I'm 43 (French) and most of these words in 'verlan' were already used when I was a teenager (more than 25 years ago). I don't live and France and I'm quite surprised to see that the spoken language evolves at a slower pace than I expected. What I find interesting is that people will use certain words and expressions based on their age group, and adapt their language throughout their life. So you or I don't use certain expressions used by teenagers, not necessarily because they are new (we may have used them in the past, again language changes at quite a slow pace), but because we don't belong to that age group anymore.
I'm American. When I first started hanging out with friends in France, I had been studying French for six years, and I read and wrote it everyday, and I had had good teachers so I could speak it fairly well, but I had a lot of trouble understanding it when spoken at normal speed because in class everyone spoke slowly, there was no Netflix, no TH-cam, French movies and TV weren't available, and aside from Edith Piaf and Charles Aznavour, French music wasn't to be found. (I was so excited when a friend told me about a store in Montreal that did mail order CDs - that's when I discovered Indochine and Noir Désir and Zazie and Matmatah and Mylène Farmer!) So people would speak slower for me if I asked, but of course without thinking they'd soon return to normal speed, particularly when we were in a group and most of them were French. Then with the slang, and the gros mots, and the heavy verlan on top of it (this was in the 90s), and I spoke textbook French, and I realized my oral comprehension was really awful. I remember going with a friend to her brother's girlfriend's birthday party. I could not follow a conversation at all. So I made my friend start teaching me all the slang and verlan! Lol. I had another friend who spoke really fast and he would always ask "On va chezouamouchezouat?" Like it was one word. Took me a while to work that one out. He also said "On y go?" a lot, and the first time he did it, I was like "on y quoi??" "On y go." Hein?? "Go. ... Go. Tu connais le mot 'go'?" No. I was still perplexed and trying to figure out what this French word meant. He was getting pissed off (we were all quite drunk, tbh). Finally he shouted "Mais putain, c'est de l'anglais, bordel! Tu connais pas l'anglais ?!" Oh, "GO"!!!! Why didn't you just say so?! 😁 Now 20+ years later, I'm fine, I've spent a lot of time in France, even lived there for a while, but I don't get to go as often. I was last there for my goddaughter's wedding a couple years ago. Alors tout ça pour vous dire que, bien que je pense que c'est important d'apprendre et de parler un français correct pour pouvoir communiquer avec n'importe qui, même des étrangers ou des personnes âgées, It's good to know how French is really spoken today, if for no other reason than to be able to understand when someone else is speaking. I wish I'd had someone like you guys when I was learning all those years ago! And I really like watching your videos. I sometimes tutor students in French myself (I've started teaching my baby cousin!), so you also remind me of things I should explain to them. Keep up the good work!
Thank you for sharing . I have the same problem, I understand standard French fairly well but I really struggle with it while watching movies and TV shows
@@hellophoenix Honestly, it's just time and practice. Keep watching TV shows and movies. If you have something like Netflix, there are French shows and movies on there (some quite good!) and there are subtitles to help. Another good thing to watch is the French newscasts. The daily ones from France 2 and France 3 are available for free on their website, even outside of France, in replay. You also have France 24 available via app or on TH-cam, and now FranceInfo as well on TH-cam. All free. There are no subtitles on those, but it's good practice and a lot of times if you know what's happening in the world, along with the images, you can figure it out from context. And they have interviews with people, people from different regions with different accents, and people tend to speak naturally, so that you get used to hearing the slang and such. If you are able to get something like TV5Monde via cable or satellite, that is great as well. Most things are subtitled in French and/or English, and you can learn a lot that way. It gets your ears used to the sounds, and helps the words stick in your mind. Especially if you watch some of the newer tv shows on there, with all the slang. Practice, practice, practice.
La Haine is a good film to watch with lots of Verlan slang in it. The rebellious protagonists often refer to the police as “les keufs/les flics” and they say things like “téma la vache”. The social context is really interesting.
The British analogue of le verlan is Cockney Rhyming slang. It's been around for ages. Instead of reversing the syllables, you say two words that rhyme with, and replace, the first word. For example, frog and toad (road), boat race (face), brown bread (dead), apples and pears (stairs), and the one that everyone gives as an example, trouble and strife (wife).
I find it really difficult to catch everyone word when French people speak. I don't understand why there is so much emphasis on pronunciation in French classes when, at the end of the day, French people speak so fast that it doesn't seem to matter if us, second or third language speakers, pronounce French correctly or not. For example, at 7:43 "Tu peux me prete quelquechose 2spi?" What it sounds like is "chupenpretekelchos 2spi?". So, what I think I need is to listen to A LOT of street French.
Ah yeah it's important to listen to how French is actually spoken and pronounced that's true! But it's also important to learn how to properly pronounce something slowly first to be able to slur it after I think. Just like drawing, you need to learn how to draw real people, learn how the structure of the body works before you try and make simplified cartoon characters. But yeah definitely practice listening to real spoken French while you're learning really meticulous pronounciation :) Our vlogs can be a good practice for you :))
Yes, I'm not sure that to have a good pronounciation is a mandatory for to understand. I have a French accent when I speak (approximate) english but I don't think it influences my understanding of English speakers. Pronounciation is anyway a good thing : it's a way to be polite by showing some minimal effort to be understood, and may even save you. I remember in the French tube some lost US tourist in Paris, begging for "hey to hill", and nobody understood he was searching to go to the "Etoile" metro station... :)
@streetfrench.org you should also mention the verlan of the verlan ... which doesnt revert back to the original word but something different ( like "beur" , "reubeu" for instance )
Thanks so much for this. I only found out about this a few weeks ago on my Uni course and it's going to be in my exam in a few weeks, alors merci beaucoup, c'est très utile!
Ah yes. Une meuf and une tof (photo) I had heard from French friends (in 2003). UPDATE: Where I live is "technically" verlan, but definitely wasn't when it was made. J'habite au Vermont (aux États-Unis). Les MONTagnes VERTes. Voilà, Vermont. (some people say it came from > (versmont -> vermont) but I prefer the septième siècle verlan xD
I just stumbled across this channel and it turns out that videos are actually quite useful and informative,so merci bcp! And since it's already a video on a form of slang and you're still being active in the comments: could you tell me what the word "nabot" means? I came across this one sometime ago and have no idea what it could mean,while it also seems to me that it's some form of slang or smth. Btw it'd also be interesting to see some videos on other forms of slang in the future. Louchébem for example. If you'd be eager to make them of course
thanks for you comment :) "Nabot" is a term we rarely use nowadays (I had to go look it up) and it means "a small person" but in a vulgar and mean way. apparently they used to say that for "midgets". so yeah it's pretty offensive apparently, don't use it haha. And I've never heard of "Louchébem" either, had to look it up too. It looks fun but honestly no one ever talks like that today. It's really old school and was used by very specific people.
@@Street_French That's totally understandable. I'm not fully aware of how French people talk on a daily basis nowadays,since I've actually never been to France directly,so I may have some things mixed up in my mind. But that's actually the case with having contact only with written language on social media,even if it's still very informal. I rarely even see Verlan being used in this kind of "communication",altho it happens from time to time. Tbh some loanwords from arabic seem to be used more prominently (mostly by southeners,from my experience so far,but I might be mistaken) in the written form than Verlan and those can be quite confusing
Loucherban is actualky kinda of « Verlan 201 ». It means boulanger which in verlan could be « langébou » but on top of it you reverse once again but the vocals only « lougéban ». And to finish and make it easier... you slur the syllabe in the middle and « gé » becomes « cher » « loucherban ».
Question, what is the word for DOPE in French/French slang? Like, "Yo! That's dope!"? Brooklyn in the house, I use "dope" incessantly, and would love to know how to say this in French. I've seen it in some subtitles of French shows/movies before, but I can never go back and actually pick out the word when listening. I'm assuming because its in verlan, I wouldn't recognize the word. Please help a brotha out...Big ups from BK!
@@Street_French chanmé another example of verlan for «méchant» wich in slang can means «awesome» :) [it can lead to some miscommunication because it is a very informal use of the word, méchant is more commonly used as «mean, bad», but the verlan version «chanmé» always means «awesome»]
Hello. Is it possible you could do a video on discourse markers please? One word I always hear a lot in France is 'franchement', which is one of those words that I never remember learning in school. Thank you.
Pour "Comme as" (perso j'ai jamais entendu cette expression je suis surement trop vieux mais..), si vous regardez des vieux films comme ceux d'Audiard, avec Lino Ventura et Bernard Blier par exemple, ils utilisent souvent l'expression "komak" ou "Comme-ac" qui est le vieux Verlan de "Comme ça". ^^
non. Comac c'est de l'argo . Rien à voir avec comme as.... Ça veut dire super, génial, au top. " c'est quand même pas comac! "(les tontons flingueurs) Oui je suis vieux.
Can you please explain the word ‘chez’? When I took French in middle school and high school, I would only hear that word refer to a ‘home’, but recently, I keep hearing it in different contexts and I’m so confused by its meaning. Could you please explain, or if you have already explained in another video, could you please link it in the response? New subscriber here, so I haven’t watched all of your videos.
So for the spellings of the verlan you put, were those meant just as pronunciation guides, or are they also the verlan spellings? For example, if you were texting someone, would you actually type "ché ap", or is that just so we know how to pronounce it? Thanks! :D
They're generally spelled the way you see it in the video like chelou, relou, etc... but there can be some variation at times as it's not standard French :)
Usually ppl can hear the difference between the two ché (bad pun intended). The one that means knowing has a stop. It 's like you trying to say ch twice. Some verlan words are so spread around that sometimes they get inverted again! Femme becomes meuf, but you can sometimes hear fe-me. It sounds totally different from femme, you have to say two e (like in œuf or œil). Cheers!
One of my favourite answers on the French version of ‘The Weakest Link’ (Le Maillon Faible) was a French woman, who when asked what the verlan of ‘à fond’ was, responded with a panicked ‘fond à?!’. I’ve never used or heard used ‘à donf’, but if I ever do, it’ll definitely make me think of that poor woman!
Prend soin de toi et de tes proches pendant cette période de confinement. Reste chez toi afin de le raccourcir. Quant à moi, j'étudie le français depuis longtemps. Mais je suis toujours étonné(et aussi déçu) par le volume de français argotique et populaire ou encore verlan. C'est un beau langage bien sûr. Mais parmi les cultures du monde, savez-vous si cet 'engouement' pour l'argot ou encore verlan est particulièrement fort chez les français?
Merci pour ce commentaire, on va bien et on fait attention, on espère que vous allez bien aussi. Ah oui l'argot a une grande place dans la langue française et ça fait toujours débat. Il y a les puristes de la langues qui n'aiment pas ça mais les langues évoluent et c'est pareil dans tous les pays du monde. Par contre, culturellement, c'est célébré en France de pouvoir parler "comme au comptoir du café du coin, c'est à dire parler un langage populaire ET AUSSI d'être capable de bien s'exprimer et maîtriser un niveau de langue supérieur. Je pense que cette particularité, cette bipolarité, c'est très français. Par exemple, des personnes comme Gérard Depardieu, Fabrice Lucchini, Guillaume Meurice maîtrisent bien le mélange des deux styles de français (argot et littéraire). Ferdinand Céline a été reconnu aussi dans son style d'écriture parce qu'il écrivait comme les gens parlaient. Mais bon au final, tout dépend de la situation économique, géographie, familiale, etc... des gens. Les classes populaires vont utiliser beaucoup plus d'argot.
@@Street_French Je vous remercie de votre prompte réponse. J'ai 62 ans maintenant et j'étudie ce langage par intermittence depuis l'âge de 27 ans. C'est vrai, cette bipolarité chez les français est très français. J'ai lu quelque part l'expression suivante concernant le caractère français. 'La France est le seul pays du monde où, si vous ajoutez dix citoyens à dix autres, vous ne faites pas une addition, mais vingt divisions'. La lutte des classes quoi! Continuez avec votre aventure de 'Street French'. Si j'ai quelques minutes à épargner, j'aime regarder votre chaîne. Il y a toujours quelques chose nouvelle à apprendre. Paul
@@gyp3xp48 ah c'est intéressant cette citation haha oui les français on un sacré caractère c'est vrai ^^ et merci pour ce commentaire, on est contents que notre chaîne vous plaise :))
I’ve been watching this show on Netflix called Plan Coeur. First I watched it with English subtitles now I’m watching it with French subtitles. How would you explain the slang word kiffe? I looked it up & it says to get off? Would you agree lol!
This is interesting! I don't really understand the point though... it seems like pig latin to me (in the way that words are formed) so I am surprised that verlan is widely used
A French teacher once told me it comes from the 60s, like teenagers wanted to rebel against society, so they started using Verlan, not sure if that's exactly true but it kinda makes sense ;) But yeah there are many things in French that don't make a whole lot of sense to me either xD especially anglicismes, there are so many even when they have a French equivalent already haha
What about the word "teuf?" Is it the best word for teens to use for "party?" I'm hesitant to teach my (American middle and high school) students slang words since they can change in a heartbeat and sound outdated, like the word "boum."
ah yeah I understand :) yeah I guess teuf is already a bit too old and not used. we just say "une soirée" :) je fais une soirée chez moi samedi, tu viens ?
@@Street_French Teuf is not outdated at all, and very used to describe a party in techno, punk, disco environments. "on va en teuf ?", "allez on va faire la teuf !", "j'lui ai fait sa teuf" (= I annoyed him real hard or I punched him good), "c'est la teuf ici !" (implicitely means the party surprises the person who says it). ;)
Teuf isn't outdated at all (see my other response below). Boum is used for little kids (party during an afternoon, 12 yo and less party nights), and can be used to be funny amongst friends. Childish terms can be used that way overall. "t'inquiète ils se font la bagarre" (= don't worry, they fight eachother like kids, with no intent to hurt bad) is an example.
oh my god "oh mon dieu" you can say oh my god , this my god " oh my dog in verlant this my dog in verlant" mdr oh mon iench !! c'est mon iench :) back to the TURFU :) téma it's my favorite french slang :)
Just to add a little something about « kif kif » you’d use it french like you could use in english (maybe it’s just in the U.S.A) « tomayto, tomahto » to imply that two things are in context, at least, the same.
It's actually a word coming from arab langage, means "fumer" (smoke, but mostly for marijuana or haschich) and as been changed to "aimer", years after years. Modern verlan evolves mostly because of migrant gethohoods in modern days.
This is one the french influence we use in trinidad and tobago patois ;Vai-ki-vai, vaille-que-vaille, vai-qui-vai, vie-que-vie, vike-e-vike,vi-ke-vi, vikey-vy, vy-kee-vy, vy-ki-vy (adj): Lackadaisical; disorderly; unplanned;chaotic; irresponsible; without care or thought. French Creole vai ki vai; French vaille que vaille ‘for better or worse’
@@Street_French Yes, with English words. I think it was a personal thing they were doing to sound funny, but I think they must have heard someone else doing it. I haven't heard anyone else do it for many years.
@@Street_French One German word comes to mind that I remember being used, Lingschmetter instead of Schmetterling ( papillon ) And I have heard English speakers do it, but not in conversation as such, just to use a word incorrectly on purpose as a joke.
I think "Keuf=Flic" is slang from English word " FUck" --> became : "KcuF/Keuf " because cops in France are particulary frowned upon from younger people, kinda a "Fucker guy" .That's my own explaination 😄. Some French slang words are build from English for example "deuspi" come from "speed" . "Teubé=Bête"" Warning !!!!! Do not confuse with " Teub" Do not forget sound "é" at the end else we have a whole different meaning 😄 ,I can't reveal it here sorry it's rude langage ... If you wanna know what does it mean ,you can just imagine in a man that is the main difference beetwen him and a woman , i can't say more 😄
Interesting how emotions get connected with words - but you have to live the language and be threatened by violence in real life to have those emotions in you
J'ai trouvé ça super rigolo. Mais je me mets à la place des non natifs qui regardent ça en mode... Wtf 😂 ? Mon message à vous qui essayez d'apprendre le Français : beaucoup d'entre-nous seraient quand même assez sympas pour ne pas parler en verlan devant vous. Parce que ce serait... Chelou. Et relou 😂 On ferait l'effort d'utiliser les vrais mots, rassurez-vous 😉
What's the point of doing this, I don't understand? I'm learning French, and I'm getting to the point where I need to find someone to converse with. But I really don't see the point of verlan.
Femme= meuf=femeu 🤣🤣( verlan from the verlan, mostly in Paris) Keuf doesn't come from flic but basiquely fuck (sorry for that) but in verlan. 22 vla les keufs!!! kind of "watch out! here come the one time!!!"
France - Verlan (l'envers) Uruguay, Argentina, Panamá - Vesre (Revés) Ελλάδα - Ποδανά Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia (mostly in Zagreb, Beograd and Sarajevo) - Šatrovački / Шатровачки I'm from Croatia, we use Šatrovački, it is equivalent of French Verlan, and there are Greek equivalent (Ποδανά) in Greece, and Spanish "Vesre" in bunch of Latinamerican countries.
Not an equivalent at all. Pig Latin is used exclusively by teenagers, who will then speak entirely in Pig Latin. Verlan is used as isolated words in ordinary speech and, even if it may be used more heavily by teens and by particular ethnic communities, various words are used by a much wider age-spread.
"Personally, I never use it". We don't want to know your idiosyncratic, neurotic individual use of the language. We want to know how it's used by a pop star, such as Foucault
it's really important to know that everyone speaks differently. I speak a certain way but my best friend who also lives in Paris has her style of speaking. she uses slang words and old school expressions I wouldn't never use EVER lol. So it's not "neurotic individualisme" or whatever you say... but it's important to know that fact. And we also often mention that because French is spoken in many countries all over the world and so the way I speak will be different from someone who's from Belgium, Quebec, Sénégal etc...
![[ENGSUB] UNPRODUCTIVE DAY ใช้ชีวิต (เปื่อยๆ) ด้วยกัน 1 วัน! | OUROAD CLOSEFRiEND SS2 EP.9](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pyYKZ3kra9w/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm 43 (French) and most of these words in 'verlan' were already used when I was a teenager (more than 25 years ago). I don't live and France and I'm quite surprised to see that the spoken language evolves at a slower pace than I expected. What I find interesting is that people will use certain words and expressions based on their age group, and adapt their language throughout their life. So you or I don't use certain expressions used by teenagers, not necessarily because they are new (we may have used them in the past, again language changes at quite a slow pace), but because we don't belong to that age group anymore.
I'm American. When I first started hanging out with friends in France, I had been studying French for six years, and I read and wrote it everyday, and I had had good teachers so I could speak it fairly well, but I had a lot of trouble understanding it when spoken at normal speed because in class everyone spoke slowly, there was no Netflix, no TH-cam, French movies and TV weren't available, and aside from Edith Piaf and Charles Aznavour, French music wasn't to be found. (I was so excited when a friend told me about a store in Montreal that did mail order CDs - that's when I discovered Indochine and Noir Désir and Zazie and Matmatah and Mylène Farmer!) So people would speak slower for me if I asked, but of course without thinking they'd soon return to normal speed, particularly when we were in a group and most of them were French. Then with the slang, and the gros mots, and the heavy verlan on top of it (this was in the 90s), and I spoke textbook French, and I realized my oral comprehension was really awful. I remember going with a friend to her brother's girlfriend's birthday party. I could not follow a conversation at all. So I made my friend start teaching me all the slang and verlan! Lol.
I had another friend who spoke really fast and he would always ask "On va chezouamouchezouat?" Like it was one word. Took me a while to work that one out. He also said "On y go?" a lot, and the first time he did it, I was like "on y quoi??" "On y go." Hein?? "Go. ... Go. Tu connais le mot 'go'?" No. I was still perplexed and trying to figure out what this French word meant. He was getting pissed off (we were all quite drunk, tbh). Finally he shouted "Mais putain, c'est de l'anglais, bordel! Tu connais pas l'anglais ?!" Oh, "GO"!!!! Why didn't you just say so?! 😁
Now 20+ years later, I'm fine, I've spent a lot of time in France, even lived there for a while, but I don't get to go as often. I was last there for my goddaughter's wedding a couple years ago. Alors tout ça pour vous dire que, bien que je pense que c'est important d'apprendre et de parler un français correct pour pouvoir communiquer avec n'importe qui, même des étrangers ou des personnes âgées, It's good to know how French is really spoken today, if for no other reason than to be able to understand when someone else is speaking. I wish I'd had someone like you guys when I was learning all those years ago! And I really like watching your videos. I sometimes tutor students in French myself (I've started teaching my baby cousin!), so you also remind me of things I should explain to them. Keep up the good work!
as a french it's hilarious. No offense.🤣
Thx for sharing
Thank you for sharing . I have the same problem, I understand standard French fairly well but I really struggle with it while watching movies and TV shows
@@hellophoenix Honestly, it's just time and practice. Keep watching TV shows and movies. If you have something like Netflix, there are French shows and movies on there (some quite good!) and there are subtitles to help. Another good thing to watch is the French newscasts. The daily ones from France 2 and France 3 are available for free on their website, even outside of France, in replay. You also have France 24 available via app or on TH-cam, and now FranceInfo as well on TH-cam. All free. There are no subtitles on those, but it's good practice and a lot of times if you know what's happening in the world, along with the images, you can figure it out from context. And they have interviews with people, people from different regions with different accents, and people tend to speak naturally, so that you get used to hearing the slang and such. If you are able to get something like TV5Monde via cable or satellite, that is great as well. Most things are subtitled in French and/or English, and you can learn a lot that way. It gets your ears used to the sounds, and helps the words stick in your mind. Especially if you watch some of the newer tv shows on there, with all the slang. Practice, practice, practice.
Omg you took my advice on a comment! I'm so happy, thanks! :)
Of course ;) we always try to do what our subscribers want us to do!
La Haine is a good film to watch with lots of Verlan slang in it. The rebellious protagonists often refer to the police as “les keufs/les flics” and they say things like “téma la vache”. The social context is really interesting.
ah yeah it's such agreat movie! ☺☺
Hi!That's so interesting for Japanese 30's who loves slang. ♡Merci! J'adore ca channel.
ah cool :) :)
The British analogue of le verlan is Cockney Rhyming slang. It's been around for ages. Instead of reversing the syllables, you say two words that rhyme with, and replace, the first word. For example, frog and toad (road), boat race (face), brown bread (dead), apples and pears (stairs), and the one that everyone gives as an example, trouble and strife (wife).
Très intéressant ❤merci
de rien :):)
I find it really difficult to catch everyone word when French people speak. I don't understand why there is so much emphasis on pronunciation in French classes when, at the end of the day, French people speak so fast that it doesn't seem to matter if us, second or third language speakers, pronounce French correctly or not. For example, at 7:43 "Tu peux me prete quelquechose 2spi?" What it sounds like is "chupenpretekelchos 2spi?". So, what I think I need is to listen to A LOT of street French.
Ah yeah it's important to listen to how French is actually spoken and pronounced that's true! But it's also important to learn how to properly pronounce something slowly first to be able to slur it after I think. Just like drawing, you need to learn how to draw real people, learn how the structure of the body works before you try and make simplified cartoon characters. But yeah definitely practice listening to real spoken French while you're learning really meticulous pronounciation :) Our vlogs can be a good practice for you :))
Yeah keep practicing! You don't necessarily need to catch every word, just get the general sense of what's being said :)
Actually all sounds in tu peux me preter... were totally clear. In the end of the day phonetics is your friend
ketchose or kekchose
Yes, I'm not sure that to have a good pronounciation is a mandatory for to understand. I have a French accent when I speak (approximate) english but I don't think it influences my understanding of English speakers. Pronounciation is anyway a good thing : it's a way to be polite by showing some minimal effort to be understood, and may even save you. I remember in the French tube some lost US tourist in Paris, begging for "hey to hill", and nobody understood he was searching to go to the "Etoile" metro station... :)
We use a lot deuspi like that : "en deuspi ". It means "en speed" or "vite fait", quickly.
oui c'est vrai :):)
@streetfrench.org you should also mention the verlan of the verlan ... which doesnt revert back to the original word but something different ( like "beur" , "reubeu" for instance )
haha so true... la reum, le reuf, etc... it's quite niche, but I'll try to do an update one day ok ^^
It's funny how some french words are spelled or sounds like some danish words, but with complete different meaning 😄
Ah yeah :)
(Cimer coupbeau 😉😉)
Merci beaucoup Maia et Charlie. Bonne journee
haha^^de rien :)
Salut! Merci beaucoup! Jarps from Instagram. Now I know more about this topic. Bon journée!
ah cool glad you liked it!
Thanks so much for this. I only found out about this a few weeks ago on my Uni course and it's going to be in my exam in a few weeks, alors merci beaucoup, c'est très utile!
Merci ❤️ This video is SO helpful!
ah you're welcome!
Ah yes. Une meuf and une tof (photo) I had heard from French friends (in 2003). UPDATE: Where I live is "technically" verlan, but definitely wasn't when it was made. J'habite au Vermont (aux États-Unis). Les MONTagnes VERTes. Voilà, Vermont. (some people say it came from > (versmont -> vermont) but I prefer the septième siècle verlan xD
haha :)
I knew about chelou because of Zaho, but I had no idea that the French use so many verlan words.....this is so interesting, thank you
Glad it was helpful! :))
I just stumbled across this channel and it turns out that videos are actually quite useful and informative,so merci bcp! And since it's already a video on a form of slang and you're still being active in the comments: could you tell me what the word "nabot" means? I came across this one sometime ago and have no idea what it could mean,while it also seems to me that it's some form of slang or smth. Btw it'd also be interesting to see some videos on other forms of slang in the future. Louchébem for example. If you'd be eager to make them of course
thanks for you comment :)
"Nabot" is a term we rarely use nowadays (I had to go look it up) and it means "a small person" but in a vulgar and mean way. apparently they used to say that for "midgets". so yeah it's pretty offensive apparently, don't use it haha. And I've never heard of "Louchébem" either, had to look it up too. It looks fun but honestly no one ever talks like that today. It's really old school and was used by very specific people.
we like to teach and talk about things that you can actually use everyday :) that's why we also don't talk about "passé simple" for example
@@Street_French That's totally understandable. I'm not fully aware of how French people talk on a daily basis nowadays,since I've actually never been to France directly,so I may have some things mixed up in my mind. But that's actually the case with having contact only with written language on social media,even if it's still very informal. I rarely even see Verlan being used in this kind of "communication",altho it happens from time to time. Tbh some loanwords from arabic seem to be used more prominently (mostly by southeners,from my experience so far,but I might be mistaken) in the written form than Verlan and those can be quite confusing
Loucherban is actualky kinda of « Verlan 201 ». It means boulanger which in verlan could be « langébou » but on top of it you reverse once again but the vocals only « lougéban ». And to finish and make it easier... you slur the syllabe in the middle and « gé » becomes « cher » « loucherban ».
Reminds me of what pig-Latin is to English☺️
J’aime cette vidéo beaucoup🤩🤩🤩 merci pour votre travail❤️
de rienn ^^
Merci Maia. Très drôle. Bon continuation.
de rien :)
Question, what is the word for DOPE in French/French slang? Like, "Yo! That's dope!"? Brooklyn in the house, I use "dope" incessantly, and would love to know how to say this in French. I've seen it in some subtitles of French shows/movies before, but I can never go back and actually pick out the word when listening. I'm assuming because its in verlan, I wouldn't recognize the word. Please help a brotha out...Big ups from BK!
we say "cool" a lot or "chanmé" :)
@@Street_French Merci!
@@Street_French chanmé another example of verlan for «méchant» wich in slang can means «awesome» :) [it can lead to some miscommunication because it is a very informal use of the word, méchant is more commonly used as «mean, bad», but the verlan version «chanmé» always means «awesome»]
@@DRYPSTAR Ça déchire. Ça chirdé
@@guiguijol Ça déchire! Merci beaucoup!
Wow!! I learned a lot!!
glad to hear that! :)
Hello. Is it possible you could do a video on discourse markers please? One word I always hear a lot in France is 'franchement', which is one of those words that I never remember learning in school. Thank you.
Ah ok we'll add it to the list :)
Pour "Comme as" (perso j'ai jamais entendu cette expression je suis surement trop vieux mais..), si vous regardez des vieux films comme ceux d'Audiard, avec Lino Ventura et Bernard Blier par exemple, ils utilisent souvent l'expression "komak" ou "Comme-ac" qui est le vieux Verlan de "Comme ça". ^^
Ah cool :)
non. Comac c'est de l'argo . Rien à voir avec comme as.... Ça veut dire super, génial, au top.
" c'est quand même pas comac! "(les tontons flingueurs)
Oui je suis vieux.
Reuf= frere, right? i heard it in a song from nekfeu, which is kind of funny because the artist's name is Ken, so even his name is a verlan
ah yeah it means brother :)
and Nekfeu it goes even further because it's verlan of "fennec" which is an animal ^^
@@Street_French :O
Can you please explain the word ‘chez’? When I took French in middle school and high school, I would only hear that word refer to a ‘home’, but recently, I keep hearing it in different contexts and I’m so confused by its meaning. Could you please explain, or if you have already explained in another video, could you please link it in the response? New subscriber here, so I haven’t watched all of your videos.
ah great question yeah we can do a video. but it mainly means "at my house, at his house etc..."
chez moi, chez lui, chez nous...
can you write the examples you heard that confused you please ? :)
Hey! I was just wondering, can these be written as well as spoken or can they just be used in a verbal conversation?
P.s. I LOVE your channel!
ah yeah good question, I think it can me written in text messages but not in French test or business emails lol
PS : merci! ☺☺
So for the spellings of the verlan you put, were those meant just as pronunciation guides, or are they also the verlan spellings? For example, if you were texting someone, would you actually type "ché ap", or is that just so we know how to pronounce it? Thanks! :D
They're generally spelled the way you see it in the video like chelou, relou, etc... but there can be some variation at times as it's not standard French :)
@@Street_French Merci! 😊
@@AntonMCR de rien!
i learnt some I never heard before : reuch, mifa, turfu, téma, ché ap, deuspi (I suddenly feel old :D )…
haha ^^
Usually ppl can hear the difference between the two ché (bad pun intended). The one that means knowing has a stop. It 's like you trying to say ch twice. Some verlan words are so spread around that sometimes they get inverted again! Femme becomes meuf, but you can sometimes hear fe-me. It sounds totally different from femme, you have to say two e (like in œuf or œil). Cheers!
ah yeah "feu-meu" is not really used compared to "meuf" but I'm sure some people do^^
Similarly, beur (< Arabe) gets reverlanized as rebeu.
One of my favourite answers on the French version of ‘The Weakest Link’ (Le Maillon Faible) was a French woman, who when asked what the verlan of ‘à fond’ was, responded with a panicked ‘fond à?!’. I’ve never used or heard used ‘à donf’, but if I ever do, it’ll definitely make me think of that poor woman!
hahaha that's a good one :)
Prend soin de toi et de tes proches pendant cette période de confinement. Reste chez toi afin de le raccourcir. Quant à moi, j'étudie le français depuis longtemps. Mais je suis toujours étonné(et aussi déçu) par le volume de français argotique et populaire ou encore verlan. C'est un beau langage bien sûr. Mais parmi les cultures du monde, savez-vous si cet 'engouement' pour l'argot ou encore verlan est particulièrement fort chez les français?
Merci pour ce commentaire, on va bien et on fait attention, on espère que vous allez bien aussi.
Ah oui l'argot a une grande place dans la langue française et ça fait toujours débat. Il y a les puristes de la langues qui n'aiment pas ça mais les langues évoluent et c'est pareil dans tous les pays du monde.
Par contre, culturellement, c'est célébré en France de pouvoir parler "comme au comptoir du café du coin, c'est à dire parler un langage populaire ET AUSSI d'être capable de bien s'exprimer et maîtriser un niveau de langue supérieur.
Je pense que cette particularité, cette bipolarité, c'est très français.
Par exemple, des personnes comme Gérard Depardieu, Fabrice Lucchini, Guillaume Meurice maîtrisent bien le mélange des deux styles de français (argot et littéraire). Ferdinand Céline a été reconnu aussi dans son style d'écriture parce qu'il écrivait comme les gens parlaient.
Mais bon au final, tout dépend de la situation économique, géographie, familiale, etc... des gens. Les classes populaires vont utiliser beaucoup plus d'argot.
@@Street_French Je vous remercie de votre prompte réponse. J'ai 62 ans maintenant et j'étudie ce langage par intermittence depuis l'âge de 27 ans. C'est vrai, cette bipolarité chez les français est très français. J'ai lu quelque part l'expression suivante concernant le caractère français. 'La France est le seul pays du monde où, si vous ajoutez dix citoyens à dix autres, vous ne faites pas une addition, mais vingt divisions'. La lutte des classes quoi! Continuez avec votre aventure de 'Street French'. Si j'ai quelques minutes à épargner, j'aime regarder votre chaîne. Il y a toujours quelques chose nouvelle à apprendre. Paul
@@gyp3xp48 ah c'est intéressant cette citation haha oui les français on un sacré caractère c'est vrai ^^ et merci pour ce commentaire, on est contents que notre chaîne vous plaise :))
I’ve been watching this show on Netflix called Plan Coeur. First I watched it with English subtitles now I’m watching it with French subtitles. How would you explain the slang word kiffe? I looked it up & it says to get off? Would you agree lol!
haha no "kiffer" means "to like" :)
StreetFrench.org Hahaha wow!!! Thank you! 🤪😜😃
@@Street_French thank you, I heard the word in a song once and wondered what it meant.
This is interesting! I don't really understand the point though... it seems like pig latin to me (in the way that words are formed) so I am surprised that verlan is widely used
A French teacher once told me it comes from the 60s, like teenagers wanted to rebel against society, so they started using Verlan, not sure if that's exactly true but it kinda makes sense ;)
But yeah there are many things in French that don't make a whole lot of sense to me either xD especially anglicismes, there are so many even when they have a French equivalent already haha
@@Street_French
Good point! Thanks for the reply!
@@graceb3081 de rien :)
What about the word "teuf?" Is it the best word for teens to use for "party?" I'm hesitant to teach my (American middle and high school) students slang words since they can change in a heartbeat and sound outdated, like the word "boum."
ah yeah I understand :) yeah I guess teuf is already a bit too old and not used. we just say "une soirée" :)
je fais une soirée chez moi samedi, tu viens ?
Hi ! Yes actually, it would be appropriate to say "réssoi" for "soirée".
@@Street_French Teuf is not outdated at all, and very used to describe a party in techno, punk, disco environments. "on va en teuf ?", "allez on va faire la teuf !", "j'lui ai fait sa teuf" (= I annoyed him real hard or I punched him good), "c'est la teuf ici !" (implicitely means the party surprises the person who says it). ;)
Teuf isn't outdated at all (see my other response below). Boum is used for little kids (party during an afternoon, 12 yo and less party nights), and can be used to be funny amongst friends. Childish terms can be used that way overall. "t'inquiète ils se font la bagarre" (= don't worry, they fight eachother like kids, with no intent to hurt bad) is an example.
@@HeadMinerve ah I don't know where you're from but the word "teuf" is a bit outdated in my circle. no one would ever say "on va en teuf" around me.
oh my god "oh mon dieu"
you can say oh my god , this my god " oh my dog in verlant this my dog in verlant" mdr oh mon iench !! c'est mon iench :) back to the TURFU :) téma it's my favorite french slang :)
C'est très drôle .... Continuer team,
ah cool merci ! :)
Cool very interesting, how about washe washe?
ah yeah "wesh" is like "yo"
"Wesh?"
arab word. derived from wesh rak? (comment va tu?) (what's up?, or how do you do?)
Hi StreetFrench, I see the word kiff sometimes and wonder what it means, from context it looks like it might mean like or love.
Salut! Yes, it means to like/love :)
@@alexandras7905 de rien!
@@Street_French except if it is «kif kif» wich is arabic for «the same» (very frequently used in french)
Just to add a little something about « kif kif » you’d use it french like you could use in english (maybe it’s just in the U.S.A) « tomayto, tomahto » to imply that two things are in context, at least, the same.
It's actually a word coming from arab langage, means "fumer" (smoke, but mostly for marijuana or haschich) and as been changed to "aimer", years after years.
Modern verlan evolves mostly because of migrant gethohoods in modern days.
Louche its a slang uses in (algeria/tunisie/maroco) it really means shady
how do you use "wesh"?
check out this post we made on instagram. we explain and give you exemples where people use it in video form :)
instagram.com/p/CEj78z4HaTn/
This is one the french influence we use in trinidad and tobago patois ;Vai-ki-vai, vaille-que-vaille, vai-qui-vai, vie-que-vie, vike-e-vike,vi-ke-vi, vikey-vy, vy-kee-vy, vy-ki-vy (adj): Lackadaisical; disorderly; unplanned;chaotic; irresponsible; without care or thought. French Creole vai ki vai; French vaille que vaille ‘for better or worse’
Are you telling me my boss can't handle informality? Then I'll be the boss of them!
haha yeah no you can't use some slang with your boss lol
I remember two co-workers who would occasionally do this in English.
With English words?
@@Street_French Yes, with English words. I think it was a personal thing they were doing to sound funny, but I think they must have heard someone else doing it. I haven't heard anyone else do it for many years.
@@inkydoug Ah ok :)
@@Street_French One German word comes to mind that I remember being used, Lingschmetter instead of Schmetterling ( papillon ) And I have heard English speakers do it, but not in conversation as such, just to use a word incorrectly on purpose as a joke.
Cimer / Merci
Ahah , ok, quand on disait meuf , sa allait . Mais feumeu ... étrange ... Sa existe le verlan dans anglophone ?
ah je sais pas si ça existe
Je suis anglophone et le verlan existe pas dans anglophone. Je pense que c'est un concept très bizzare pour les anglophones
I think "Keuf=Flic" is slang from English word " FUck" --> became : "KcuF/Keuf " because cops in France are particulary frowned upon from younger people, kinda a "Fucker guy" .That's my own explaination 😄. Some French slang words are build from English for example "deuspi" come from "speed" .
"Teubé=Bête"" Warning !!!!! Do not confuse with " Teub" Do not forget sound "é" at the end else we have a whole different meaning 😄 ,I can't reveal it here sorry it's rude langage ...
If you wanna know what does it mean ,you can just imagine in a man that is the main difference beetwen him and a woman , i can't say more 😄
Ça vidéo été « chanmét ».
aah cool merci ! :)
Interesting how emotions get connected with words - but you have to live the language and be threatened by violence in real life to have those emotions in you
J'ai trouvé ça super rigolo. Mais je me mets à la place des non natifs qui regardent ça en mode... Wtf 😂 ? Mon message à vous qui essayez d'apprendre le Français : beaucoup d'entre-nous seraient quand même assez sympas pour ne pas parler en verlan devant vous. Parce que ce serait... Chelou. Et relou 😂 On ferait l'effort d'utiliser les vrais mots, rassurez-vous 😉
AHAHA xD
What's the point of doing this, I don't understand? I'm learning French, and I'm getting to the point where I need to find someone to converse with. But I really don't see the point of verlan.
Verlan is just a slang language, mostly used by teenagers, it's useful to learn it because it's pretty commonly used in nowadays French
Pas tu la .. Not all there. ..South la.
Femme= meuf=femeu 🤣🤣( verlan from the verlan, mostly in Paris)
Keuf doesn't come from flic but basiquely fuck (sorry for that) but in verlan.
22 vla les keufs!!!
kind of "watch out! here come the one time!!!"
The exact American equivalent is Pig Latin, which is really dated, and only useful if you want to understand 1930’s gangster movies.
Verlan's been created to not being understand by autorities at first, so kind of the same purpose as what you're talking about I suppose.
France - Verlan (l'envers)
Uruguay, Argentina, Panamá - Vesre (Revés)
Ελλάδα - Ποδανά
Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia (mostly in Zagreb, Beograd and Sarajevo) - Šatrovački / Шатровачки
I'm from Croatia, we use Šatrovački, it is equivalent of French Verlan, and there are Greek equivalent (Ποδανά) in Greece, and Spanish "Vesre" in bunch of Latinamerican countries.
Not an equivalent at all. Pig Latin is used exclusively by teenagers, who will then speak entirely in Pig Latin. Verlan is used as isolated words in ordinary speech and, even if it may be used more heavily by teens and by particular ethnic communities, various words are used by a much wider age-spread.
What,s her name she,s so pretty
I'm chelou
HAHA xD
Marlène Ché ap
hm?
J’adore ma meuf.
xD
👍👍👍
Офигительно красивая!
love the way she says Street in Street fresh. Tres sexy
You look sooo...
French 😏👌 🇫🇷
xD
I think you use too seldom the adjective Weird when you could use Odd or Awkward 😊
ah yeah ok thanks :)
"Personally, I never use it". We don't want to know your idiosyncratic, neurotic individual use of the language. We want to know how it's used by a pop star, such as Foucault
it's really important to know that everyone speaks differently. I speak a certain way but my best friend who also lives in Paris has her style of speaking. she uses slang words and old school expressions I wouldn't never use EVER lol.
So it's not "neurotic individualisme" or whatever you say... but it's important to know that fact. And we also often mention that because French is spoken in many countries all over the world and so the way I speak will be different from someone who's from Belgium, Quebec, Sénégal etc...