un froid de canard - Mot du Jour

It’s freezing cold - French Expression

Part of Mots Du Jour | Vocabulary Lists

What does the French expression ‘un froid de canard’ mean? What does it sound like? How is it used in a sentence? Listen to Anne.

As the weather is getting colder and colder in France, I was thinking of that funny expression: un froid de canard. Literally, a cold of duck, a duck’s cold. un froid de canard means that it’s freezing cold. I think the expression comes from hunting ducks in the fall, when hunters stand in freezing waters for extended periods of time and they get frozen to the bones. un froid de canard, as many weather expressions, uses FAIRE, an irregular verb.

” Moi, j’reste pas là à m’geler dans la voiture, t’es malade. Il fait un froid de canard.”
“I’m not gonna stay here and freeze, you’re nuts. It’s freezing cold.”