se prendre la tête
to overthink / to stress out / to argue
Intermediate Phrase
🔊
Pronunciation
/sə pʁɑ̃dʁ la tɛt/
💡
Cultural Note
Literally 'to take one's own head,' which is a wonderfully violent image for overthinking. It has two main uses: reflexive ('je me prends la tête' = I'm stressing out/overthinking) and reciprocal ('on s'est pris la tête' = we had an argument). The related noun 'une prise de tête' describes anything that's annoyingly complicated — French tax forms, IKEA instructions, or figuring out which cheese to bring to a dinner party.
📝 Example Sentences
Arrête de te prendre la tête, ça va aller.
Stop overthinking it, it'll be fine.
Ils se sont pris la tête pour une histoire de rien.
They had a fight over nothing.