The French have a very special relationship with cows, a kind of entente cordiale where it is agreed that in exchange for milk to make excellent cheeses, cows occupy a special place in French culture, especially in popular expressions, slang and the humor.

French TV cheese ads show pampered cows getting massages from the farmer, while children’s books show cheeky cows laughing when someone accidentally steps on one of their berets.

Even if you’re just getting started in French, it’s a good idea to learn some expressions that are commonly used in the French language, so let’s take a look at some that involve the animal that holds a special place in the hearts of the French, the cow.

The French word for ‘cow’ is cow, from Latin vacca. I haven’t found any English words related to it, the Germanic word ‘cow’ seems to suffice for us.

Being such a large animal, it has an impressive bladder, so in French you can say It’s raining cats and dogs, that is, ‘it’s raining like a cow pissing’. It is the French equivalent of ‘rain of cats and dogs’.

However, not being noted for their language skills, cows are also mentioned in an expression about someone who speaks a foreign language poorly. He speaks French like a Spanish cow. – ‘speaks French like a Spanish cow’. If Spanish humans were victims of this type of racist stereotype, I am terrified to think what the consequences would be. Unfortunately, the Spanish cows, unable to string together a coherent sentence in French, have never been able to defend themselves.

French financial journalists sometimes refer to economic downturns as “lean periods” (skinny cows). This is a reference to the Biblical account of Joseph (of Technicolor dreamcoat fame) who interpreted Pharaoh’s dream of seven fat cows and seven lean cows as periods of prosperity and famine respectively.

There is, paradoxically, a negative use of the word cow. As an adjective, it means an unpleasant, disagreeable person: he is cow – ‘he is unpleasant’. It only took one nasty cow to spoil it for everyone else…

Finally, you can simply say ‘cow!as a kind of exclamation. Say it when you are surprised, shocked, or angry. Also, you can make it an adverb: It’s so good means, ‘it’s terribly good’.

So the next time you’re in France, you can apologize for your level of French, talk about the rain that “persists”, talk about the US economy and curse your bad luck, all while referring to our bovine friends!