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

C'est la vie

“Con comme un balai”
I like that one too

Fromage- it suits soft French cheeses beautifully.
Cheese is a nice hard cheddary word but it doesn't suit a brie.

I have a friend who always says “il est con comme ses pieds”

Je suis pompette was also one I remember from being a student.

Sounds so much nicer than being tipsy or a little bit drunk.

I like "nuit blanche" - a sleepless night.

And I love how easy it is to pop a "re" in front of whatever word to show you're doing it again. English should do that! (but not if it's when you accidentally bonjour someone for the second time in a day and they just chirp "Re!" at you!)

Quincaillerie is also a great word.

I like a muttered pass-agg, "Laisse tomber"

And my favourite this week is things that are "Nul!". It feels nice in the mouth

Love French.

L'esprit de l'escalier - I love that there's a phrase for that moment you think of a perfect comeback too late! And I love the very French assumption that the argument happened in the bedroom!

Pas devant les domestiques - my mum used this one when we lived in India and had a lot of domestic staff

Something that makes me smile is the mixing bowl called a “cul-de-poule“

Ferme la bouche or ferme ta guele.

“Shut your mouth” and “shut your face”?
Nasty expressions in French and English.

quincaillerie
crepusucle
chuchoter
coquelicot....

agree that coucou is twee and annoying.
Love how when my French friends think something is good it gets a grudging "c'est pas terrible"

Une femme d’un certain age

A woman of a certain age = a middle aged woman, very delicately put.

Nobody mentioned Métro, boulot, dodo yet?

It's my favourite to hear from my French colleagues, along with a nonchalant shrug while we wait for the coffee machine in the morning.

Tomber dans les pommes - lit. To fall in the apples, but means to faint. Love it.

I love "Pretentious, moi?" from Fawlty Towers. And the funny ones from Del Boy : "Mange tout,mange tout!"

My ds is totally in love with the French character Polo. Polo has these little friends, we thought they were peas. But we recently bought a French book of Polo stories with words in and it turns out the peas are actually called les lumiens. Ds loves the word and now calls his massive soft toy collection and his real life friends mes lumiens. I've no idea how you would translate their name in english. The lightbulbs?
Do French kids love Polo btw? The books are quite hard to come by in the UK.

I love Crepe Suzette. And "Good moaning" of course.

A few years ago we stayed at a holiday park in France and a child had pooed in the pool. The only word I knew to tell the lifeguard was merd/e? He looked quite offended, a middle aged woman with two kids saying just "merde" at him and pointing.

Petez pas tes plombes
Et ta mere?
Cul de chien
C'est la pied!

Je m’en fechier ?? Je m’en fiche?

Ha ha yes, l'enfer, c'est les autres (but why not ce sont?)

Probably because you don’t need to agree anything after c’est. Handy thing to teach kids for exams, get out clause to not worry about adjectival agreements.

Bordel, most frequent swear word.

All time favourites: conasse-stupid bitch, branleur-wanker.

I love this thread!

Il parle francais comme une vache espanole.
J'en ai raz le bol.
J'ai la flemme/ il est flemmard
Il est con comme ses pieds
Prendre la mouche
Etre a ramasser a la petite cuilliere

@FinnegansCake
So what does
Il pete plus haut que son cul
mean?
He farts higher than his bum..but what does it mean?

@Cabbages - it means someone who is pretentious, who has an over-inflated opinion of himself.

A bientot instead of au revoir

Love how when my French friends think something is good it gets a grudging "c'est pas terrible"

Reverse, tho, isn’t it? If you say eg ‘Son français n’est pas terrible’, it actually means his French is crap.

parle francais comme une vache espanole. (espagnole)

I’m forever telling my mum this, she genuinely sounds Spanish!

il pete plus haut que son cul

Ideas above his station.

Quelle fromage and
Bonjour matelot!