Neither head nor tail

Frank C.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Neither head nor tail

The English states "... neither head nor tail".  If one translates this to  "...ni tête ni queue", it is not accepted.  Instead "ni queue ni tête" is the only accepted translation, which seems to be an error.  Do you agree?

Asked 2 months ago
Maarten K.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor Correct answer

Frank, 

this is simply a matter of colloquial usage. The expression in French is ‘ n’avoir ni queue ni tête ‘. 

Just as in English it sounds strange ( to me anyway ) to say ‘ neither tail nor head ‘, it sounds strange in French to rearrange the word order of the expression. 

Not grammatically incorrect, but at C1 level in particular one of the aims is to use expressions ‘ like a native speaker ‘.

https://www.wordreference.com/fren/n%2527avoir%2520ni%2520queue%2520ni%2520t%C3%AAte 

https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/queue/65669#locution

Frank C. asked:

Neither head nor tail

The English states "... neither head nor tail".  If one translates this to  "...ni tête ni queue", it is not accepted.  Instead "ni queue ni tête" is the only accepted translation, which seems to be an error.  Do you agree?

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