oh glad to hear you enjoy what we do ☺☺ Yes we don't focus on vulgar stuff on RUclips but we do talk about it in private lessons if the student really wants to know, and we did give some examples in our e-Book "Swearing like a Parisian". But yeah we try to keep youtube as a safe space for all that ^^
These are GREAT phrases to learn if you want to speak and understand the French language used in every day situations. When I lived in France years ago, I used them ALL the time. Another fantastic video, as always!
Thank you so much. My children and I are learning French so we can speak with my brother-in-law's family, and I know these videos will be a big help as they are from Paris.
About "J'arrive": in French language, the present tense is sometimes used with a meaning of immediate future. So you can translate "I'll be back" by "Je reviendrai" or "Je vais revenir" (in the second case, you insist on the fact you really intend to come back, and in the first case, you think you'll be back, but you are not completely sure or don't know exactly when) and "I'll be right back" by "Je reviens" or "J'arrive". The use of present takes the meaning or "right now", so the idea of "J'arrive" is "I'll be back before you notice I'm out".
Also, I was always taught that “on” meant one/someone instead of we. It wasn’t until a classmate came back from a foreign exchange in Belgium and told us that we found it it was more common as we.
"On" can also mean "anyone". Like in: "On sait qu'il faut éviter de déranger un lion en train de dormir" ("Anybody knows that disturbing a sleeping lion is to be avoided"). In some cases, "on" may even mean "you" but generally it's not polite. Imagine that someone you don't like wants to borrow some money from you. You can answer : "Alors, on veut de l'argent ?" with the meaning: "So, you suddenly remembered of my existence, and you came and found me because you need money?" You can even say : "Alors comme ça, on veut de l'argent ?", showing that you think it was really a bold move. And you can add : "C'est (vachement) gonflé !" ("You're (really) audacious!"). You can even use "on" instead of "I" in some rare cases. Imagine that someone rings your bell and insists before you're able to reach the door. You can say: "On arrive !" instead of "J'arrive !" with the meaning: "Someone's coming (me)!"
I've always found this quite interesting, because English did almost the opposite, we dropped "one" and replaced it with a generalised "you", (such as "you shouldn't steal" instead of "one mustn't steal")
There are no more real brothels in France since the 50s when a law prohibited brothels. Therefore youngsters do not associate "Bordel!" with something in the real life. It's often used the sam way as "oh shit!" in english, sometimes with several similar slurs whenever the "shit" is very "shitty" : "Ho! Putain de bordel de merde!"
StreetFrench.org I think I was wrong about Charlie. I’ve watched more and I he does sound french. I showed my girlfriend (she is from Bretagne) and she said he sounds perfect.
ow thank you for this comment :):) yeah just keep practicing and meet people! you don't have to learn a whole language on your own. try to have fun doing it ^^
You aren’t lying about some of these. Very accurate. I’m a French teacher, and whenever my students call my name, my immediate response is “Qu’est-ce qu’il y a?”, but of course the y gets dropped every time 😂. I’ve never translated it for them, but they know il y a & qu’est-ce, so I figure they can put 2 and 2 together
2:23 In my native language (Bengali) also when someone is leaving his/her home he/she will say "আমি আসছি" aami aaschhi means I'm coming but it means he's/she's leaving. 😊😊
There's quite a few English phrases that fit this quite well, "balls to the wall" has the same meaning and actually a very similar origin, it came from pilots, in many planes the throttle levers have little balls on top (kind of like a gear stick) and when you go full throttle you push the balls all the way forward until they are almost touching the firewall Also the phrase "balls out", which also actually doesn't have as dirty an origin as it sounds, it comes from old steam engines, where the flyball governor had 2 little balls that would spin round, and when the engine was at max power they would come out the farthest, both phrases simply mean to go at it 100%, with maximum effort, and like I said are actually not dirty despite how they sound
“Ça n’a pas de sens“ literally translates to “That doesn’t have sense” (Have = Avoir) - (Has = A) “Ça n’a aucun sens” literally translates to “That has no sense”
Il y a bien une expression "Ca fait sens" en France, mais elle a une signification différente. C'est dans l'idée de "ça donne du sens", pour dire que quelque chose te semble logique et sensé, ou bien dans une situation où il y a quelque chose que tu viens de comprendre et qui te semblait un peu étrange au départ. Imaginons que ton patron licencie le meilleur employé de la compagnie du jour au lendemain, et que tu apprennes par la suite qu'en réalité, cet employé a détourné de l'argent. A ce moment-là tu te dis : "Ah, ça fait sens". Mais ce n'est pas une expression très répandue.
Nobody says "je prends ma voiture pour aller au travail". We say "je prends ma bagnole pour aller au boulot". Nobody says "je m'achète des vêtements", mais "je m'achète des fringues". Good books of French should teach that, because we see people who have a very good level in French who don't understand our language. I recommand you to read the book "Sky, my husband", where French expressions are translated "at the foot of the letter". So, sorry, I have to leave you and eat my bite-mister and a little Swiss (un croque-monsieur et un petit-suisse).
@@marieportage Oui, j'ai une amie franco-québécoise, et quand elle vient en France, elle est parfois obligée de demander ce que veulent dire certaines expressions. "Quoi, tu ne sais pas ce qu'est une bagnole? tu ne sais pas ce que veut dire aller au taf? ou au turbin. Tu ne sais pas ce que veut dire "je me tire" (ou je me casse)?"
I had recently heard "C'est quoi ce bordel!" in Au service de la France, on Netflix. At the time it seemed an odd expression, but your description or translation totally puts it in context now. Thanks for an informative video.
If you like "Au service de la France", you should try "OSS 117" movies with Jean Dujardin (if you haven't yet). It's hilarious and there's a lot of old fashioned french expressions.
_Grave_ might also be an alternative term for _à fond._ It’s a dictionary word, but used slightly differently. An example in use: « Tu la kiffes? » « Mec, grave. » It almost connotes a level of desperation. Literally it means “seriously” or “gravely,” but there can be a sense of hopelessness in it, almost like a Shakespearean tragic flaw, to catch a sense of the poetry of using the word this way. It’s 100% vernacular, 0% what you’d say to impress academics who you haven’t already proven your classroom cred to.
A few terms/phrases I like and hear a lot but wasn't taught in school are "c'est pas vrai!" (No way!), "c'est n'importe quoi" (That's BS/Whatever) and "insupportable" (Unbearable)
It's so strange, all of my French teachers in school were young people from France or francophone countries and get they still taught us the type of French which you say isn't really spoken. Always using inversions, always using on to mean one etc. I understand the importance of knowing the formal language too but it's strange that we did a whole week on talking about skin cancer in French but we're never taught this stuff.
oh yeah they definitly have to teach the proper French but yeah it's too bad they don't at least mention spoken French sometimes. But I've seen in the comments some people saying their teachers mentionned the difference, so it probably also depends on the school and the teacher.
The problem is that the teacher doesn't set the course, the course material and examinations are set by the government, and if they ignore that and just teach informal french anyway then there's going to be some questions when it comes to exam time and none of your students get decent marks. The best you could do is teach it anyway, but let the students know that it doesn't actually work like that nowadays
J’ai la double nationalité américaine française. Ma mère est de Metz. Sa soeur (ma tante) elle habitait tout sa vie adulte à Lausanne. I never ever noticed any difference between the French of Switzerland and France. So be careful Charlie. Le français du Canada, alors là une sacrée différence! Il faut vraiment que je me tendes les oreilles pour les comprendre.
ah alors il y a un accent particulier en Suisse mais tout le monde ne l'a pas. Par exemple, j'ai des amis de Toulouse et d'Aix-en-Provence et on parle tous exactement de la même manière. les accents se perdent petit à petit. Mais oui c'est pas aussi différent que le français au canada :)
StreetFrench.org Je me corrige... toute sa vie d’adulte. J’ai véçu à Strasbourg pendant quatre ans à la fin des années soixante-dix. et il existe un accent alsacien assez prononcé. En effet, mes grand-parents maternels ils étaient des villages en Alsace.(Bas-Rhin). Juste un peu de mon histoire,
Salut, vous devez faire un segment entre la différence “des renseignments et des informations”. Je crois que les renseignments c’est plus personnels. And the word “to meet”. Several different ways to say “to meet”. Se retrouver, Se voir. “Recontrer” is just when you first meet someone. Or how about, “I ran into someone”. Je suis tombée sur qqn. (no courir!)
ah I think that "être à donf" is a bit oldschool now. it was popular when I was a teenager and young people today wouldn't say that anymore. slang comes and goes really fast ^^ but I'm sure some people still say it and it's ok. I wouldn't say it's used as often though.
Most of the swearing you hear on American TV is on premium channels like HBO, Starz, Showtime, etc. Regular cable channels and public stations can only use a few words, and I believe those are restricted to certain time periods.
Very informative, thank you. I don’t get it when people want to learn swear words in any language. That happened to me when I first went to an elementary school in Seattle, Washington, after moving there from Lima, Perú. Kids, mainly boys, wanted to know vulgar words. Quite frankly I didn’t even know any, I was 7 years old, (after living there for a year), so I never told them, I just said I didn’t speak in that manner. My family never used swear words in our home.
you're welcome^^ah yeah interesting point of view. I think it depends on different cultures, how someone has been brought up, and personally does someone like to use swear words. I can tell you in France it's really common to use them, people don't get offended, you can hear it on TV sometimes so to me it's normal to learn an teach those things. But I'm sure there are some French people who are totally against speaking like that^^ It's also about personal preference I guess
StreetFrench.org - Thank you for your response. It wasn’t before, at least in the circles I’m in. Being a Christian is probably the reason. However, I hear it at work and at times while out in public. My friends don’t speak in that manner, neither does my husband or I. I especially see it in social media a lot. No one cares to check what they’re saying. Of course once said it is forever seen by others. I would think that there’s a reason to have others view one as being respectful and having morals. Guess that went out the window a long time ago and I’m in the minority. The best to you and your crew in your endeavor.
Wait, so do people also say “il arrive” to say he’s coming or does that only mean he’ll be back? When I studied in Paris for a semester my classmates always said this during attendance in the morning when someone wasn’t there.
ah yeah in that context it means "he's coming/he's on his way" we just focused on the other meaning because we see that people don't really know that and it's used really frequently too^^
for exemple if someone is in his way. you can say “il arrive” and if someone went somewhere and he’ll be back soon. you can also say “attendez, il arrive” means “wait, he’ll be back”
It appears to me that the use of “on” in the context of e.g. “on nous dit que..”, “on nous traîte avec respect” etc. can be better translated as “they” (they tell/treat us). In such case the identity/identities of “they” is/are not specified.
@@Street_French I think what he meant was another meaning for "On m'a dit..." would be in English "I heard that...". For example "On m'a dit que tu es Parisienne = I heard that you're Parisian.
Weird question. Clearly English and French do not translate directly for a lot of mistranslations. Just wondering how would one best translate “Street French” into French? The connotation of “street” as used in English is not the same. And the translations that are more along the lines of “slang” lack the connotation of street as we use it in English. Many times I find losing that street use of words both in english and french gets frustrating to have to adjust to more literal words but they totally lose that visceral punch.
Thank you! I’m a new subscriber and find your videos very useful. How Paris centric would you say the phrases are? Would you hear a person from, say, Nantes or Rennes saying these or the things in the Swearing Like a Parisian book?
Erika White I don’t know about the book but everything they said in this video is used in the same way wherever in France. It’s not particularly « parisien ».
ah that's a great question. to be honest I can exactly answer because I don't know that many people from other cities. But the few friends that I have that are from the south of France for example speak like me. I'm sure they have other types of expressions but the base is pretty much the same^^
@@tithannisk7470 There are local particularisms and accents of course (if not "patois", regional languages besides french), but the french spoken in France has very standardized basis all over the country.
But I mean "I've been told" is used pretty often in English, kinda in the same way French people use "on m'a dit" isn't it ? Like "On m'a dit qu'il y avait un restaurant par ici" "I've been told there were a restaurant over here"
Izanagiix it’s not the same. in french “I’ve been told” means “Il m’a été dit” and “someone told me that” it’s like “quelqu’un m’a dit que” and quelqu’un = On so “On m’a dit que”
@@marwaessaadi Yes but in French "il m'a été dit" is not really used. What I mean is that in English we use "I've been told" frequently, the same way French people use "on m'a dit"
Qu'est-ce qu'il y a vos chansons français (moderne) preferées? J'écoute beaucoup d'artistes comme Zaz et Claude Capeo et Kyo, mais je veux vachment savoir les vrais chansons que les français écoutent.
@@Street_French Yeah, but a lot of the French music videos are blocked in the US on youtube or google. RUclips.fr obviously not, which is why i was asking for your recommendations.
@@apprendreanglais58 ah really ? yeah you can find everything on youtube. and just look for artists on google and then check out their music on youtube^^ we don't listen to French Rock sorry.
Or how "Qu'est-ce qu'il y a ?" becomes "Keskya ?" in a Parisian mouth :)) It's same for "Qu'est-ce que tu as" --> "Kesta ?", "Kestufou ?" (What are you doing?), "Kestudvien ?" ("What's up?" or "How you been?") There's also the famous ..."Adtaleur !" (À tout à l'heure ! which means "C ya later!.") Le français des parigots c'est ...Portnawak ! (n'importe quoi ! - Verlan arrangé sauce cité de banlieue) :)))
Is it difficult to talk in French on the phone to native speakers? I have a friend from Napal and one from Korea, I find it hard to understand what they are saying over the phone. I would think that is a very hard thing to do.
yeah I think talking to someone on the phone is really tricky because you can't see the person. we get a lot of informations from their expressions, maybe sometimes read from their lips without even thinking about it. but it's just another thing to practice^^
ah yeah a lot ! Whenever I go to Croatia, I hang out with my croatian cousin who's 19 and it's funny to hear her talk. for exemple, they use a lot of words that they write or say in a croatian way. it's exactly like in France it's interesting^^
no it's more like "I was expecting more and what they did is so bad. they tricked us, they conned us, they scammed us" I don't know if it makes sense in english. or like you paid a lot for something and then you realised it's really bad. They scammed you
Juste pour vous, pour un peu plus de dynamisme à la vidéo, vous pouvez mettre une musique en fond sonore, vraiment pas fort mais ça à mon avis ça peut rendre la vidéo encore plus agréable à regarder Sinon super intéressant :)
depends on the context, we don't have that exact expression. so we could say "fait attention à ce que tu dis" or "parles pas comme ça" or "soit pas vulgaire" etc...
'Ça sert à quoi? / Ça sert à rien?' : What's the use? Any use? To what purpose? What's the goal? 'On m'a dit que...' : I was told ..., I heard that (some)..., I'have heard...
nope, not at all. it just depend on the context. Can you imagine live in France and only speak with close friends ? It's an illusion. You'll speak with unknown people most of the time.
thierryf67 Thank you, I love French but the language classes are so boring with a lot of grammar. I’m finishing my last class now, so I’m gonna keep a positive mindset. Nice comment ❤️❤️
Letter s at the end is for the plural (les amis - friends, les voitures - cars) (as in english) ... but also with conjugaison (the french conjugaison is more complex than in English) especially with the 2nd person singular (tu - you) and the 1st person plural (nous - we) (tu vas - you go, nous sommes - we are, nous voyageons - we travel, tu conduiras - you will drive/ you are driving, nous mentions - we lied/ we were lying)
oui exactement.dans la vie de tous les jours, je ne dis JAMAIS "nous" pour "we". par contre dans un mail très professionnel et très formel je vais écrire "nous".
StreetFrench.org Oui, c’est ce que j’ai entendu parler. Les points fins d’une langue. J’ai mal écrit question-le méme! Bon après-midi! (j’habite en Floride).
Je trouve incroyable que vous n'expliquiez pas le sens premier de "Bordel" qui signifie un lieu où se pratique la prostitution... C'est un mot encore utilisé en France.
@@Street_French I'd like to qualify that comment a bit, though. I personally use liaisons from time to time, depending on the context, the kind of person I'm conversing with, or even the mood (if I feel like talking chill, or rather in a literate way). And to Meh, I want to say: you HAVE to learn the "liaisons", no matter what. First, some of them are always pronounced. And they will help you reach a better understanding of the vocabulary you're using anyway, even if you end up not using them.
Justise Watt sorry but it’s the opposite. « Je m’en fiche » would be translated as « I don’t care » whereas « Je m’en fous » would be translated as « I don’t give a f... ». However, amongst friends you would probably say the latter more than the former.
@@tithannisk7470 I feel like almost no one use je m'en fiche. I'm pretty sure I don't give a F is more offensive than je m'en fous even the literal meaning is closer. In France to really be offensive you'll have to use something like je m'en bats les c.uilles (sometime shorten to je m'en balec.). Somewhere in the middle if you need a variant you can use j'en ai rien à carrer.
"It's how we speak in Paris, if you're from Switzerland or Canada.." Yeah, because we all know Paris is a country That's one thing you HAVE TO know if you come to France. Paris is NOT France
haha yeah I guess we kind of took a shortcut there lol it's because we get comments from people saying they're from Canada or Switzerland and they don't always agree with some things we teach. what we really meant to say was French from France versus other French speaking countries^^ (because we can't speak for them)
@@philodactyl what's the problem with that? there's many French speaking countries or region where the language is slightly different. especially slang etc..
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Thank you for NOT teaching the real vulgar stuff! I want my high school and even elementary French students to watch you guys. I love it!
oh glad to hear you enjoy what we do ☺☺
Yes we don't focus on vulgar stuff on RUclips but we do talk about it in private lessons if the student really wants to know, and we did give some examples in our e-Book "Swearing like a Parisian".
But yeah we try to keep youtube as a safe space for all that ^^
The Frenchest word ever is "bah". If you can pout, shrug your shoulders, and say "bah" you're French.
haha yeah definitly! ^^
Or "Bof" !
funny thing: that’s also a common slang word in the south of brazil (rio grande do sul) we say it all the time!
"Meh"
@@guldirfr1455 Why do you say that?
This is the best channel, because you speak each other's languages so well, it makes the everyday French so easy to understand.
ow cool thanks :) glad you enjoy ! :)
These are GREAT phrases to learn if you want to speak and understand the French language used in every day situations. When I lived in France years ago, I used them ALL the time. Another fantastic video, as always!
aw thanks! :):)
Thank you so much. My children and I are learning French so we can speak with my brother-in-law's family, and I know these videos will be a big help as they are from Paris.
ow cool ! we're so glad we're helping you on this journey :):)
This is brilliant, thanks guys!
you're welcome :)
About "J'arrive": in French language, the present tense is sometimes used with a meaning of immediate future. So you can translate "I'll be back" by "Je reviendrai" or "Je vais revenir" (in the second case, you insist on the fact you really intend to come back, and in the first case, you think you'll be back, but you are not completely sure or don't know exactly when) and "I'll be right back" by "Je reviens" or "J'arrive". The use of present takes the meaning or "right now", so the idea of "J'arrive" is "I'll be back before you notice I'm out".
ah great explanation :)
It's similar in Russian. They say "poshli", which is "we left", for "I'm going now".
Exactement. Maïa has said several times not only in this video but others you can equally say, “Je reviens”.
Also, I was always taught that “on” meant one/someone instead of we. It wasn’t until a classmate came back from a foreign exchange in Belgium and told us that we found it it was more common as we.
ah yeah "on" is used instead of "nous" ALL THE TIME haha^^ because "nous" sounds way too formal
"On" can also mean "anyone". Like in: "On sait qu'il faut éviter de déranger un lion en train de dormir" ("Anybody knows that disturbing a sleeping lion is to be avoided"). In some cases, "on" may even mean "you" but generally it's not polite. Imagine that someone you don't like wants to borrow some money from you. You can answer : "Alors, on veut de l'argent ?" with the meaning: "So, you suddenly remembered of my existence, and you came and found me because you need money?" You can even say : "Alors comme ça, on veut de l'argent ?", showing that you think it was really a bold move. And you can add : "C'est (vachement) gonflé !" ("You're (really) audacious!"). You can even use "on" instead of "I" in some rare cases. Imagine that someone rings your bell and insists before you're able to reach the door. You can say: "On arrive !" instead of "J'arrive !" with the meaning: "Someone's coming (me)!"
I've always found this quite interesting, because English did almost the opposite, we dropped "one" and replaced it with a generalised "you", (such as "you shouldn't steal" instead of "one mustn't steal")
I learned "cest le bordel" watching french reality tv!!! I love it!!! All the character. Great video
There are no more real brothels in France since the 50s when a law prohibited brothels. Therefore youngsters do not associate "Bordel!" with something in the real life. It's often used the sam way as "oh shit!" in english, sometimes with several similar slurs whenever the "shit" is very "shitty" : "Ho! Putain de bordel de merde!"
hahaha :)
What shows are you watching?
@@Sunny888 and I watch movies in French with French subtitles since I live in France for a year.
I like your videos. You can tell Charlie isn’t french, but he speaks so well. Really cool videos.
ah thanks :))
StreetFrench.org I think I was wrong about Charlie. I’ve watched more and I he does sound french. I showed my girlfriend (she is from Bretagne) and she said he sounds perfect.
@@makeyourself1988 ah yeah I didn't really comment on that, but I would agree with your girlfriend, his French is amazing^^
I just love your channel. It's so helpful.
Y'all are the best! Y'all give me hope one day I'll get a handle on learning French and FINALLY make progress
ow thank you for this comment :):) yeah just keep practicing and meet people! you don't have to learn a whole language on your own. try to have fun doing it ^^
You aren’t lying about some of these. Very accurate. I’m a French teacher, and whenever my students call my name, my immediate response is “Qu’est-ce qu’il y a?”, but of course the y gets dropped every time 😂. I’ve never translated it for them, but they know il y a & qu’est-ce, so I figure they can put 2 and 2 together
Thank you so much! Lessons like these are invaluable!
Definitely I'm in the process of mastering French.
2:23 In my native language (Bengali) also when someone is leaving his/her home he/she will say "আমি আসছি" aami aaschhi means I'm coming but it means he's/she's leaving. 😊😊
ah interesting :)
When you were talking about être à fond you also said gas pedal all the way down where I’m from in the U.S. we say pedal to the metal
That’s peDal to the metal, as in the gas pedal, pushed down to the metal of the car floor.
PeterPaul175 yeah but we say it like going all out
ah cool didn't know that^^
Or you can say "floor it" to mean the same thing...
"You better floor it, we're late AF"
There's quite a few English phrases that fit this quite well, "balls to the wall" has the same meaning and actually a very similar origin, it came from pilots, in many planes the throttle levers have little balls on top (kind of like a gear stick) and when you go full throttle you push the balls all the way forward until they are almost touching the firewall
Also the phrase "balls out", which also actually doesn't have as dirty an origin as it sounds, it comes from old steam engines, where the flyball governor had 2 little balls that would spin round, and when the engine was at max power they would come out the farthest, both phrases simply mean to go at it 100%, with maximum effort, and like I said are actually not dirty despite how they sound
“Ça n’a pas de sens“
literally translates to
“That doesn’t have sense”
(Have = Avoir) - (Has = A)
“Ça n’a aucun sens”
literally translates to
“That has no sense”
En Quebec on dit “ça fait pas du sens” haha je crois que c’est une traduction exacte d’anglais
haha ah oui c'est marrant ^^
Au Québec c'est "ça fait pas de sens" ou "ça aucun sens" mais devrait être "ça pas de bon sens".
Il y a bien une expression "Ca fait sens" en France, mais elle a une signification différente. C'est dans l'idée de "ça donne du sens", pour dire que quelque chose te semble logique et sensé, ou bien dans une situation où il y a quelque chose que tu viens de comprendre et qui te semblait un peu étrange au départ. Imaginons que ton patron licencie le meilleur employé de la compagnie du jour au lendemain, et que tu apprennes par la suite qu'en réalité, cet employé a détourné de l'argent. A ce moment-là tu te dis : "Ah, ça fait sens". Mais ce n'est pas une expression très répandue.
Nobody says "je prends ma voiture pour aller au travail". We say "je prends ma bagnole pour aller au boulot". Nobody says "je m'achète des vêtements", mais "je m'achète des fringues". Good books of French should teach that, because we see people who have a very good level in French who don't understand our language. I recommand you to read the book "Sky, my husband", where French expressions are translated "at the foot of the letter". So, sorry, I have to leave you and eat my bite-mister and a little Swiss (un croque-monsieur et un petit-suisse).
Intéressant à savoir, au Québec on dirait ces deux phrases
@@marieportage Oui, j'ai une amie franco-québécoise, et quand elle vient en France, elle est parfois obligée de demander ce que veulent dire certaines expressions. "Quoi, tu ne sais pas ce qu'est une bagnole? tu ne sais pas ce que veut dire aller au taf? ou au turbin. Tu ne sais pas ce que veut dire "je me tire" (ou je me casse)?"
I had recently heard "C'est quoi ce bordel!" in Au service de la France, on Netflix. At the time it seemed an odd expression, but your description or translation totally puts it in context now. Thanks for an informative video.
ah cool ! glad it helped! :)
If you like "Au service de la France", you should try "OSS 117" movies with Jean Dujardin (if you haven't yet). It's hilarious and there's a lot of old fashioned french expressions.
_Grave_ might also be an alternative term for _à fond._ It’s a dictionary word, but used slightly differently.
An example in use:
« Tu la kiffes? »
« Mec, grave. »
It almost connotes a level of desperation. Literally it means “seriously” or “gravely,” but there can be a sense of hopelessness in it, almost like a Shakespearean tragic flaw, to catch a sense of the poetry of using the word this way.
It’s 100% vernacular, 0% what you’d say to impress academics who you haven’t already proven your classroom cred to.
interesting :):)
Do you have videos for professional expressions/words?
ah no not yet but it's a great idea, we should do that :)
A few terms/phrases I like and hear a lot but wasn't taught in school are "c'est pas vrai!" (No way!), "c'est n'importe quoi" (That's BS/Whatever) and "insupportable" (Unbearable)
ah yeah these are great too :):)
N’imp ( BS )
My favorite channel!
ah cool glad you enjoy our videos :) Grammar is also important, but yeah try to use the language as much as you can in between lessons^^
Extremely useful ! Huge thanks.
you're welcome! :)
You guys are great!
It's so strange, all of my French teachers in school were young people from France or francophone countries and get they still taught us the type of French which you say isn't really spoken. Always using inversions, always using on to mean one etc.
I understand the importance of knowing the formal language too but it's strange that we did a whole week on talking about skin cancer in French but we're never taught this stuff.
oh yeah they definitly have to teach the proper French but yeah it's too bad they don't at least mention spoken French sometimes. But I've seen in the comments some people saying their teachers mentionned the difference, so it probably also depends on the school and the teacher.
The problem is that the teacher doesn't set the course, the course material and examinations are set by the government, and if they ignore that and just teach informal french anyway then there's going to be some questions when it comes to exam time and none of your students get decent marks. The best you could do is teach it anyway, but let the students know that it doesn't actually work like that nowadays
I love these tips! Merci!
de rien :):)
this is so useful! Merci!
de rien ! :):)
J’ai la double nationalité américaine française. Ma mère est de Metz. Sa soeur (ma tante) elle habitait tout sa vie adulte à Lausanne. I never ever noticed any difference between the French of Switzerland and France. So be careful Charlie. Le français du Canada, alors là une sacrée différence! Il faut vraiment que je me tendes les oreilles pour les comprendre.
ah alors il y a un accent particulier en Suisse mais tout le monde ne l'a pas. Par exemple, j'ai des amis de Toulouse et d'Aix-en-Provence et on parle tous exactement de la même manière. les accents se perdent petit à petit. Mais oui c'est pas aussi différent que le français au canada :)
StreetFrench.org Je me corrige... toute sa vie d’adulte. J’ai véçu à Strasbourg pendant quatre ans à la fin des années soixante-dix. et il existe un accent alsacien assez prononcé. En effet, mes grand-parents maternels ils étaient des villages en Alsace.(Bas-Rhin). Juste un peu de mon histoire,
J’suis chaude ! Literally had no idea what that meant at first
haha^^
means she need a cold shower ;p
"J’suis chaude !" means "I want s*x" :-)
That's actually funny because in french canada it means "i'm drunk" and j'suis gelé (i'm cold) means i'm high
t'es chaud can also mean are you keen for something but not in a sexual way
Trés utile pour les débutants. J'ai envoyé le lien a mon frere, qui commence ses études français.
ah super merci :))
J’étudie française et J’aime ton le videos. Merci.
j'aime tes/vos vidéos*
merci ! :):)
J’étudie le français et j’aime vos vidéos ❤️
On dit “je parle français” mais plutôt “j’étudie le français” parce que c’est un métier 😊
This was amazing... love love ... thank you so much guys :-))
ah cool merci ! :)
Salut, vous devez faire un segment entre la différence “des renseignments et des informations”. Je crois que les renseignments c’est plus personnels. And the word “to meet”. Several different ways to say “to meet”. Se retrouver, Se voir. “Recontrer” is just when you first meet someone. Or how about, “I ran into someone”. Je suis tombée sur qqn. (no courir!)
ah bonnes idées :)
The auto translation on this is GOLD 🤣🤣🤣🤣
hahaha :)
We use very often to say "être à donf" almost as often as "être à fond".
ah I think that "être à donf" is a bit oldschool now. it was popular when I was a teenager and young people today wouldn't say that anymore. slang comes and goes really fast ^^
but I'm sure some people still say it and it's ok. I wouldn't say it's used as often though.
re: swearing on US tv - when was the last time you watched US tv?? LOL
hm, sorry? we watch clips from american shows all the time online and they blip things. blipping doesn't exist in France^^
Most of the swearing you hear on American TV is on premium channels like HBO, Starz, Showtime, etc. Regular cable channels and public stations can only use a few words, and I believe those are restricted to certain time periods.
The Brits swear more on tv
Very informative, thank you.
I don’t get it when people want to learn swear words in any language.
That happened to me when I first went to an elementary school in Seattle, Washington, after moving there from Lima, Perú. Kids, mainly boys, wanted to know vulgar words. Quite frankly I didn’t even know any, I was 7 years old, (after living there for a year), so I never told them, I just said I didn’t speak in that manner. My family never used swear words in our home.
you're welcome^^ah yeah interesting point of view. I think it depends on different cultures, how someone has been brought up, and personally does someone like to use swear words. I can tell you in France it's really common to use them, people don't get offended, you can hear it on TV sometimes so to me it's normal to learn an teach those things. But I'm sure there are some French people who are totally against speaking like that^^ It's also about personal preference I guess
StreetFrench.org - Thank you for your response.
It wasn’t before, at least in the circles I’m in. Being a Christian is probably the reason. However, I hear it at work and at times while out in public. My friends don’t speak in that manner, neither does my husband or I.
I especially see it in social media a lot. No one cares to check what they’re saying. Of course once said it is forever seen by others. I would think that there’s a reason to have others view one as being respectful and having morals. Guess that went out the window a long time ago and I’m in the minority.
The best to you and your crew in your endeavor.
@@gladysbrown8449 ah yeah I see what you mean :)
Might also be good, as an adult, to understand what people are saying to you in your context.
So interesting how "je suis" becomes "shui" ... I will start using that. Thanks! But no wonder I couldn't understand anyone in Paris. 😆
Glad it was helpful!☺
Wait, so do people also say “il arrive” to say he’s coming or does that only mean he’ll be back? When I studied in Paris for a semester my classmates always said this during attendance in the morning when someone wasn’t there.
ah yeah in that context it means "he's coming/he's on his way"
we just focused on the other meaning because we see that people don't really know that and it's used really frequently too^^
for exemple if someone is in his way. you can say “il arrive” and if someone went somewhere and he’ll be back soon. you can also say “attendez, il arrive” means “wait, he’ll be back”
It appears to me that the use of “on” in the context of e.g. “on nous dit que..”, “on nous traîte avec respect” etc. can be better translated as “they” (they tell/treat us). In such case the identity/identities of “they” is/are not specified.
yeah that works ^^
@@Street_French Merci pour la réponse!
Floor it!!!- être à fond !!!😂 that's a good one.
ah yeah that's a good translation ! :)
On m'a dit Can be equally used to express i heard that ??
what is your question? sorry didn't understand
@@Street_French I think what he meant was another meaning for "On m'a dit..." would be in English "I heard that...". For example "On m'a dit que tu es Parisienne = I heard that you're Parisian.
Hiya, these are fab! Must take notes... 😉. Have a lovely week! Jet 🧡🎸🎶⚡️🦇🦇🦇
thank you, glad you enjoyed our videos :)
Weird question. Clearly English and French do not translate directly for a lot of mistranslations. Just wondering how would one best translate “Street French” into French? The connotation of “street” as used in English is not the same. And the translations that are more along the lines of “slang” lack the connotation of street as we use it in English. Many times I find losing that street use of words both in english and french gets frustrating to have to adjust to more literal words but they totally lose that visceral punch.
You know the more I think of it-J’arrive is I’ll be right back et Je reviens is I’ll be back.
yeah exactly but "j'arrive" also means "I'm on my way"
StreetFrench.org Oui, je sais.
Thank you! I’m a new subscriber and find your videos very useful. How Paris centric would you say the phrases are? Would you hear a person from, say, Nantes or Rennes saying these or the things in the Swearing Like a Parisian book?
Erika White I don’t know about the book but everything they said in this video is used in the same way wherever in France. It’s not particularly « parisien ».
ah that's a great question. to be honest I can exactly answer because I don't know that many people from other cities. But the few friends that I have that are from the south of France for example speak like me. I'm sure they have other types of expressions but the base is pretty much the same^^
@@tithannisk7470 There are local particularisms and accents of course (if not "patois", regional languages besides french), but the french spoken in France has very standardized basis all over the country.
That’s very good I hope you do meeting In Paris too for practice French and more know the culture
ah good idea :)
"On m'a dit..." should probably be translated by "I've been told..." instead of "someone told me...", shouldn't it ?
it's pretty much the same thing^^
I’ve been told would rather be translated as « Il m’a été dit » a form that is rarely used, « on m’a dit seems more accurate to me.
But I mean "I've been told" is used pretty often in English, kinda in the same way French people use "on m'a dit" isn't it ? Like "On m'a dit qu'il y avait un restaurant par ici" "I've been told there were a restaurant over here"
Izanagiix it’s not the same. in french “I’ve been told” means “Il m’a été dit” and “someone told me that” it’s like “quelqu’un m’a dit que” and quelqu’un = On so “On m’a dit que”
@@marwaessaadi Yes but in French "il m'a été dit" is not really used. What I mean is that in English we use "I've been told" frequently, the same way French people use "on m'a dit"
Qu'est-ce qu'il y a vos chansons français (moderne) preferées? J'écoute beaucoup d'artistes comme Zaz et Claude Capeo et Kyo, mais je veux vachment savoir les vrais chansons que les français écoutent.
aujourd'hui les gens écoutent par exemple Angèle, Roméo Elvis, Aya nakamura, Clara Luciani, Eddy de Pretto, PNL, etc...
@@Street_French oui, j'ai écouté to ces artitstes, mais je n'e les aime pas du tout; je prefere rock
@@apprendreanglais58 ok :) vous pouvez chercher rock français dans google
@@Street_French Yeah, but a lot of the French music videos are blocked in the US on youtube or google. RUclips.fr obviously not, which is why i was asking for your recommendations.
@@apprendreanglais58 ah really ? yeah you can find everything on youtube. and just look for artists on google and then check out their music on youtube^^ we don't listen to French Rock sorry.
I personally, have never seen a "messy" bordel! they have all been extremely tidy & welcoming,
Or how "Qu'est-ce qu'il y a ?" becomes "Keskya ?" in a Parisian mouth :)) It's same for "Qu'est-ce que tu as" --> "Kesta ?", "Kestufou ?" (What are you doing?), "Kestudvien ?" ("What's up?" or "How you been?") There's also the famous ..."Adtaleur !" (À tout à l'heure ! which means "C ya later!.") Le français des parigots c'est ...Portnawak ! (n'importe quoi ! - Verlan arrangé sauce cité de banlieue) :)))
Is it difficult to talk in French on the phone to native speakers? I have a friend from Napal and one from Korea, I find it hard to understand what they are saying over the phone. I would think that is a very hard thing to do.
yeah I think talking to someone on the phone is really tricky because you can't see the person. we get a lot of informations from their expressions, maybe sometimes read from their lips without even thinking about it. but it's just another thing to practice^^
Listening to podcasts can be good for this, I found it tricky at first but it's really improved my listening skills
Hey Maia, are there a lot of slang expressions used by Croatian young people?
ah yeah a lot ! Whenever I go to Croatia, I hang out with my croatian cousin who's 19 and it's funny to hear her talk. for exemple, they use a lot of words that they write or say in a croatian way. it's exactly like in France it's interesting^^
"a donf" (meaning "a fond", could be old fashioned?)
ah yeah it's a bit old fashion today, I would never say it (I'm 30) and I'm sure that people who are younger that me would never say it etheir
👍merci
de rien :):)
Can you explain these kinds of words: en fait, du coup, enfin, en vrai, etc. Description and how to use these kinds of words.
il y a une vidéo qui explique ça
ruclips.net/video/KySYAW1P0J8/видео.html
après 'que' c'est subjonctif toujours?
So c’est l’arnaque means its not good actually? Or just to say it’s fake?
no it's more like "I was expecting more and what they did is so bad. they tricked us, they conned us, they scammed us" I don't know if it makes sense in english.
or like you paid a lot for something and then you realised it's really bad. They scammed you
StreetFrench.org that’s to say something is far away from my expectation, and i felt like i have been lied ,tricked. Right?
Juste pour vous, pour un peu plus de dynamisme à la vidéo, vous pouvez mettre une musique en fond sonore, vraiment pas fort mais ça à mon avis ça peut rendre la vidéo encore plus agréable à regarder
Sinon super intéressant :)
ah merci pour votre avis mais avant on avait toujours de la musique en fond mais ça dérangeait les gens du coup on arrête d'en mettre :)
@@Street_French Ah mince désolé ^^
En tout cas super vidéo continuez :D
@@yannor7 haha ça va tout le monde a des préférences différentes on dirait :)
merci en tout cas :)
well if you ever end up in quebec here a couple words you may need to understand : tabarnak, crisse, calise (curse words)
When are you gonna do a video about the accent of quebec??
I will I will :) we have so many videos to make haha^^
ruclips.net/video/A9rh3lqdtT0/видео.html is the best and more usefull video on RUclips about the subject. The guy does a damn good job.
Au Québec on dit "Kess kia?"
ah cool :)
you are the best:))
merci :):)
Interesting, you should maybe think about addind a background music to your videos. Something that doesn't stand out
If someone is using vulgar language, how would you tell them to "Watch your language" or "Watch your mouth." ?
depends on the context, we don't have that exact expression. so we could say "fait attention à ce que tu dis" or "parles pas comme ça" or "soit pas vulgaire" etc...
'Ça sert à quoi? / Ça sert à rien?' : What's the use? Any use? To what purpose? What's the goal?
'On m'a dit que...' : I was told ..., I heard that (some)..., I'have heard...
Ha! My french classes are useless :(
nope, not at all. it just depend on the context. Can you imagine live in France and only speak with close friends ? It's an illusion. You'll speak with unknown people most of the time.
thierryf67 Thank you, I love French but the language classes are so boring with a lot of grammar. I’m finishing my last class now, so I’m gonna keep a positive mindset. Nice comment ❤️❤️
ah yeah it's ok, you're learning a lot in class, but there's definitely a lot more to learn during conversations :) try to do both if you can :)
Why is letter s there is you have to skip it at all?)) They dont pronounce it the end
Letter s at the end is for the plural (les amis - friends, les voitures - cars) (as in english) ... but also with conjugaison (the french conjugaison is more complex than in English) especially with the 2nd person singular (tu - you) and the 1st person plural (nous - we) (tu vas - you go, nous sommes - we are, nous voyageons - we travel, tu conduiras - you will drive/ you are driving, nous mentions - we lied/ we were lying)
that's just how the language works and how it is ^^
Omg thank you for your answers, but it was a joke indeed. I pretty much love how french sounds and plan to learn it in future
@@lilazeepnatuurlijk706 ah cool ok ^^
I love you guys. These videos are the shits
J’ai une questione-C’est mieux de dire “on” au lieu de “nous” en se référant à we? On m’a dit que c’est dépassé d’utilizer “nous”. Merci.
oui exactement.dans la vie de tous les jours, je ne dis JAMAIS "nous" pour "we". par contre dans un mail très professionnel et très formel je vais écrire "nous".
StreetFrench.org Oui, c’est ce que j’ai entendu parler. Les points fins d’une langue. J’ai mal écrit question-le méme! Bon après-midi! (j’habite en Floride).
Je trouve incroyable que vous n'expliquiez pas le sens premier de "Bordel" qui signifie un lieu où se pratique la prostitution... C'est un mot encore utilisé en France.
vous avez apparement pas bien regardé la vidéo parce qu'on l'explique et on a même écrit la traduction en anglais..
When you were saying "C'est une arnaque," why didn't you pronounce the "t" when it was followed by a vowel sound "une"?
because that's how we really speak in French. We don't do ALL the "liaisons" in French, even though that's what you're taught in class.
@@Street_French I'd like to qualify that comment a bit, though. I personally use liaisons from time to time, depending on the context, the kind of person I'm conversing with, or even the mood (if I feel like talking chill, or rather in a literate way). And to Meh, I want to say: you HAVE to learn the "liaisons", no matter what. First, some of them are always pronounced. And they will help you reach a better understanding of the vocabulary you're using anyway, even if you end up not using them.
On m’a dit que ... = I was told that ...
yeah that's a good translation too^^
Ca sert á quoi - Is there no liaison with "sert á..."? Merci d'avance.
no there's no liaison there ^^
C’est quoi ce bordel can be seen as WTF?! En anglais. 😉
ah yeah great translation!
It is silly, c’est bon!,,
Ah, bah ouais: on adore trop les gros mots, assez bien sûr ({; D ...!
haha ^^
Could it simply be “ they say” (On dit)? Non?
On m'a dit... = I was told...
Do the French say Like Like Like incessantly Like Like Like ?
yeah there's the word "genre" but it's more used by younger people. but I don't know if you can say it as much as "like" in english
🙏🙏🙏
Mr6 bqp les gars 🙈😍
ah de rien ! 😀
On peut dire: je ne peux pas t’entendre/ je ne peux pas te voir
je crois que la négation préalable a disparu de la langue française actuelle v.v
Ben, donc, alors, genre, en fait, quoi! I teach filler words...but many prof de français do NOT. Peut-être...une leçon à propos de ça?
yeah we should definitly talk about that^^
I REALLY need the filler words, it helps to keep your thoughts on track.
"Je m'en fous", c'est une phrase grossier ?
Pas vraiment ... C’est je m’en fiche.. entre les deux je m’en fous est moins offensif que je m’en fiche.
C'est très courant. Son origine est très grossière mais l'usage est très accepté dans tout contexte non formel.
Justise Watt sorry but it’s the opposite. « Je m’en fiche » would be translated as « I don’t care » whereas « Je m’en fous » would be translated as « I don’t give a f... ». However, amongst friends you would probably say the latter more than the former.
@@justisewatt3686 vraiment ? pour moi s'en foutre est plus grossier que s'en ficher.
@@tithannisk7470 I feel like almost no one use je m'en fiche. I'm pretty sure I don't give a F is more offensive than je m'en fous even the literal meaning is closer.
In France to really be offensive you'll have to use something like je m'en bats les c.uilles (sometime shorten to je m'en balec.).
Somewhere in the middle if you need a variant you can use j'en ai rien à carrer.
Funny, my french lessons weren't that bad at all...
ah yeah you learned some of these things? that's great ^^
Yeah, not each and every one of them but things like "ça n'a pas de sens" or "je t'entend pas". They didn't seem too unfamiliar
"It's how we speak in Paris, if you're from Switzerland or Canada.."
Yeah, because we all know Paris is a country
That's one thing you HAVE TO know if you come to France. Paris is NOT France
haha yeah I guess we kind of took a shortcut there lol
it's because we get comments from people saying they're from Canada or Switzerland and they don't always agree with some things we teach. what we really meant to say was French from France versus other French speaking countries^^ (because we can't speak for them)
They said “French from France” too but sure just ignore that
@@philodactyl what's the problem with that? there's many French speaking countries or region where the language is slightly different. especially slang etc..
God she's so cute lol
The subtitles on this video are dreadful!
pourquoi tu si intelligent
:)
N'importe quoi!