This question was closed without grading. Reason: Other
Feb 1, 2018 17:17
6 yrs ago
English term

count the peas in someone\'s plates

English to French Other Idioms / Maxims / Sayings
All you are saying is completely wrong. It is even exactly the opposite.
I am not "counting the peas in your plate", are you?
It is wrong to say I did not accept the split in two in my classes, I did not have the information at that time.
Proposed translations (French)
4 chercher des poux dans la tête

Discussion

katsy Feb 2, 2018:
It would be nice to have more context - who is talking to whom about what? Fictional text? transcript? etc. This is an expression I have never heard, and like previous contributors to the discussion I can only guess (hence the above request for context). My feeling on reading is "I am not looking to see if you have the tiniest advantage" over me".... I'd be tempted to use the expression "comptes d'apothicaire", but until I feel surer of the context I am unwilling to post.
Tony M Feb 2, 2018:
@ Jane Possibly, yes — though i get the impression that the notion of 'counting peas' probably means 'looking in quite unnecessary detail at something'; possibly even with the idea of looking for some supposed unfairness: "It's not fair, you've got TWO more peas than I have!"
Jane F Feb 2, 2018:
Maybe ..... je m'occupe pas de tes oignons
B D Finch Feb 1, 2018:
Where is this from? Could this be a text from a country where English is a second language or lingua franca? If so, the expression might be local to that country.
HERBET Abel Feb 1, 2018:
Je ne vous cherche pas des poux dans la tête
Une idée
Jasa Pipan Feb 1, 2018:
@ Asker: is the person in the text counting the peas on his/her own plate or on somebody else's plate? Because if it is the former, I understand this to mean a characteristic of somebody that is either very picky or very meticulous (usually we just shuffle peas in our mouths, we don't exactly count how many there is ... well, at least I don't :)).
If that is the case, I would translate it as "Je ne suis pas tatillon, et toi?"
A♠T (asker) Feb 1, 2018:
Serait-ce "se mêler des affaires de quelqu'un" ?

Proposed translations

8 hrs

chercher des poux dans la tête

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