If you only learn one culinary verb in France, make it saucer. No, not “to abduct by UFO.” Saucer means to mop up every last molecule of sauce with bread. It’s the victory lap of a good meal, the encore after the encore. And yes, in Provence, it’s basically a love language.
What “saucer” actually means
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Saucer (v.): to wipe/mop up sauce with bread: saucer son assiette.
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Chef-y meaning: to coat/nap with sauce: saucer le poisson = to sauce the fish.
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Cousins to spot in the wild:
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Une saucière: a gravy boat (not a spaceship).
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Une saucée: a drenching (as in rain), not a pasta party.
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La soucoupe: a saucer (the dish under your cup). Cognate trap!
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Tiny conjugation corner (it’s friendlier than it looks)
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Je sauce / Tu sauces / Il/Elle sauce
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Nous sauçons (little cédille to keep it soft) / Vous saucez / Ils/Elles saucent
Etiquette survival guide (so your server still likes you)
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At home / casual bistro: Totally fine. Someone will eventually ask, “On sauce ?” (Are we mopping?) The correct answer is “Oui.”
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Fancy-fancy: If in doubt, spear a small piece of bread with your fork and mop discreetly. Tablecloth finger-painting = non.
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Don’t: Do not lick the plate. We know you want to. Be strong.
12 funny & useful examples (French + English)
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On sauce ? — We mopping?
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J’ai saucé mon assiette avec du pain. Zéro regret. — I mopped my plate with bread. Zero regrets.
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Tu veux du pain pour saucer ? — Want some bread for mopping?
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Le chef a bien saucé le poisson—c’est brillant. — The chef sauced the fish nicely—it’s glossy.
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Promis, je sauce et j’arrête. — I’ll mop and then I’m done. (Lies.)
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Laisse-moi saucer, c’est pour la science. — Let me mop, it’s for science.
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On partage la dernière goutte ? — Shall we split the last drop?
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J’ai résisté à l’envie de saucer… jusqu’à l’arrivée d’une baguette chaude. — I resisted the urge to mop… until the warm baguette arrived.
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Sauce pas tout, laisse-en pour les autres ! — Don’t mop it all, leave some for the rest!
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Je peux saucer, Madame ? — May I mop, ma’am? (Extra polite in a restaurant.)
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Il a pris une saucée en rentrant. — He got drenched on the way home. (Weather, not gravy.)
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À Aix, on ne gaspille pas la sauce. — In Aix, we don’t waste sauce.
Handy phrases to sound très local
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C’est trop bon pour ne pas saucer. — It’s too good not to mop.
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Passe-moi la mie. — Pass me the soft crumb (strategic mop tool).
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Je fais une petite dernière. — I’ll do one last sweep. (Narrator: he did three.)
Mini vocab box
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Saucer son assiette — to mop one’s plate
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Napper / bien enrober — to coat (cook-talk)
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La mie / la croûte — the crumb / the crust
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La saucière — gravy boat
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La soucoupe — cup saucer (false friend alert!)
Field notes from a hungry étranger in Aix
There’s a precise moment, somewhere between the last olive of a tapenade and the first crumb of a baguette tradition, when someone at the table whispers “On sauce ?” The table nods like a secret club. You tear a polite piece, make one elegant pass, then another, then a shameless figure-eight. Congratulations: you just conjugated saucer… fluently.
Your turn: What was your first great sauçage moment? (Linguists, yes, I know that’s not a real noun—yet.) Drop your story, your best mop technique, or your most heroic sauce rescue below. And if you’re team “no drop left behind,” bienvenue—this is your verb.