La plume de ma tante (phrase)

La plume de ma tante ("my aunt's quill") is a phrase in popular culture, attributed to elementary French language instruction (possibly as early as the 19th century) and used as an example of grammatically correct phrases with limited practical application that are sometimes taught in introductory foreign language texts. As Life magazine said in 1958, "As every student knows, the most idiotically useless phrase in a beginner's French textbook is la plume de ma tante (the pen of my aunt)." The phrase is also used to refer to something deemed completely irrelevant. The term lent its name to the musical play La Plume de Ma Tante, which won a Tony Award in 1959.

The phrase is also used in teaching and remembering the sounds of the French vowel a; La plume de ma tante contains three instances of a that use two different pronunciations. Other limited-use phrases used as pronunciation guides include: Le petit bébé est un peu malade ("the little baby is slightly ill"), which contains six variants of e, and Un bon vin blanc ("a good white wine"), which contains four nasal vowels.

The phrase's French converse is , the first in the original English guide from French publisher Assimil.

See also
My postillion has been struck by lightning

References

Category:French words and phrases
Category:Language education