Translation of "to have a sweet tooth"

Question

Is "avoir un bec sucré" too much of an anglisism ?

Céline Pickard · Accepted Answer

Bonjour Frank,
Neither Aurélie nor I are familiar with this expression, most likely because it is "une expression québécoise". But, Le Larousse dictaionary does include it. So, it has now been added as an alternative. However, if you were to use it in France, people might not necessarily know what you mean.
Merci de cotre contribution !
Bonne journée !

Maarten Kamp · Answer

My wife ( French ) had never heard it used as ‘ avoir un bec sucré ‘ either, although she was familiar with the term itself ( in the sense noted by Larousse online ). She thought the ‘ avoir… ‘ sounded like an anglicisme, and the term ‘ bec sucré ‘ is not commonly used anyway.

The use of ‘ bec sucré ‘ listed in Larousse online translates as referring to ‘ someone who likes sweet/sugary foods ‘ . That is it translates as ‘ someone is a sweet tooth ‘, not to say that someone ‘ has a sweet tooth ‘. The same for wordreference from French to English.

Given this, the French would be ‘qqn être (un) bec sucré ‘, not ‘ qqn avoir un bec sucré ‘.

I chose not to use it as there are more commonly used colloquial expressions.

https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/anglais-francais/sweet_tooth/616581

https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/bec/8545

https://www.wordreference.com/fren/bec%2520sucr%C3%A9