0:00Hello everyone, I hope you are well.
0:04Welcome to this video, where we will see a French expression in a few minutes.
0:09Today, we will see an expression that was asked to me by a subscriber.
0:15This expression is "avoir du pain sur la planche".
0:19You asked me what this expression means, but also where it comes from.
0:25So we'll look at that together today.
0:30"Avoir du pain sur la planche" means that
0:31you have a lot of work to do, you have a lot of tasks to accomplish.
0:38For example, if you are organizing a
0:41party, you can say the guests are coming in an hour and I still have work to do.
0:49I have to decorate the room, bake a cake, make the cocktails and do my makeup.
0:57I still have a lot to do. I really have a lot of work to do.
1:03Here's some more context to help you understand.
1:07If you've just bought a new apartment or
1:10house and there's a lot of work to be done, you might say there's so much work
1:17to be done to make this apartment livable and pretty.
1:22We have to redo the kitchen, break down walls, repaint, decorate.
1:28It is sure that we have work to do.
1:32But where does this expression come from and why is it used in French?
1:37There are many stories around this expression.
1:41We'll have two together. The first story explains that the origin
1:45of this expression, to have bread on the board, goes back to the 19th century.
1:51As the peasants fed themselves with a lot
1:54of bread, it was essential to have sufficient reserves for the winter.
1:59And when we said we had work to do, it
2:02meant that we had enough reserves to see it through.
2:07So there's this metaphor between bread and tasks.
2:11So, it's not food reserves that we have anymore, but it's work reserves.
2:17So we still have a lot of work to do.
2:20The second explanation of the origin of
2:23this expression goes back to the same period.
2:26The judges gave rations of bread, portions
2:30to the criminals who were sentenced to do forced labor.
2:34So, their sentence was to work for the state, so to do forced labor.
2:41So, this expression could also come from there.
2:46To have to work, to receive bread rations,
2:50that presaged a rather difficult future with very hard work.