“Compter les étoiles” is a French saying that means “to count the stars,” literally. But what does it really mean? It means to undertake an impossible action, or to try to accomplish something that is virtually impossible to achieve.

The idiom in French dates back to the year 1531, but it comes originally from the Bible, the book of Genesis, chapter 15 verse 5 to be precise. In that section, God tells Abraham to look at the stars and count them, because that is how many descendants he will have. The point is that his descendants will be so numerous as to be uncountable, because attempting to count stars is a task doomed to failure.

Equivalent English expressions are varied and include “to count the stars,” “to bite off more than you can chew,” “to build castles in the air” and “to be in over your head.” None of these, other than the first one, match the sense of the French saying very closely.

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