What does “le courant passe” mean in French?

Le courant passe describes an electrical current flowing, and French hands the image to people who get on: le courant passe bien entre nous means we click, we understand each other without effort. It works for colleagues, a teacher and a class, two strangers at a dinner — no romance implied. The negative is heard just as often: le courant ne passe pas is the polite way to say two people simply do not get along.

The picture is literal enough to make an easy joke: run a cable between two people, switch on a lamp, and announce that the current is passing. If you want the same idea without the electricity, on s’entend bien is the plain version and ils ont des atomes crochus — literally “hooked atoms” — is the vivid one.