To ask what your favourite French words and expressions are?

[WellAlwaysHaveParis]

Very random AIBU, but I’d be interested to find out: what are your favourite French words and expressions? :)

I’m restarting a weekly post on French expressions for my blog on French language and culture, and I’ve run out of inspiration

Shameless plug alert.... if you’d like to know more about the blog or if you or anyone you know might like to contribute to it, please let me know on here or via private message :)

and are all up for grabs as prizes for the best words

Plus ca change!

L’esprit de l’escalier

Mettre les petits plats dans les grands

I am a big fan of “Zut alors!”
. I say it when I am trying not to swear.

I also tend to say “Alons...”instead of “Let’s go” when trying to get everyone out of the house.

Also pretty much every French word said in Flight of the Conchords - Foux Du Fafa

aux grands maux les grands remedes (because I can't think of an English equivalent)

I don't know it in French but a colleague told me that the French equivalent of "in for a penny, in for a pound" is "if the cork is out you may as well drink the wine". I really hope that's true!

Tabernach de calisse = fucking hell fire

Tabernach (tabernacle, Catholic box) fuck/shit
Calisse = (literally 'chalice', the religious cup) fuck/shit

All Quebec swear words are mostly religious in context

Criss (Christ) - fuck/shit
Osti (the wafer to recieve) - bit milder, probably more like bloody hell

Here's en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_French_profanity , sorry its wiki

Enchanté - nice to meet you.

Sounds sooooo much better in French. As if someone is enchanted to meet you rather than just pleased about it!

Putain de merde
Je m’en fechier

I do not know much french but:

une libelule (sp?) and une coccinelle, are pleasant to say.

halfwit I LOVE Quebec swear words!! There’s a really funny clip of the French comedian Gad Elmaleh doing a spoof quiz show question about this - makes me cry with laughter every time I watch it m.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq5FNCr0MOM

@LadyFlumpalot yep, it exists! The French expression is ‘quand le vin est tiré, il faut le boire’ :)

C'est La Vie

I like poubelle for its expressiveness. However a house favourite is Putain de fuck's sake . I use on y va a lot.

'Je m'en fechier' absolutely, I use that all the time.

What a fabulous thread, thank you WellalwayshaveParis

comme ci, comme ca

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries 😊

'Bof' with Gallic shrug of the shoulders.

It always amuses me that weeds are mauvaises herbes.

Bonnet de douche

Cherchez la femme. My Grandmother (a mad old French lady I'd spend each summer with in Pithiviers as a child) taught me the meaning of it and I'd not thought of it for years until quite recently when close friends announced a change in their marriage. I said to DH "cherchez la femme" and he swore blind I was being too harsh. Lo and behold, a few weeks later the DH mysteriously appears with a woman who is far too comfortable in his arms to be anything but madly in love with him. My Grandma was right all along.

To the previous poster who likes meubles... what about inoubliable? I love the double bleu sound. Fab words

I love ‘le truc’. ‘The thingy’. It’s good for gesturing at stuff you don’t know the French word for.

I've always loved

Malheureusement (Unfortunately) since I learnt how to spell it!

Loving the ones by Finnegan...

Ta geule is one of my favourites. And Bon appétit also, we just don’t have that expression in English.

'Le truc' also used to be an expression for placing one biscot on top on another, then it wouldn't crumble as you spread butter

putain la vache

Any Ch'tis on the thread?

Que sera sera is a good one too.