The best French slang words to help you sound like a local

If you’re approaching French fluency, or curious about the rough and tumble lexicon of the back alleys of Bordeaux, we suggest you complete your daily online French lessons Frantastique, because in full disclosure, we work for Frantastique.

On the other hand, this article will give you a crash course on French slang, and if you’re lucky, some of these words may be inconnus au bataillon.

Without further ado, here are 5 words that will earn you mad respect on various boulevards, avenues and rues – and help you learn French online.

1. Casse-dalle

This one is a tasty snack. And it makes etymological sense, even for beginner learners of French. From the verb casser (“to break”) and dalle (a slang word for “hunger”), it’s not so different from the English “break (the) fast” if you think about it, though its use is far less formal. Concretely, un casse-dalle often refers to an oversized chunk of baguette filled to the brim with saucisson and/or camembert. 

Note: the word “dalle” is versatile: avoir/crever la dalle (lit. “to have a slab”, translates as “to be starving”), que dalle (lit. “no slab”, translates as “zilch” or “naught”), avoir la dalle en pente (lit. “to have your slab on a slope”, translates as “to be a drinker”) and many more.

Example: “N’oublie pas de prévoir un casse-dalle pour notre randonnée de demain.”
“Don’t forget to take a sandwich for tomorrow’s hike.”  Hikes = major street cred.

2. Bouffer

Continuing with the food. Bouffer is a French verb that originally means “puffing your cheeks with air”. It kind of makes sense that it became a synonym to manger (“to eat”), although we’re not quite sure how air fills you up, but considering bouffer took that meaning around the 18th century, perhaps people were simply that desperate for food.

Note: Food can also be called “bouffe“, sharing the same root with bouffer.

Example: “J’ai trop bouffé. Mon ventre va exploser.”
“I ate too much. My stomach is about to explode.” 

3. Pieu

If you thought this word is the French word for “pious”, you’d be wrong. It’s actually rather the opposite. Pieu is an 18th-century slang term to refer to the word “bed”. For instance, if someone were to call you bon au pieu you should take that as a compliment. Do we still have to detail the endless reasons to learn French?

Note: the French also use a derivative verb, se pieuter, which means “to hit the sack”. We couldn’t be more explicit.

Example: “Je dois absolument rattraper mon sommeil, je vais me pieuter.”
“I have to catch up on sleep, I’m going to bed.”

4. Bagnole

Bagnole (a car, a ride, a whip) is one of those vintage words the French just can’t seem to give up, and who can blame them? This colloquial term originates from banne and carriole, used to describe a cart carrying raw material like coal. Topical.

Note: Renault, Peugeot, Citroën and other four-wheeled conveyances can also be called une caisse (lit. “a box”), chignole or tacot. French is hard to learn, we must admit.

Example: “Tu as une sacré bagnole ! On va faire un tour ?”
“You’ve got a heck of a car! Shall we take her out for a spin?”

5. Gova

We’re on a roll, because gova also means car. It’s the slang of a slang: the original word is vago, a word taken from the Roma, and gova is simply the verlan of vago.

Note: It’s a little outdated. Canadian French won’t probably understand the word, so use the word “un char” instead of une gova.

Example: “Allez, monte dans la gova, on va à la plage.”
“Get in the car, we’re going to the beach.”

6. Kiffer

We like that. Do you like that too? That’s because tu kiffes. Kiffer means “to like”, “to love”, “to take pleasure in something” or “to have fun”. It’s a word full of positivity commonly used by younger people!

Famously used by the rapper Diam’s.

Note: Kiffer is derivated from the word kif. Kif is itself from Moroccan Arabic language, and in French it can also mean “pleasure” or “fun”.

Example: “Laisse-moi kiffer la valse avec mon mec !”
“Let me enjoy the dance with my boyfriend!” (important note: don’t say that phrase specifically, no one will ever take you seriously)

7. Pinard

While the French are notoriously serious about their booze, they have done an outstanding job of making it as colloquial as ever on their home turf. Pinard is a colorful word which refers to wine, but not just any wine, the cheap and cheerful kind. The word is believed to originate in the 19th century as a derivative of Pinot, the most common red wine grape variety.

Note: feel free to use other terms for your bargain-priced wine such as picrate, vinasse or piquette.

Example: “Passe-moi le pinard. Je vais me soûler ce soir.”
“Pass me the wine. I’m going to get plastered tonight.” Your ambition is exceeded only by your taste.

8. Baraque

You’re unlikely to stumble upon this word in French class. Make room for baraque, the slang equivalent of “house”. Originally, baraque is used to describe a small, shanty house made out of wood. It doesn’t refer to the 44th POTUS, though we do miss the heck out of that guy. 

Note: Other vocabulary options include zonz and bicoque. Also, you’ll be glad to know the adjective baraqué refers to someone who has a lot of muscles.

Example 1: “J’ai économisé pendant 10 ans pour une superbe baraque à Ivry-sur-Seine, mais il y a de gros travaux à prévoir”.
“I’ve been saving up for 10 years for a crib in Ivry-sur-Seine. But it needs doing up.” Thanks, baraque.

Example 2: “Je n’avais pas vu Paul depuis deux ans : tu as vu comment il est baraqué maintenant ?”
“I hadn’t seen Paul for two years: he’s so built / buff now.”

9. Bordel

It’s getting less and less glamour in this list… bordel mostly means mess nowadays, but it primarily carries the meaning of a brothel. You’ll naturally need to rely on the context to make sense out of it, but it should be fairly straightforward, don’t worry.

Note: “c’est quoi ce bordel” / “qu’est-ce que c’est que ce bordel” can be translated as “what the fuck is this” / “what the hell is this”.

Note 2: if someone says “je sors d’un bordel pas possible”, they would usually mean they just got out of a very messy situation; but again, depending on the context, perhaps that person just got out of a brothel too.

Note 3: the adjective derivated from the word bordel is bordélique, which means “messy”.

Example: “Il faut que je range ma chambre. Il y a un bordel pas croyable”
“I need to tidy my room. It’s unbelievably messy.” Have you tried stacking your clothes on the bed?

10. Un mec / une meuf

Back to more glamour stuff! Literally a dude/a gal. It’s used extremely commonly in France, so make sure you remember those. Where meuf is “femme” (woman) backwards (verlan), mec has a more obscure origin. We’re not sure either, dude!

Note: When used with a possessive pronoun (mon / ma / ton / ta / son / sa…), it means boyfriend/girlfriend.

Example: “Ce mec est complètement dingue.”
“This dude is completely bonkers.” Why not channel your excess energy in a language course?

11. Un pote / une potesse

A friend, in a friend way: un pote is a buddy, a mate, and une potesse is a buddie au féminin, s’il vous plaît.

Potesse is somewhat rarer, but we’re all for gender equality when it comes to our potes and potesses.

Note: “poto” is also used sometimes, and it’s even more familiar. It’s a potato with one o instead of eight.

Exemple: “Mon pote Guy m’a filé ces tickets.”
“My mate Guy gave me those tickets.” Guy. What a man.

12. Claqué

Yet another flexible word: claqué can mean something sucks, someone is very tired, or to spend money.

Note: Not to be confused with claqué, which means slapped. It’s been a confusing list, but you can give yourself a slap in the back for coming this far.

Exemple 1: “Il est claqué ce film.”
“This film sucks.”

Exemple 2: “J’ai eu 4 exams cette semaine, je suis claqué.”
“I had 4 tests this week, I’m knackered.”

Note 2: “claqué” in the case of “being very tired” can be freely exchanged with the word “crevé“.

Exemple 3: “Tu as vraiment claqué 500 balles dans ces horribles pompes ?”
“Did you really spend $500 on those horrible shoes?” Taste is subjective.

13. Bosser

It has nothing to do with camels, and speaking of nothing to do, bosser is the English word “boss” turned into a verb, but it doesn’t mean to boss around: it means to work, which is something we swear we’re doing right now.

Note 1: camels have bosses (une bosse, deux bosses) and this one means “bump”. Camels really have nothing to do with the word “bosser“, but we heard some of them work twice as hard.

Note 2: we should really go back to bosser.

Exemple: Guy: “J’ai bossé toute la journée, je suis claqué.”
Guy: “I worked the whole day, I’m knackered.” Aren’t we all, Guy. Aren’t we all…

14. Chiottes

Life’s good when you’re number one, but life’s good after number two. Yes, chiottes simply means “toilet”. It’s derivated from the equally elegant chier which means “to take a shit”, so… the closest translation would be “shitter”. Sorry, we tried to make it sound better, but it is what it is.

Note: usually used in its plural form. Don’t ask us why we need more than one shitter.

Exemple: “J’ai vraiment besoin d’aller aux chiottes.”
“I really need to go to toilet.”

15. Je me casse / Casse-toi

If someone tells you “casse-toi“, they don’t mean to tell you to break yourself. Se casser means to go away, or in a more vulgar way, to fuck off… so “Casse-toi !” essentially means “Fuck off!”.

On the other hand, “je me casse” is familiar but not so vulgar, and simply means “I’m leaving”. Very useful after bosser.

Exemple: “Tu te casses quand ?” – “Après les chiottes.”
“When are you leaving?” – “After a toilet break.”

16. Avoir la flemme

J’ai la flemme. You’ll hear that a lot, especially if you’re dealing with teenagers, or coworkers who aren’t very motivated, because avoir la flemme means that you can’t be bothered to do something. This is absolutely not me writing this blog post.

Exemple: “J’ai la flemme de faire la cuisine ce soir.”
“I can’t be arsed to cook tonight.”

17. Avoir le seum

If I have to write any more word to this blog post, je vais vraiment avoir le seum. Did you get it? It means to get pissed off!

Exemple: “Ma liste d’argots français ne fait que 18 mots. J’ai le seum.”
“My list of French slang words is only 18 words long. I’m pissed off.”

Bonus: Calendos 

This list couldn’t end without the mention of cheese, and not just any cheese. Camembert has been around since the 18th century and is unlikely to go anywhere but straight to our hips, know what we mean?

As a tribute to this stinky delight, the French have created not one, but two slang terms to refer to it. Calendos or claquos?

Want more of that good French slang for your toolbox? Want to find out how you can easily learn French? We’ve got you covered. Try our online French course Frantastique for free today: short bursts of French culture in just 10 minutes per day.

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