This French expression goes beyond the racetrack.
Why do I need to know résultat des courses?
You'll often hear this French expression after someone has finished telling a story.
What does it mean?
The expression résultat des courses, roughly pronounced ray-zul-tah day koors, literally translates to "result of the races".
In reality, it means "in the end", "the end result" or "the bottom line" - it is used to introduce the conclusion of a story or explain what happened after a series of events.
The expression comes from horse racing, where spectators would eagerly wait for the résultat des courses to find out which horses had won and whether their bets had paid off.
Because the phrase naturally introduced the final verdict after a period of suspense, it gradually entered everyday French.
Use it like this
J'ai raté mon train. Résultat des courses : je suis arrivé avec trois heures de retard. - I missed my train. Bottom line: I arrived three hours late.
On pensait que ce serait facile. Résultat des courses, ça nous a pris toute la journée. - We thought it would be easy. In the end, it took us all day.
Il a cuisiné pour 10 personnes sans demander les goûts de chacun. Résultat des courses : personne n'était satisfait. - He cooked for 10 people without asking what each of them liked. The result? Nobody was satisfied.
