French Language Blog

À cause du Mondial (because of the World Cup), we took une pause from our series of French Slang.
Today, we continue with the second part of la lettre F.
Remember that we have so far covered the letters A, B, C, D, and E:
* B.A.-BA de l’Argot: ‘A’ (the ABC of French Slang: ‘A’)
* B.A.-BA de l’Argot: ‘B’ (the ABC of French Slang: ‘B’)
* B.A.-BA de l’Argot: ‘B’ [Cont.] (the ABC of French Slang: ‘B’ [Cont.])
* “C comme…” B.A.-BA de l’Argot (the ABC of French Slang: ‘C’)
* “C comme…(Ça Continue!)” B.A.-BA de l’Argot (the ABC of French Slang: ‘C’ [cont.])
* “D comme…” B.A.-BA de l’Argot (the ABC of French Slang: ‘D’)
* “E comme…” B.A.-BA de l’Argot (the ABC of French Slang: ‘E’)
* “F comme…” B.A.-BA de l’Argot: ‘F’ [1] (the ABC of French Slang: ‘F’ [1]) 

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http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x39r

* FILER À L’ANGLAISE: 
Depending on which side of la Manche (the English Channel, that is), you either say “filer à l’Anglaise“, or, conversely, “take the French Leave.” The expression means to ”jump ship.” Another close expression is ”fausser compagnie à quelqu’un“, like ”leaving under a cloud”!

* FIN DES HARICOTS:
“The end of beans” in French simply means “the End”, when it’s all over. Exemple, “Vous voulez dire qu’en 2012, ce sera la fin des haricots?” (“So you mean that it’s all gonna be over in 2012?”) 
  

* FILS À PAPA:
Or “Daddy’s boy”, close in meaning to some kind of a spoiled, silver-spoon fed child.
Similarly, you can also say that someone is “un fils à maman” (Mommy’s boy!)
Check in the video below la volte-face (the about-face) of the recruiter when he finds out that the job seeker is a fils à papa, and that the papa in question is none other than the PDG (CEO) of the company…   

 

* FLANCHER:
Synonymous to “jeter l’éponge” (“to throw the sponge”), meaning to give up. 

* FLEMME:
“Avoir la flemme” means to feel totally lazy, like not doing anything at all. You can also say “tirer sa flemme”, meaning to take it easy and relax. Both expressions “avoir la flemme” and “tirer sa flemme” are used in this French song:
 

* FLIC:
Un or une flic means “a cop.” Like we saw in B.A.-BA de l’Argot: ‘A’ (the ABC of French Slang: ‘A’), ”Deux Flics à Miami“, meaning “Two Cops in Miami”, is the French title of the 80′s series ”Miami Vice.” 
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8bswp

* FLIPPER:

It’s spelled the same way as the name of le gentil dauphin (the nice dolphin), but it means to get stressed out, or “worked out” about something. The adjective flippant, however, means “creepy.” For example, ”Ce film est vraiment  flippant” (“This movie is really creepy.”) 

* FLUTE!
Most new French learners know “zut!” or “zut alors!”, as in “darn!” or “shoot!”, but more common of an intejection is “mince!”
“Flute” is also as rarely used as “darn” in English, but it’s useful to know what it stands for if you happen to hear it.  

* SE FOURRER:
To be dead wrong about something; to be mistaken. 

* FOUTAISE:
Total nonsense. You can also say “des salades“ , as in “ce ne sont que des salades!”

* FRANGIN:
Frangin means “bro”, as in brother. Related to it is the word “fréro“, which is reserved for your little brother.
Here’s the trailer of the movie “Frangins malgré eux”— which is the French title of the Will Ferrell comedy “Step Brothers.”
Check it out, it’s dubbed in French!

* FRIC:
Money, dough, or ”ca$h”, as in the Euro “FRI€.“, which we’ve already seen in “YELLE (à tue-tête) if you like “le FRI€” the TTC way.”  

* FRIGO:
Like the English “fridge”, Frigo is a French shorthand for refrigirator. 

* FRIME
La frime is the noun which gives us a “frimeur“, that is someone who’s a show-off.
Par exemple: The character Mickael Vendetta is a frimeur wanna-be. Remember him from ”B.A.-BA de l’Argot: ‘B’ [Cont.] (the ABC of French Slang: ‘B’ [Cont.])“   
  

* FRINGUES:
Les fringues mean clothes. Another argot synonym of fringues is fripes.
 

 * FURAX:
Être furax comes from furieux, meaning furious. You can also say “disjoncter“, “perdre la boule“, or the more often used nowadays, ”péter un câble” or “péter les plombs.”

You obviously like it; you’ve asked for it to come back, now you’ve got it!

Le B.A.-BA de l’Argot (The ABC of French Slang) is back, and today, it’s with la lettre F, containing a long répertoire of words and expressions which you will surely like to learn and memorize, and more importantly, above all else, to recognize, whether in reading or hearing. 

Allez, c’est parti ! (Here we go!)

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“F comme…”

* Fan/Fana:
‘Fana’ is basically identical in meaning to the English word ”fan”, and both “fana” and “fan” come originally from the word “fanatique” (fanatic), so they naturally mean someone who is a “big fan” of something. Par exemple: “Je suis un fana du foot“, or “Jennie est une fana de la haute cuisine.”
An iconic French TV show that resembles “American Idol” and focusing on young kids is called “l’École des fans.”
Above is a preview (or like the French sometimes say: “Ze very best of”…) of the show.
Below, also in “l’École des fans“, you can see a young Vanessa Paradis, of “Joe le Taxi“ fame, making her very first public appearance:

* Fastoche:
As in “C’est fastoche!” (“It’s easy!”), which is close to ”facile” (easy.)
Some synonymous slang expressions of “fastoche” are “ce n’est pas sorcier” (“No magic trick”), or “facile comme bonjour.”
Here’s an episode of the cartoon ”Toto” titled “Trop fastoche” (“Too easy”): First “sans les pieds” (“no feet”), then “sans les mains” (“no hands”), et après (and then)… 

* Fauché:
Whether it is une personne (a person) who is fauchée, or une entreprise (a company), or un gouvernement (a government), which by the way wouldn’t come as a surprise in these times of crise fiancière (financial crisis), no one is 100% safe from being complètement fauché, i.e. “completely broke.”

* Faux jeton:
Literally means a “fake token”, and standing for a hypocritical or a disingenious person, a “fake”.

* Fêlé:
“Fêlé” is just like “zinzin“, “maboul“, “cinglé“, “malade“, “disjoncté“, “désaxé“, “timbré“, “dingue” or ”foldingue“, which are all many ways of saying that someone or somthing is “crazy.”
Learn even more ”crazy” argot words with Astérix and Obélix and Assurancetourix:

“Il l’a vraiment pas vu venir * * * Ce mignon p’tit coup d’menhir
Il a pas l’air dans son assiette * * *  j’dirais même qu’il est est en miette.”

A coup d’menhir ! * * * Il s’est fait estourbir !
Il s’éclate sans arrêt * * * Il est vraiment parfait
Il est complétement sonné * * * Complétement déglingué
Il est complétement fêlé * * * Complétement déphasé !

“Sonné“, “déglingué”, “déphasé”, also mean “fou” (crazy.)

Of course, we won’t end this post today without un clin d’oeil (a “wink”) towards la Coupe du Monde. Here is an example of a coach becoming “fêlé” because of his team: In this case, it’s the Italian Fabio Capello, the England coach, nearly losing his mind during the game against the Algerian Fennecs.Is he screaming: “Pass the ball” or asking for a “Pasta Bowl“ (anyone?)

In the “E” section of the B.A.-BA de l’Argot, we get to know today four French slang words used rather frequently; j’ai nommé:

- s’Éclater;
- s’Emballer;
- s’Embrouiller;
- s’Engueuler;
- Épingler.

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* s’Éclater:
The verb “éclater” means literally ”to burst.” But figuratively speaking, its reflexive form, ”s’éclater” means “to have an awesome time”, or “to get one’s kicks doing something.” Example: “Mais qu’est-ce qu’on s’éclate avec vous !” (An exclamation which can, in addition to the direct meaning of course, convey a sense of sarcasm, in case you’re bored out of your everloving mind, in the company of people you feel utterly compelled to use this expression…)

* s’Emballer:
As with the different senses of ”s’éclater” mentioned above, the verb “emballer“ means literally “to pack“,  or “to wrap“. Figuratively, however, its reflexive form, “s’emballer“, means to “get carried away“, or “to go out of control”, as in getting extremely angry. Example: “Pas besoin de s’emballer comme ça !“, when you tell someone that there is no need for them to “fly off the handle” with anger.

Here is a video of an art expo that took place in Paris just last year. As a ”double entendre“, its witty title combines both meanings of the verb “s‘emballer” (“wrapping”, that is, with the sense of ”getting carried away.”) 

Paris “s’emballe”:

* s’Embrouiller:
*Une* embrouille means a “mix-up“, a state of confusion. It can also mean a quarrel, hence the verb “s’embrouiller avec quelqu’un.” Par exemple: “Nous nous sommes embrouillés autour d’une histoire stupide” (“We quarreled over a stupid story.”)
En Belgique (In Belgium), if you evoke the word ”embrouille“, you may immediately think of the oddly funny personnage of ”François l’Embrouille“ (of his real name “François Damiens”): For your information, François is a self-anointed “spécialiste belge de la caméra cachée” (“A Belgian specialist of Candid Camera.”) He identifies himself as no less than ”le plus grand provocateur de toute la Belgique” ! (www.francoislembrouille.com)

Here is François taking a pass at ”ze Inglish” language:

* s’Engueuler:
Engueler by itlsef means to yell at someone, to “bawl somebody out”.  But s’engueuler avec quelqu’un means “to have a row with someone.” The corresponding noun is “une enguelade” (a dispute, a row, a bowling out.) 
As you may (or may not) remember from a previous post,”Retour au Zoo des Locutions (Back to the Zoo of Idioms)“, we encountered a rather “fishy-sounding” French slang expression, namely “engueuler quelqu’un comme du poisson pourri“, which we described then as “a (charming) expression meaning to be so mad at you and ‘call you every name under the sun’, even though its literal significance is actually ’to yell at you like rotten fish’”!

* Épingler:
It comes from the noun “épingle“, “a pin. ” It means to “arrest”, “to nail”, or “to nab” someone. So if you say: “les keufs ont épinglé les escrocs en flagrant délit“, that would mean that “the cops caught the crooks red-handed.”  In broad ters, “épingler” means ”to criticize harshly.”