Poser un lapin: Meaning, Register, and Examples
Learn poser un lapin with a clear guide, natural French examples and English glosses, common mistakes, nuanced usage, and practical review.
You waited forty minutes at the café and they never came: French has a dedicated expression for that specific betrayal, and it involves a rabbit. Poser un lapin is everyday, mildly funny, and completely opaque if you translate it word by word.
The decision rule
Structure: poser un lapin à + person. « Il m'a posé un lapin » = he stood me up. The rabbit is never literal and the expression stays in informal registers.
Literal and natural meaning
The literal words are “put down a rabbit,” but that image does not help decode the modern meaning. Treat the expression as one lexical unit. Its defining features are a planned meeting, non-attendance, and usually a lack of warning; simply arriving late is not necessarily poser un lapin. A natural translation should reproduce the speaker’s purpose, not the surface image alone.
| Situation | Best form | Tone |
|---|---|---|
| poser un lapin | informal idiomatic use | familiar |
| clear neutral explanation | Ne pas venir is plain but may omit the broken commitment. | neutral |
| grammar frame | The construction is poser un lapin à quelqu’un. | structural |
| careful disagreement | state the exact issue | measured |
Register and tone
This is informal but not obscene. Friends may use it jokingly, or angrily if the absence caused real inconvenience. A clinic, employer, or customer-service team should normally describe the missed appointment directly rather than use the idiom. Imagine the same message addressed to a friend, a teacher, and a client; the relationship changes the best wording.
Grammar pattern
The construction is poser un lapin à quelqu’un. Object pronouns replace the à phrase: Il m’a posé un lapin; Ne leur pose pas de lapin. In the passé composé, poser takes avoir. The noun remains singular in the usual idiom. Learn the surrounding frame with the expression so that pronouns and complements remain stable when the sentence changes.
Examples by situation
The following examples move from an everyday use to nearby neutral alternatives. Notice who speaks, what happened, and how direct the judgement sounds.
Léo m’a posé un lapin devant le cinéma.
Léo stood me up outside the cinema.
Ne lui pose pas de lapin le jour de son entretien.
Don’t stand her up on the day of her interview.
La patiente ne s’est pas présentée au rendez-vous.
The patient did not attend the appointment.
Ils nous ont fait faux bond au dernier moment.
They let us down at the last minute.
J’ai attendu quarante minutes sans message.
I waited forty minutes without a message.
Common mistakes and when not to use it
Do not reverse the roles: in Paul a posé un lapin à Inès, Paul failed to appear and Inès waited. Do not use the idiom for any cancellation announced in advance. With a pronoun, keep the indirect-object form: il m’a posé…, not il a posé moi. A technically understandable phrase can still be wrong for the setting or can assign the roles incorrectly.
Tu crois qu’elle va encore te poser un lapin ?
Do you think she’ll stand you up again?
Le technicien a manqué le rendez-vous prévu.
The technician missed the scheduled appointment.
Alternatives with a different tone
Ne pas venir is plain but may omit the broken commitment. Ne pas se présenter au rendez-vous is factual and formal. Faire faux bond is idiomatic and can cover letting someone down more broadly, not only a romantic date. Select an alternative for its meaning rather than treating it as a cosmetic synonym.
Conversation workshop
Build a two-line exchange around poser un lapin: one speaker creates a situation where the expression is natural, and the second responds without repeating it. Then move the exchange into a more formal setting and replace the idiom with a precise description. Check who performs each action, which complement the grammar requires, and whether the emotional force still matches the relationship. A useful rewrite should change the wording and the social effect while preserving the basic event. Add a third version in reported speech, shifting pronouns and tense as needed. This reveals whether you know the construction itself or have memorised only one conversational line. Record the versions and listen for places where hesitation signals an insecure preposition, pronoun, or register choice.
Memory tip
Picture the empty chair belonging to the person after à. The subject leaves that person waiting. The direction of the disappointment fixes the grammar. Test the cue by producing a fresh sentence without copying the model.
Practice exercise
Describe a missed café meeting with both names, then replace the waiting person with me, lui, and nous. Rewrite the same event for a formal appointment record without using the idiom. Say both versions aloud and explain which audience makes each one appropriate.
Related reading
The related articles below develop neighbouring constructions and register choices. Revisit this expression later in a new situation so that it becomes usable rather than merely recognisable.
Frequently asked
Can it refer to a non-romantic meeting?
Yes. It applies to many agreed meetings, not only dates.
Does a warned cancellation count?
Usually no; the idiom suggests failure to appear without adequate warning.
Is faire faux bond identical?
It overlaps, but can describe letting someone down in a broader range of commitments.
Which person follows à?
The person who was left waiting follows à.
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