "Leave it to you to be punctual, ..." instead, I suppose? How do French speakers commonly express this idea?

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  • I guess you mean "he can be predictably trusted to be always early for an appointment" ? There is a bit of a contradiction with the example.
    – Greg
    Commented Aug 24, 2018 at 11:27
  • @Greg No, that is the opposite! This is a sarcastic statement, as indicated by the words in italics. :) This colloquial expression is almost always used to refer to someone's chronic bad habit. Commented Aug 24, 2018 at 11:42

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Some common phrases may express the same idea:

Comme d'habitude

Comme toujours

Fidèle à toi/vous/lui/elle-même

Fidèle à ma/ta/sa réputation

So in your example:

Comme d'habitude, tu es à l'heure

Comme toujours, tu es à l'heure

Fidèle à toi-même, tu es à l'heure

Fidèle à ta réputation, tu es à l'heure

The first two are more common, the last two are more "sophisticated", and may be used with a sarcastic tone (especially if used to point out a negative habit with some irony).

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  • Aussi: Je vois qu'on peut toujours compter toi pour être à l'heure !
    – jlliagre
    Commented Aug 24, 2018 at 11:27
  • @jlliagre Yes, something along those lines. I was wondering if French speakers use some fixed structure for this, just like "Trust you to ..." in English. Commented Aug 24, 2018 at 11:50
  • There is also ...on peut te faire confiance pour... which is close to your first sentence.
    – jlliagre
    Commented Aug 24, 2018 at 11:55
  • I strongly doubt à l'heure prévue would be understood as being sarcastic. Maybe tu te pointes à l'heure qui te plait, trente minutes... or tu débarques comme ça, trente minutes après...
    – jlliagre
    Commented Sep 1, 2018 at 23:43
  • @jlliagre Sorry, I haven't made myself perfectly clear. What I wanted to ask you is whether the two phrases in bold work well as the equivalents of the idiomatic English expression "Trust you to do ...!". I only meant "à l'heure (prévue)" as a secondary point. Commented Sep 2, 2018 at 15:33

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