Day 2859 (Sunday) 6th April 2025

This is Villefranche seafront in the old days with the fishing nets drying in the sunshine – it really hasn’t changed at all.

I found this article about French slang, it’s quite long so I’ll post it over two days.

J’ai la Gnac! 18 Modern French Slang Expressions by Olivier Karfis updated: Nov 15, 2021

French Slang is always evolving. You may know some French slang, but do you know really current French slang, millennium French slang? Let’s study some up-to-date, modern French slang.

Before we dive in the modern French slang expressions, let me tell you a bit about French slang – l’argot.

What is Verlan?

You probably have heard of “le Verlan” which consists of inverting syllables in a word (the word “Verlan” itself is an inversion of the word “l’envers” (‘reverse’).

For exemple know thank you in French – merci – in verlan it becomes “cimer” – it’s very used in modern spoken French.

This slang form is prevalent throughout the French language and some verlan words are even now found in French dictionaries.

Many of you have studied common French slang: “un bouquin” for ‘a book’, “un mec” for ‘a guy’… All these are still used nowadays.

What is Modern French Slang?

Lately, a new form of slang emerged: “le parler d’jeunes” – modern French slang of the milleniums.

This kind of slang uses new slang terms and of course, modern spoken French pronunciation.

The “D’jeunes” (youth of the millennium) have incorporated traditional slang, verlan, Arabic and English words and shorthand SMS spellings into their language, sometimes even compounding them like inverting the syllables of an Arabic word…

So now let’s see some modern French slang examples.

1 – “Trop zarb, ton idée”

Your idea is way too strange in modern French slang

Alternate spellings: “zarbi”

This slang expression is actually pretty common and is the contraction of an inversion (verlan) of the word “bizarre”. This way, a 3 syllable word becomes just 1 syllable – much more efficient for the busy d’jeune :-)

The word “zarb” or “zarbi” can be applied to situations or people/things alike: “tu la trouves pas zarbi la prof d’Anglais?”

2 – “Elle était bourrée et lui, il était défoncé”

She was drunk and he was high (on drugs)

Yes, there is a distinction! “Se bourrer” or “se bourrer la gueule” is to get drunk.

The verb “bourrer” means to push too much into or to over fill/force into (probably stems from the word “labourer”, to plow a field) so logically, to put too much alcohol into your body is “se bourrer” [d’alcohol]….

Because taking drugs usually involves smaller quantities and also tends to have more detrimental effects, we have a different verb for it.

“Défoncer” is to break or smash something,

“Se défoncer” on the other hand can mean ‘to put all your energy into something” like “depuis qu’il a commencé son nouveau job, il se défonce” or it can also mean to take drugs.

3 – “Arrête de flipper et ramène-toi”

Alternate spellings: “amène-toi”

Stop freaking out and get your ass over here

“Flipper” is a perfect example of a borrowed English verb “to flip” being conjugated in French. It follows the standard ER verb form so it works in every tense: “Il a flippé” or “est-ce qu’il flippait?” (although I have yet to hear the subjonctif plus-que-parfait version: “que j’eusse flippé” ;-)

Obviously “amener” is ‘to bring’ and “ramener” is to bring back and both can be used in this context.

“Ramène-toi” is closer to ‘bring yourself back here’ but can be interchanged with “amène-toi” no matter if you have already been there or not. It’s a pretty common slang that you’ll hear in a lot of movies and TV.

4 – “C’est trop la honte!”

It’s so embarrassing

This one is less of a specific new d’jeune slang word but more a bad grammar turned into expression.

If you spoke ‘regular’ French, to say it’s so embarrassing, you’d say something like “c’est honteux” or “j’ai honte de…”

5 – “J’ai vu un truc de ouf”

I saw an incredible/crazy thing

“Ouf” is the direct verlan of “fou” or crazy… Also very commonly heard in the streets and in movies.

“Truc” is not a d’jeunes specific word but is common language for a “thing” or one of my favourite US expressions: ‘a whatchamacallit’… 

6 – “Les d’jeunes”, “les vioc”

‘the young’, ‘the old’ in modern French slang

Alternate spellings: “d’jeuns”, “djeuns” or “djeunz” – “Vioques”

“D’jeunes” originates from the contraction of “des” and “jeunes” (‘young’) “Le language des jeunes”

“Vioc” is the term for old people and can sometimes be used to talk about ones parents… The origins of that expression are harder to pinpoint but is most likely a contraction of “vielle” (‘old’) and “loque” (‘a rag’).

“Mon vioc ne veut pas que je sorte ce soir” – ‘My old man does not want me to go out tonight’

7 – “Comment je me suis mangé la gueule!”

‘Man I totally wiped out!’ modern French slang expression

“Gueule” is normally the word used to describe the face of an animal ex: “La gueule du loup/chien/crocodile” and is the proper word to use in that context.

It started being used for human’s mouth (“ferme ta gueule”: ‘shut up’) and then to describe someone’s face: “T’as une sale gueule ce matin!” (‘You look like crap this morning’) “T’as vu le mec? Quelle belle gueule…” (‘Did you see that guy? He’s gorgeous…’).

In this context, “mangé” means to hurt oneself – maybe because a flesh wound looks like a bite from a piece of meat... You could also say “je me suis mangé en moto” (‘I crashed on my bike’).  It most often means that you actually hurt yourself but can also be used as a general meaning to “fail” like: “merde, je me suis mangé à mon exam de maths” (‘shit, I totally failed on my math exam’).

Note the grammatical evolutions: “comment” is wrong here, it should be “comme”: “comme elle est belle ! (‘she is so beautiful’). Also “Tu as” becomes “t’as” or even “ta”. Once again, we are talking slang French here, not proper French…

8 – “Arrête de te la péter”

‘Stop showing off’

“Se la péter” is to be pretentious.

The word “péter” is also the slang for “farting” and for “breaking/exploding”. “Il ne faut pas péter en public” (‘one shouldn’t fart in public’) – “J’ai pété la télé” ‘I broke the TV’ – “la situation internationale va finir par péter” ‘the international situation will explode one of these days’.

9 – “Il n’y a que des thons dans cette boîte, on se casse?”

‘There are only ugly girls in this club, let’s get out of here OK?’

“Un thon” is the French word for tuna fish.  One has to be careful when referring to someone as “un thon”, as it is an insult. Interestingly, “un thon” is a masculine word but is always used to refer to a woman.

“Une boite” is slang for a “un club” or “une discothèque” probably because everyone is squeezed into the club like in “une boite à sardines” (‘a sardine can’)

In this context, “se casser” (literally ‘to break oneself’) is to leave a place.

Note the common use of “on” instead of “nous” as it is featured in our French audiobooks. Our French method teaches both classical and modern French dialogues and features a realistic French story recorded at different levels of enunciation (traditional and modern).

10 – “Je kiff cette meuf!”

‘I’m really attracted to/I love this girl’

Here we see the influence of the Arabic immigrants into the d’jeunes speak.  “Kif” is the the arabic word for “a sense of well being/happiness” (also can describe the combination of tobacco and hashish!) and is now very much used by the youth to replace the verbs ‘like’ or ‘love’.

J’te kiffe is modern slang for “I love you” in French.

“Une Meuf” is one of the most common verlan word used today.  It’s the inversion of the word “femme” -> me fem -> meuf (dropping the last vowel is common in verlan – whatever is easier to say will remain).

You’ll get the rest of these tomorrow.