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

le grand legume! Never heard that. I guess it’s like the big cheese.

I honestly love saying “je ne comprende pas” and really stressing the PAS. Even my 2yo loves saying it

Also “pomme de terre” always made me laugh too.

I've always liked 'Il est un peu soupe au lait' - gets annoyed quickly for minor reasons.

I also love 'revenons à nos moutons'!

Mine is 'fada' which they use in Marseille to mean 'crazy'. I find it hilarious (said with the Southern accent of course).

Not an expression but a book title:

L'insoutenable legerete d'etre (Milan Kundera) The Unbearable Lightness of Being

I just love the sound of it.

I like the image of “se prendre un rateau”, when someone asks someone for a date and they get turned down

@AmbersLMP we used to call tickles "gillies" when I was a kid! I grew up in Ireland and there were some odd words like that which obviously had very old borrowed roots...my grandad would refer to little boys as "gorsoons" for example.

Love this nerdy stuff.

Et voila! Said in a tone of cheerful triumph.

WellAlwaysHaveParis
Indeed he is. Have also just finished a series on Channel 4 with him in

Merde.

And now I'm in love 😍 with putain de merde

We had "bordel de cul de merde, fait chier" this evening after something got spilled at dinner...

There’s something very satisfying about that phrase. I do think swear words in a language that isn’t your mother tongue retain a sort of novelty factor and lose some of the shock value. I like swearing in French but DH doesn't like it when I do, he’s more sensitive to it.

Sacre bleu!

la poubelle - sounds so much more pleasant than the English "bin"

Se faire poser un lapin - to be stood up. My colleague used it the other day to refer to another colleague letting him down, before that I'd thought it was strictly for dating. It's a great phrase.

Sorry, just saw it already on the previous page, it wouldn't load before.

Du pain, du vin, du Boursin

Ooh DH has just reminded me of a good one: “va te faire cuire un œuf” - “go cook yourself an egg”

I also really like the words:
moment fort (although I find this one annoying when translating as there's no real equivalent in English, it's sometimes translated as 'highlight' but that often doesn't fit, e.g. when it's used in a list: 'jeux, veillées, randonnées, moments forts').

spi short for spirituel, e.g. un père spi (spiritual father), temps spi (prayer time). I just really like the sound of it.

un topo, a talk/lecture/ presentation.

une kermesse, a fête (in the English sense, e.g. a school fête).

Chacun a son goat, as we say it.

Voila! Said with aplomb

Surely there is no greater than pneu!

peigner la girafe

To comb the giraffes hair... meaning to do an arduous and pointless task.