accoucher

Accoucher means to give birth — used for the mother (accoucher d'un garçon), with medical staff described as assisting (le médecin qui accouche la patiente). Figuratively, accoucher de quelque chose means finally producing a result after a long, difficult process.

• Elle a accouché d'une petite fille hier soir. — She gave birth to a baby girl last night.
• La sage-femme l'a aidée à accoucher à la maison. — The midwife helped her give birth at home.
• Après des mois de négociations, les deux pays ont enfin accouché d'un accord. — After months of negotiations, the two countries finally hammered out an agreement.

Learners say *elle est accouchée* by analogy with être-auxiliary verbs, but accoucher takes avoir: elle a accouché — there's no participle-agreement trap here despite the verb describing the body's own action.

• expression "La montagne accouche d'une souris" — A classic proverb tracing back to Horace's Ars Poetica ("parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus") and popularized in France through La Fontaine's fable — a big buildup producing a disappointingly small result.