When one thing occurs at precisely the suitable second, it is form of like chest hair in France.
Why do I have to know pile-poil?
Because this expression is as exact as you will get in France.
What does it imply?
Pile-poil – roughly pronounced peel pwahl – is a standard expression that consists two French phrases: pile (precisely) and poil (the hair you may have in your physique, not in your head, which is cheveux). The direct translation is subsequently ‘exactly-body hair’, which sounds nonsensical.Â
But it is just about just like the English expression ‘by a hair’s breadth’, because it means ‘precisely’ or ‘exactly’ in most settings.
And similar to ‘by a hair’s breadth’, pile-poil signifies a component of unlikely perfection.Â
It will be about time, say if one thing occurring precisely on the proper second. If you have been invited to a cocktail party at 8pm and arrive at 8pm, tu es arrivée pile-poil à l’heure – you arrived proper on time.
But it can be that one thing is an ideal bodily match: la télé est rentrée pile-poil dans la porte – the telly match by way of the door by a hair’s breadth.
Often will probably be mixed with the verb tomber (to fall): ça tombe pile-poil au bon second means one thing occurred on the good second.
It’s a considerably colloquial expression, and generally will probably be shortened to simply pile. If you might be searching for some synonyms for this expression, you may say précisément which suggests exactly, or exactement which suggests precisely.
(Pile may also imply ‘battery’, however that is in a special context.)
Use it like this
Elle est arrivée pile-poil au second où on allait partir. – She arrived precisely after we have been going to go away.
On a déménagé tout seuls donc ça a pris tout le week-end. Heureusement le frigo passait pile-poil dans les escaliers ! – We moved home on our personal so it took all weekend. Luckily the fridge fitted up the staircase by a hair’s breadth!
