French Expression of the Day: Ça passe ou ça casse
ça passe ou ça casse
?
Because it's useful to emphasise when an event - whether it's your French citizenship interview or a global summit - is really very important.
What does it mean?
Ça passe ou ça casse
– usually pronounced sah pass oo sah kass – literally translates to 'it goes or it breaks.'
In practice, this French phrase has several equivalent English expressions (maybe anglophones really like living on the edge): 'Make or Break,' 'Sink or Swim' and 'Do or Die.'
Advertisement
It's used to describe a situation where everything feels like it is hanging in the balance, with the potential outcome being uncertain, but very important.
You might see this phrase in newspapers when an important summit or parliamentary vote is approaching, but it's more commonly a phrase that you'll hear spoken aloud, especially in sports commentary.
It's slightly colloquial but not offensive and there are few situations where it would be inappropriate.
It's even the title of a few popular French songs, including the title of an album by the French singer Frédéric Lerner.
Use it like this
Je prépare mon examen de conduite depuis si longtemps, et c'est la seule date disponible pour passer l'examen au cours des prochains mois. Ça passe ou ça casse.
– I have been preparing for my driving test for so long, and this is the only date available for months to come. It's do or die.
Ils négocient les propositions sur la crise climatique depuis des mois, sans succès. Ce sommet sera une affaire de "ça passe ou ça casse".
– They have been negotiating the propositions for the climate crisis for months to no avail. This summit is going to be a make or break situation.
A l'approche des Alpes, ça passe ou ça casse pour Jonas Vingegaard
- As they approach the Alps, it's make or break for Jonas Vingegaard
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euronews
4 hours ago
- Euronews
FKA Twigs and Shia LaBeouf agree to settle sexual battery lawsuit
Singer-songwriter FKA Twigs has agreed to a settlement with actor Shia LaBeouf over her long-running lawsuit for sexual battery, according to her lawyers. The 37-year-old English singer, whose real name is Tahliah Debrett Barnett, filed a request in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday to dismiss her case against her former boyfriend with prejudice, meaning she will not be able to refile the claims in the future. 'Committed to forging a constructive path forward, we have agreed to settle our case out of court", FKA Twigs and LaBeouf said in a joint statement issued by their attorneys on Tuesday. 'We wish each other personal happiness, professional success and peace in the future.' The details of the settlement remain confidential. FKA Twigs sued LaBeouf in 2020 for sexual battery, assault and intentional affliction of emotional distress during their relationship. The pair met in 2018 when FKA Twigs starred in 'Honey Boy', an autobiographical film about LaBeouf's upbringing as a child actor. After an initial 'charm offensive', the relationship turned into 'a living nightmare', with 'a continuous stream of verbal and mental abuse', the lawsuit said. FKA Twigs said the actor isolated her from her friends and family. The suit also detailed allegations of physical violence, including an instance in 2019 in which 'LaBeouf forcibly slammed Tahliah against his car and then strangled her.' The singer also accused LaBeouf of having knowingly given her a sexually transmitted disease. 'Shia LaBeouf hurts women He uses them. He abuses them, both physically and mentally', the lawsuit read. 'I have been abusive to myself and everyone around me for years', LaBeouf said in an email to the New York Times shortly after the suit was filed. 'I have a history of hurting the people closest to me. I'm ashamed of that history and am sorry to those I hurt.' He later denied all accusations of wrongdoing against FKA Twigs. In 2024, LaBeouf revealed that FKA Twigs was seeking $10 million in damages, the Guardian reported. His legal team claimed the figure was excessive and argued the singer 'appears to have increased her profile in the years after her relationship with Shia and her career appears to be thriving.' "While my client was led to believe that LaBeouf was on a path of taking responsibility and working a program, it is clear he intends his pattern of continuing to abuse the victim", FKA Twigs' lawyer responded at the time, according to the Guardian. The case dragged on for several years and was originally meant to go to trial last year, before it was postponed to September 2025.
Euronews
a day ago
- Euronews
Cattelan's ‘Comedian' banana eaten again at French museum in Metz
It's happened again. Someone walked into a museum, spotted Maurizio Cattelan's banana-taped-to-a-wall artwork, and decided to tuck in. This time, the setting was the Centre Pompidou-Metz in eastern France, where the infamous 'Comedian' (2019) has been on display since May as part of a major retrospective marking the museum's 15th anniversary. A visitor reportedly peeled the banana off the wall and ate it, before security 'rapidly and calmly intervened,' according to a statement from the museum on Friday. The gallery didn't seem especially bothered. 'The artwork was reinstalled a few minutes later,' it said, adding that the banana is a perishable item and is 'regularly replaced according to instructions from the artist.' Cattelan, never one to miss an opportunity for deadpan commentary, told French news agency AFP he was disappointed the visitor hadn't fully committed. 'Instead of eating the banana with its skin and duct tape, the visitor just consumed the fruit,' he said, adding that they had 'confused the fruit for the work of art.' This is at least the fourth time 'Comedian' has been consumed since its debut at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019, where it made headlines and prompted eye-rolls in equal measure. The original version was sold for $120,000 (€103,000) by Galerie Perrotin – and not long after, performance artist David Datuna plucked it from the wall and ate it, saying he was simply 'hungry.' Since then, 'Comedian' has become one of the most talked-about – and eaten – pieces of conceptual art in recent memory. In 2023, an art student at Seoul National University helped themselves to the banana during a Cattelan show at the Leeum Museum of Art, also citing hunger. And in 2024, Chinese tech entrepreneur Justin Sun bought an edition of the work at Sotheby's for $6.24 million (€5.3 million), then ate the banana at a press conference nine days later. A post shared by David Datuna (@david_datuna) Despite the snackable nature of the work, each sale includes a certificate of authenticity and detailed instructions for replacement – meaning what's on the wall is technically never the original banana, but part of the artwork's ongoing life cycle. 'For now, it is perhaps the most-eaten artwork of the last 30 years,' the Centre Pompidou-Metz quipped in its statement. So far, no police reports have been filed and no bans have been announced. For now, the fruit's back on the wall – and it may only be a matter of time before someone else gets peckish.
Local France
2 days ago
- Local France
American D-Day veteran and TikTok star dies aged 102
Towns in the French region of Normandy have been paying tribute to one of the lasting surviving veterans of the D-Day landings - Jake Larson, known to millions on social media due to his Story time with Papa Jake account, where he shared his memories of World War II. Larson was one of around 160,000 American soldiers who took part in the D-Day landings in northern France in 1944, landing on Omaha beach. His grand-daughter McKaela Larson announced that he had died aged 102 on July 17th, adding that he was "making jokes until the end". Advertisement Born on December 20th 1922 in Owatonna, Minnesota, Jake Larson joined the National Guard in 1938, lying about his age as he was only 15 at the time. In 1942, he was sent overseas and became an operations sergeant, later preparing plans for the Normandy landings. After D-Day he took part in the continued Allied campaign to liberate France and participated in the Battle of Ardennes. He regularly travelled to France to take part in the commemorations of the landings on June 6th, and had been awarded the Légion d'honneur by the French government. In recent years he began sharing his war stories, often told with humour, on a TikTok account which had 1.2 million followers. In 2023 he told Associated Press "I'm just a country boy. Now I'm a star on TikTok. I'm a legend! I didn't plan this, it just happened."
