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Is there any French equivalent for when people say something like “X much?”

It works like this:

Someone keeps stumbling clumsily or walking into things so you might say “Wow, walk much?”

It doesn’t mean “Do you walk a lot?” but rather ”You can’t walk at all” or ”Can you even walk?”

Another example:

Someone could be eating a salad and they start to choke on it a little so someone might say “Swallow much?” which is really just saying “You definitely can’t swallow that” or ”Don’t forget to swallow!”

It’s a very sarcastic remark that’s pretty common so I was wondering if there was any French phrases that could be used as an equivalent?

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    I'm noticing you're asking a lot of question about colloquial stuff and some don't quite fit the guidelines of SE, feel free to hit my mail to ask for anything you can't ask here :) I'd be happy to answer your questions! Jun 11, 2019 at 9:38
  • wow, really? thank you so much, that would be wonderful!!! Jun 11, 2019 at 14:35

4 Answers 4

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I don't think there are a perfect translation.

You can use "Apprends à X". But it can be a little mean, so use it carefully.

You can use it with good friend when they fail to do something simple.

Exemples :

"Apprends à macher"

"Apprends à manger"

"Apprends à marcher"

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    Oh you're right, I've forgotten that.. but I think it's more childish even really nasty ^^" "use it carrefully" is definitly a good advice !
    – purerstamp
    Jun 4, 2019 at 13:58
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It's quite interesting but I'm pretty sure we don't have such a "generic" expression or phrase to say so.

For you example with salad, we may say (with sarcasm) something like:

Eh t'étouffes pas hein !

For the fisrt one, you may hear:

Regarde où tu mets les pieds quand tu marches !

So as you can see, there is no ordinary expression like the use of "much" as you explained. You might use common expressions we usualy use depending on the context.

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The expression that most closely resembles in meaning and form, in my opinion, would be "ça t'arrive de X?". For example:

Ouah, ça t'arrive de marcher ?

Dis, ça t'arrive de mâcher ?

It will be used with the same sarcastic undertone as "X much" in English and means the same thing.

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Davantage inspiré du sens que de la morphologie :

Sais-tu c'est quoi/ce que c'est que/ce qu'est/qu'est-ce que c'est (que)...
Sais-tu (même)(comment)...
Es-tu (même) capable de/d'...

...marcher/avaler/manger etc.

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  • Je pense que cette réponse nécessite quelques clarifications, quitte à faire plusieurs phrases.
    – purerstamp
    Jun 4, 2019 at 20:33
  • « Sais-tu c'est quoi », vraiment ?
    – Toto
    Jun 5, 2019 at 7:39
  • C'est l'association de « sais-tu » et « c'est quoi » qui m'écorche un peu les oreilles. Mais je dois dire que je ne suis pas très au courant de ce type de langage. C'est peut-être vieilli mais j'utilise « Sais-tu ce que c'est que ... »
    – Toto
    Jun 5, 2019 at 8:02
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    @Toto Ah, d'accord. C'est certainement pas un truc formel. Je trouve 10k+ hits sur le moteur de recherche, par exemple sais-tu c'est quoi le problème, le pire, une promesse ? etc. Probablement régional alors. Plusieurs des questions de ce contributeur traitent de formulations ou d'expressions assez informelles ou populaires à l'oral en anglais. Je puise spontanément davantage dans ma tradition orale, plutôt que dans celle plus régulière de l'écrit, d'où ces tournures et le lexique.
    – user19187
    Jun 5, 2019 at 8:22

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