Vouloir le beurre et l’argent du beurre? Et en anglais?
The French expression we choose this time is “vouloir le beurre et l’argent du beurre”. This literally means to want the butter and the butter money. In English the equivalent expression is “to want the cake and eat it.” How funny that to express this situation both the French and English languages use food as an illustration.
Even more interesting is that the English expression can be found way back in history, even in a letter dated 1538 to Thomas Cromwell. Over the centuries this English expression has remained and can in our contemporary world be heard often when there is a difficult choice to be made.
But in France the expression “vouloir le beurre et l’argent du beurre” is directly related to dairy farming, and it seems that the expression dates back to the early 19th century.
Et voilà! Now you have a useful expression for your next trip abroad.
