“En faire tout un fromage” literally means “to make a whole cheese out of it.” Which doesn’t make a lot of sense in English, of course. But its real meaning is “to make a mountain out of a molehill.” It refers to making a big story out of a small or insignificant thing or event, to getting worried about things of little importance, and of enlarging a minor difficulty way beyond its actual significance.

It comes from the cheese making process, which starts with a simple thing like milk and which ends with a delicious cheese at the end. However, a great deal of work and elaboration need to be done in order to arrive at the final product.

It seems that English speakers are more interested in moles and molehills, while French speakers are more interested in cheese.

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