This expression is for the French grandmas who can sleep through anything.
Why do I need to know dormir le cul dans l’eau?
Because you might hear this expression while sipping your morning coffee.
What does it mean?
Dormir le cul dans l’eau – roughly pronounced door-meer luh cool dahn low – translates as ‘to sleep with your arse in the water’.
It does not literally mean that you’ve fallen asleep in a puddle. It’s meant to be a dramatic way to describe sleeping very deeply – so deeply you’d stay asleep even if your bum was soaking wet.
It’s similar to saying ‘I could sleep anywhere’ or ‘I’m a deep sleeper’ or ‘I could sleep through an earthquake’.
For example, you might be staying at a French friend’s house and you ask, As-tu bien dormi? (Did you sleep well?). They might reply Bah oui. Moi, je peux dormir le cul dans l’eau. (Yes. I could fall asleep anywhere).
The expression is more commonly used by older people – don’t expect to hear it from a 20 or 30-something. You also would not hear it in a formal setting or when speaking to someone you don’t know, as it’s quite casual.
You might also hear a slightly more formal version – dormir le derrière dans l’eau, which replaces the word cul (arse, bum) with the slightly more polite word derrière (behind or bottom).
If you want an expression you could use in formal settings or with people you don’t know, you can instead say dormir comme un bébé (to sleep like a baby).
Use it like this
Je suis content de dormir sur le canapé. Je peux dormir le cul dans l’eau. Ne t’inquiète pas. – I don’t mind sleeping on the couch. I can fall asleep basically anywhere, don’t worry.
La télé ne m’a pas empêché de dormir la nuit dernière. Tu me connais, moi je peux dormir le cul dans l’eau. – The TV didn’t keep me awake last night. You know me – I can sleep through anything
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