You might hear this French expression over a meal, especially if you have a lot of food on your plate.
Why do I need to know avoir les yeux plus gros que le ventre?
This French expression is very common and often used during meals.
What does it mean?
The expression avoir les yeux plus gros que le ventre, roughly pronounced ah-vwar lay zhyuh plew gro kuh luh vahntr (listen here) translates to “to have eyes bigger than the stomach”. This a common expression in English-speaking countries too.
In reality, it means “to take more food than you can actually eat” or, more broadly, “to overestimate what you can handle”. It’s most commonly used with food, but can be used in other scenarios too to suggest someone has been too ambitious.
In this expression, the eyes are compared to the stomach as they are capable of seeing far more food than the stomach is actually capable of holding.
This expression dates back to the 15th century. French philosopher Montaigne is said to have popularised it in the 16th century in the form of avoir les yeux que grands que la panse (to have eyes bigger than one’s belly) in his essays. The word panse is old French for “belly”.
Use it like this
J’ai trop commandé au restaurant. J’ai eu les yeux plus gros que le ventre. – I over-ordered at the restaurant. My eyes were bigger than my belly.
Il a eu les yeux plus gros que le ventre avec ce projet. – He took on more than he could handle with that project.
En voulant mener toutes ces réformes en même temps, le président a eu les yeux plus gros que le ventre. – By trying to carry out all these reforms at once, the president was too ambitious.
