Watch out for the rules about French verb 'tomber'

If you ever learned the rule about certain French verbs requiring être to create a past tense, you will know that ‘falling’ is one of these, so ‘I have fallen over’ literally becomes ‘I am fallen’ ('je suis tombée'). This is no judgement on your morals. 

You might hear someone say ‘Je suis tombée sur Fred hier,’ but there was probably no physical injury; they simply happened upon him, as we would say ‘I bumped into Fred’ or ‘I ran into Fred’. 

‘Tomber sur’ is used figuratively to say that you unintentionally came across or ran into something.

The first time I heard the expression ‘elle est tombée dans les pommes’ I was utterly bewildered: she fell into the apples? 

It simply means that she fainted or passed out, and no one quite knows why apples come into it, but I love the saying. 

You can also ‘tomber amoureux’ (fall in love) or ‘tomber d’accord’ (reach an agreement); but if someone tells you to let it fall (‘laisse tomber’) it’s their equivalent of ‘drop it’, so you need to stop talking. 

Read more: Learning French: what are the origins of au fur et à mesure and what does it mean?

At this time of year, when it is raining heavily, you will probably hear your neighbours remark ‘Mais qu’est-ce que ça tombe!’ 

While our school books taught us ‘il pleut’, the locals are far more likely to say ‘ça tombe’, which is similar to ‘it’s tipping down!’.

Finally, we have to mention a particular favourite, namely ‘ça tombe bien’ (literally, it falls well). 

This is used when something happens at just the right moment, for those cases of perfect timing. 

So when it is absolutely tipping down and, in a moment of serendipity, you bump into your friend who has an extra umbrella to lend you, you just might comment: ‘a tombe bien de tomber sur toi, Hélène, regarde comment ça tombe!’