Elle faisait étalage de ses talents.

Sentence Discussions French
#1
English Translation

She displayed her talents.

faire étalage de
péjoratif [démonstration]
© Larousse 2014

Larousse notes this phrase as pejorative, with a nuance such as flaunt or show off.

Here is one of the examples:
faire étalage de sa richesse | ses qualifications = to make sure everyone knows about one’s wealth | qualifications

Does that sound right? So if you said the Tatoeba sentence about someone, it would not be nice?

Elle affiche toujours un sourire joyeux.
#2

faire étalage

That’s how I think about it as well.

You may also hear:

  • “La culture, c’est comme la confiture, moins on en a, plus on l’étale.”
  • "Étaler sa science"

I guess the “neutral” equivalent would be “faire montre de”, which simply means, to show/demonstrate. It is not very commonly used though.

Montrer, démontrer, “faire (la) preuve de”, are more common and which one you would use would depend on context.

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#3

Many thanks! I’m sure you just saved me a bit of embarrassment.

It sounds very French, I love their understated way of saying things. Thanks for the other examples and the link. I did a bit of a double take, because I know people just like that. The French phrase is perfect for that.

It also gives me a clue how to behave while I’m in France. I don’t want anybody to say that I’m spreading my science!

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