English translation of "ne fit pas de quoi avoir du beurre sur son pa" - "He hardly made enough money to put bread on the table."

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90 months ago

Barbara R. Cochran (a guest user) asked this question:

Language pair:	French > English
Subject:	General
Level of diffculty:	Easy / medium
Word or term in question:	ne fit pas de quoi avoir du beurre sur son pa
Context:	En effet, il se donnait un mal di cinque diables, bien qu'il ne fit pas, malgré les propos du monde, de quoi avoir seulement du beurre sur son pain.

Important This question has already been answered and rated. Therefore, no new answers can be given.

Complete list of answers and comments

90 months ago

Marie-Claire wrote:

He hardly made enough money to put bread on the table.

My comment:

I tried to keep the bread expression. Does it work in English? Native speakers?

The asker rated this answer best

90 months ago

martynback wrote:

He worked himself to the bone, although despite what people said he made hardly enough to put butter on his bread.

90 months ago

martynback wrote:

although, despite what people might say, he was not content with putting jam on the bread.

My comment:

Il semble y avoir des erreurs dans le contexte: l'expression courante est "un mal de tous les diables"; ensuite il faut écrire "bien qu'il ne fît pas" (accent circonflexe sur le "i") car c'est un subjonctif passé.

Comments by other colleagues on this answer:

90 months ago

vera_cj wrote:

Although he went through the depths of hell, he didn't make enough to earn a better living.

90 months ago

martynback wrote:

"il ne fit pas de quoi avoir seulement du beurre sur son pain" means that despite his efforts he didn't make much money. It wasn't that he wasn't content with it - he couldn't manage it.

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