Hi everyone! I hope you are well. I am super happy to be back with you for a new episode of the Français Authentique podcast. Last week, the podcast was about the expression " as if you were looking for a needle in a haystack ". Don't hesitate to listen later, if this expression intrigues you. We use it quite a bit in French. And by the way, if you like the podcast, if it is useful to you and you appreciate Français Authentique, then please give us a little boost by giving 5 stars on your favorite podcast app. It helps Français Authentique, but it also helps a lot of people who want to learn French. Thanks in advance anyway.
Let’s get back to our expression of the day which is “splitting hairs”.
So, the word "cut" is a verb that means to cut, to divide. And so, we use a sharp instrument to separate something: scissors, a knife, etc.
Hair, well it's what we have on our head, it's a set of "hairs" that grow on the head.
And “en quatre” means by four, it means dividing a hair into four finer parts.
Concerning the origin of this expression, well in the 17th century, we used to say "to split a hair in two" and that in the lengthwise direction. This expression expresses the idea of showing meticulousness for a futile result. In 1798, the task became even more difficult, we said that we split a hair in four. And it was only at the beginning of the 20th century that the expression took its form "to cut hairs in four".
So, in fact, it means being too meticulous, that is to say dwelling on insignificant details, on unimportant details, it means in fact wasting time on details instead of concentrating on the laos whatsapp number data essential things. There is a synonym for this expression, which is "to nitpick".
I'll give you three examples so that you can better contextualize the meaning of the expression.
First example: "Impossible to move forward with the project, my colleague keeps splitting hairs on everything". So, here, we understand that the person has a colleague who is quite difficult, perhaps too meticulous, and who dwells on unimportant details and who, as a result, wastes time and does not move the project forward.
Second example: "Never debate with Albert. Once he gets started, he can't stop. He loves splitting hairs." Here, we understand that the person is looking for difficulties, since we are told that he doesn't know how to stop. He must probably be too meticulous, he must probably go into details that are not important and, therefore, that makes the debate quite difficult.
Third example:
- Do you think it's salty enough? Should I add more sauce? And what do you think of the rice?
– The dish is perfect as it is. No need to split hairs.
In this example, we see that the person asks a lot of questions and focuses on details that are not really important here.
Now let's do a little pronunciation exercise. In the word "cheveu", there is an "e" that is generally not pronounced, which is between the "h" and the "v". We say "ch'veu" instead, or even "ch'feu" when we speak very quickly in French. There are other examples of silent "e" in words. So, I'm going to pronounce some of them and let you repeat after me.