French Phrase of the Day: Se faire sucrer
Not such a sweet experience.
Because this sounds like it would herald something nice - but in fact, you probably want to avoid this type of experience.
Se faire sucrer - roughly pronounced suh fair soo-cray (listen here ) - translates as ‘to be sweetened’ or ‘to be sugared’, but the real meaning is not so sweet.
Technically, you can sugar your coffee by saying Je l’ai sucré (I added sugar), but this verb has another meaning too.
Se faire sucrer (or occasionally just sucrer ) is actually French slang meaning to ‘take something away’ or ‘scrap something’. It is a bit old-fashioned, and by some estimates, may date back to at least the 19th century (if not earlier).
As such, you might hear your older French neighbour complain about a television program being cancelled - L’émission a été sucrée.
Sucrer can also refer to things literally being taken. If your other neighbour had his licence taken away after too many traffic violations, you could say: Il s'est fait sucrer son permis après avoir commis trop d'infractions au code de la route.
Perhaps surprisingly, sugar has not always enjoyed a positive connotation in French, though it’s not exactly clear as to why.
Another expression - casser le sucre sur le dos de quelqu’un (to break sugar on someone’s back) - means to badmouth someone. In this case, sugar replaced ‘wood’ (the expression once was ‘to break wood on someone’s back). The theory here is that in the 17th and 18th centuries, sugar would have come in the form of a large block as hard as wood, which needed to be broken apart before it could be used as a sweetener.
And finally, another older version of se faire sucrer means ‘to be stopped by the police’. This was more commonly used in the mid-20th century, but you might still hear it on occasion.
Ils ont sucré la prime à tous les travailleurs qui la méritaient. C'est absolument ridicule ! - They have taken away the bonus from all the workers who deserved it. It's absolutely ridiculous!
À cause du fisc, je me suis fait sucrer presque tous mes revenus cette année. - The taxman has taken almost all of my income this year.
