Hello everyone! I hope you are well. I am super happy to be back with you today for a new episode of the Français Authentique podcast. Like every week, we are going to look at a new French idiomatic expression together. Last week, we looked at the expression " marcher sur des oeufs ". If you want to know a little more about the expression, don't hesitate to listen to last week's episode when you have time. Today, we are going to look at the expression "tous les chemins mènent à Rome".
But before we start, have you already signed up for Johan's free course, " 7 rules for speaking French without getting stuck "? So, it's a course that is very easily accessible and in which you will find exclusive content for your learning of French. The link to sign up is in the description, so don't hesitate, it's free and it will really allow you to start learning the French language.
So, here we go! We're going to start with the explanation of our expression of the day, "all roads lead to Rome". Let's start first with the explanation of the words in the expression.
So, "all" means each, any, all, without any exception.
“Path” is a passage, a way, a road for example.
“Mènent” is the verb “mener”, which means to lead from one place to another.
And finally, "in Rome", well it is the capital of Italy, of the Roman Empire, but also it is where the Vatican is located.
So, regarding the meaning of the expression. Well, originally, there are two explanations. Written in the 12th century by theologian Alain de Lille. So, this proverb would refer to the Christian italy whatsapp number data pilgrimages to Rome, the capital of the Catholic Church. And in the literal sense, it means that no matter where the pilgrim starts, well all the roads end up leading him to Rome. And in the spiritual sense, it means that whatever the difficulties, well believers will succeed in accessing God.
The other, more literal interpretation, refers to the immense road network of the Roman Empire. So, in fact, during antiquity, all the roads really led to Rome, really led to the capital, and they formed a star-shaped network that went from Rome to all the Italian provinces.
So the expression actually means that there are simply several ways to achieve the same goal.
So, I'm going to give you three examples, three different contexts, so that you understand the meaning of the expression a little better.
First example: "You work at the time you want, as long as you respect the deadlines. All roads lead to Rome." So here, we can clearly see that we are telling the person that they can do as they want, as long as the dates are respected, the deadlines are respected, that no matter how they do things, all roads lead to Rome, so they will reach their goal.
Second example: Mary criticized my way of cutting onions. I replied: "All roads lead to Rome."
So, there, in fact, it is to say that no matter how I cut my onions, once I put it in my preparation, there will be the taste of onion. It does not matter if it is cut into a square, a rectangle, a round, it is not important.
Third example: "Look, you both solved the riddle with different methods, which shows that all roads lead to Rome. When faced with a problem, keep in mind that there is not just one solution." So, here, the same, we can clearly see that these are two different paths and yet there is the same result. This is why we say that all roads lead to Rome.
We're going to move on to a little pronunciation exercise. So, you have to remember to make the connection between "menent" and "à Rome". So, I'm going to pronounce the connection and I'll give you time to repeat after me.
Lead to Rome.
And there you have it, the pronunciation exercise is over. I'm also done with the explanation of the expression.