Oh mince! Here are my ten favourite French words
And how to use them.
Every now and again, I switch away from the subject of Paris and France and I focus on the French language. It’s such a lovely language and I love learning new words.
This week, I shared my ten favourite French words. These aren’t the best or prettiest or most useful words, they’re just ten I really like for one reason or another. And to be fair, this is a list that changes pretty regularly so ask me again in five years and it will be totally different.
You can hear me describing each word and pronouncing them in this week’s podcast this week, or scroll down to read them all.
1. Punaise
When something bad happens, you can say punaise. It means bed bug, but the word has become a euphemism for the rather vulgar French word for prostitute: putain.
2. Mince
Mince can be exclaimed when something goes wrong – think of it like “drats” or “shoot” in English. Pronounced a bit like munse.
3. Dingue
Dingue means crazy, and you can use it for almost anything: amazement, surprise or disbelief. Did you see the new Napoleon movie? Wow, it was dingue.
4. Choubidou
Walking around Paris with a youngster opens up a whole range of new French terms, especially affectionate terms for little ones. A favourite is choubidou, pronounced shoo-bee-doo, which means something like cutie-pie.
5. QG
QG is short for Quartier Général and it’s the place where you hang out a lot. A good equivalent in English would be HQ (as in headquarters). I even found a bistro called QG this week, right by the Bastille.
6. La classe
You can use la classe when something is cool, stylish, or trendy. Did you hear this week’s podcast? Oui, la classe.
7. Cimer
This is a slang word from reversing the syllables in the French word merci. I don’t think I’ve ever said it, but it brings a smile whenever I hear it, almost always from younger people.
8. Laisse tomber
This one translates to forget about it. The verlan version of the phrase is laisse béton, but you’d better have a very firm finger on the pulse of irony to use it as it’s out of date. (I use it occasionally, it gets a laugh).
9. Impec
My favourite shortened French word is impec, for “impeccable”. You could easily use this when someone asks “Ça va?”, to which you could respond with “impec”.
10. Époustouflant
This word is a joy to say and means “breathtaking” or “mind blowing” and is often used to describe films on Metro billboards. Our visit to the entirely empty Saint Chapelle was certainly époustouflant, for example.
And that’s the list. I put it in a blog post this week, which lit up the social media channels for The Earful Tower. Facebook followers were particularly active sharing their favourite words. Have a look at these comments.
Oh yes, and this week we passed 25,000 Facebook followers! It’s certainly the most talkative of the Earful communities, so if you’re a Facebook user that’s the place for you. There’s even a private group for Patreon members but I’m not going to link it, as it’s top secret ;)
In other news…
This week I checked the reviews for our Paris walking tours and would you believe it: They’re ranked as the 31st best activity to do in all of Paris!!!! I was astounded.
Apparently there are over 1800 activities to do in this city, according to TripAdvisor, so it was a great honour to be ranked that highly. Here’s the proof:
Who knows how they make the rankings, but I do know that recent reviews play a huge factor in it. So, thanks to all reviewers for bringing a smile to my face this week.
If you’d like to do one of our tours, you can book them here. Read those Tripadvisor reviews if you need some convincing.
I almost always lead the Monday morning Marais semi-private tour, so if you want to catch me personally, aim for that one. Today I even did a Montmartre tour, and it’s looking as lovely as ever up there.
Alright, that will do for this week, thanks for reading. And as always, a big thanks to the Patreon members for making this all happen.
Oliver