What does “C’est un travail de Romain” mean in English?
The direct translation to this saying is “It’s a job for a Roman”
Like many idioms, the literal translation gives little information about the true meaning of this expression.
In English one would say “A hard slog”, or “A Herculean task”
Examples of “C’est un travail de Romain”
“Nous avons toujours su que le travail de la présidence autrichienne serait plutôt un travail de Romain”
“We always knew the Austrian Presidency would be a hard graft”
“Les traducteurs doivent avoir eu un travail de Romain”
“The translators must have had a tough job”
What is an idiomatic expression anyway?
It is a phrase that, when translated directly, doesn’t make sense in another language. For example “A dime a dozen.” Translated into another language directly that would make no sense. This example is used to communicate when something is very common and not hard to come by. Every language has idiomatic expressions, and some may argue that these are the expressions that REALLY make the language unique. Just memorizing vocabulary will not help you to learn these, you need to learn all of the idiomatic expressions.
For more idiomatic expressions and their meaning. Check out our blog!