The Great German Superlative- Sau
A Sou is a colloquial French word which can translate to penny, money or cents
The most common introduction to the word sou is when someone is penniless and they will say “Je n’ai pas de sou“. I don’t have a penny/cent. The currency sou has not been in use for many centuries so, mnay foreigners might not know what a sou is. The word is a derivation from the former Roman currency a solidus. The word continued to be used as a coin in France and changed form many times until it reached its current form. When the French currency was decimalised and changed to Francs, the word fell out of official use. From that time on the sou continued to be used colloquially meaning a coin of little or small value.
English: Denarius featuring emperor Marcus Aurelius (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In Quebec, the word sou is still used colloquially for cents, and the quarter dollar(30 cents) is known as trente sous.
Some common sayings with sou are:
Grippe-sou- scrooge
Pique sou- scrooge
Il est un tel pique sou, il ne m’a meme pas un peu de pourboire- He’s such a scrooge, he didn’t even give me a tip
ne pas couter un sou- not cost a penny/dime
Ça ne m’as pas couter un sou. It didn’t cost me a penny
Propre comme un sou neuf- shiny as a new penny
Sans le sou- no money at all
Other uses and sayings of the word sou:
Sou par sou- literally penny by penny or bit by bit
Je vais le rebatir sou par sou- I’ll rebuild it bit by bit
Un sou est des sous- every penny counts
Pas un sou en poche- not a penny in the pocket
Pas veinard pour un sou- to be down on your luck
English: 1958 10 French Francs coin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When it comes to other money matters click the link to have a look at our other French Slang pages. Otherwise you might have some other sayings regarding the word sou
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