Spoken French and slang: what people really say

Where did the ne go?

In everyday speech almost everyone drops ne, from teenagers to government ministers: the pas carries the negation on its own. Understand it and use it with friends, but keep ne in writing and in the exam.

• 🔊C'est pas grave.It doesn't matter. (standard: Ce n'est pas grave.)
• 🔊J'ai pas le temps.I haven't got time. (standard: Je n'ai pas le temps.)
• 🔊On sait jamais.You never know. (standard: On ne sait jamais.)

Swallowed sounds

Fast speech squeezes common words together. Tu es becomes t'es, tu as becomes t'as, il y a becomes y a, and je suis can sound like « chuis ». Once you know the patterns, native speakers suddenly become much easier to follow.

• 🔊T'as vu le match ?Did you see the match?
• 🔊Y a du monde !It's busy! (lit. there are people)
• 🔊Chuis crevé.I'm knackered.

Three registers

French speakers move between three registers: familier (friends, family), courant (standard, safe everywhere) and soutenu (formal writing, speeches). Slang is familier. Understand it, use it with friends, and switch to courant at work and in the exam.

• 🔊Familier : Il bosse dans un resto.Informal: He works in a restaurant.
• 🔊Courant : Il travaille dans un restaurant.Standard: He works in a restaurant.
• 🔊Soutenu : Il exerce dans la restauration.Formal: He works in the catering trade.

Translate it back

When you hear slang, map it to its courant equivalent in your head. DELF recordings sometimes include casual speech, but your answers and your own writing must stay in standard French.

• 🔊J'ai pas de thune. → Je n'ai pas d'argent.I've got no money.
• 🔊C'est un mec sympa. → C'est un homme sympathique.He's a nice guy.
• 🔊Je suis crevé. → Je suis très fatigué.I'm exhausted.

How verlan works

Verlan flips a word's syllables: fou → ouf, femme → meuf. It is much older than people think, but it took off in the Paris suburbs in the 1970s and 80s and spread through rap and youth culture. A handful of verlan words, like meuf, relou and chelou, are now used by people of all ages, always in a familier register.

• 🔊fou → oufcrazy
• 🔊fête → teufparty
• 🔊louche → cheloushady, weird

From verlan to standard

Keep a mental two-column list. In an exam or a formal email, always use the right-hand word.

• 🔊une meuf → une femme, une copinea woman, a girlfriend
• 🔊relou → pénibleannoying
• 🔊chelou → bizarreweird
• 🔊vénère → énervéfurious

French beyond France

Québec and West Africa have their own everyday words. They aren't « wrong » French: they're the local norm. Learn to recognise them, and know what someone in France would say instead.

• 🔊Québec : Mon char est en panne.My car has broken down.
• 🔊France : Ma voiture est en panne.My car has broken down.

West African French

In Abidjan, Dakar, Douala or Lomé, French lives alongside local languages and English and makes its own expressions. Nouchi, the street French of Abidjan, has given the wider French-speaking world words like s'enjailler. These are mostly familier, apart from présentement and ça va aller, which you'll hear in any setting.

• 🔊On dit quoi ? — On est là !What's up? — All good!
• 🔊Présentement, il est en réunion.He's in a meeting right now.

Scene: Karim's birthday

Alice, an engineer from São Paulo now working in Paris, goes to her colleague Karim's birthday party. Guests from Paris and Montréal talk fast and casually, and later her friend Awa video-calls from Abidjan. Keep up!