perk

Buzzybuzz never stated his level of French. There are slang words taught even in first year French. I had only 2 years in College and even I get it...
It's not rocket science.

suze

st cirq, thank you. i knew my spelling was likely wrong and that the word was not necessarily slang... but it IS something that seems very much used by locals as almost a punctuation of phrase or sentence, therefore a small way to make your french "fit in".

cocofromdijon

You're right Sue, je suis d'accord avec toi ;-)
you can even put it at the end of a sentence to ask something like "je voudrais que tu fasses ça pour moi, d'accord?" instead of "veux-tu faire ça pour moi?" a bit more polite but both are acceptable. D'accord?

jahoulih

Suze, I haven't run across this myself, but I imagine some French speakers say "d'accord" after every phrase the way some Americans say "okay?". The "okay?" business strikes me as an annoying nervous tic, and I suppose saying "d'accord" all the time would sound the same in French.

Coco, David is referring to the phrase "cheese-eating surrender monkeys," first used to describe the French on the TV cartoon show "The Simpsons" and popularized in right-wing circles during our contretemps with France over the Iraq war. I think when the phrase is cited in French, it's usually "singes capitulards mangeurs de fromage."

cocofromdijon

thanks Jahoulih!
and I agree with you with the use of d'accord like ok in every sentence.I had a teacher who used to say that after each sentence to make sure we had understood what he said. Boring!

travelbunny

..There is a difference between slang and modern idiom but slang often evolves into modern idiom. In fact, if one looks back at old US movies one can see the evolution of the language. I think even a French major with a year abroad really needs to go back every 5 years to keep current or makes a real effort to read everyday mags (ex Paris Match) and go to French movies. I have also learned that some slang words that I picked up were a bit more off color than I had thought (my francophone god daughter corrected me after minutes of laughter!). Anyway, just a few of my random thoughts.

Christina

I also don't think it's a good idea to try to learn slang to fit in when you don't know French. You won't fit in, and people using French incorrectly to try to impress people often look foolish. That happens in writing, too, such as when folks drop French phrases into their emails or posts and don't even spell the words correctly (ie, bon chance).

I don't think saying "d'accord" is common as slang in French, and don't really think it's that common in the US to use that a lot in sentences, at least not among anyone I know. Some young people who aren't very articulate use "like" a lot in sentences when it doesn't add anything, but I don't think okay is used. They do use another phrase quite a bit now which is sort of meaningless and thrown in here and there, but not d'accord.

Momliz

Travelbunny, you are so right. I lived in France for quite a few years in the 70's. My ex husband was French, and I was (still am mostly) fluent in French. I just went back in October, first time in 25 years and was sideree (sp?), astounded by the changes in the spoken language. The computer revolution has introduced a lot of new words, and maybe ideas, I wasn’t there long enough to tell. And, of course, many were the English words adapted to French. My friends spoke of getting a mel (no accent on my keyboard) in their yahoo accounts. Does the Academie Francaise even exist anymore?
I can understand buzzy's desire to fit in, but, unless your accent is perfect, you won't. So, you'll just look silly if you try too hard. I find that observing the rules of etiquette and not throwing my weight around to be far more important to fitting in than using possibly misplaced or -pronounced slang.

WallyKringen

Maybe buzzybuzz asked about slang but meant colloquialisms and the colloquial ways of pronounciation that one doesn't learn in school but hears from speakers of all levels of education?

If you learned "this year = cette année" where the cette has a silent ending but the first e sounds like the strong e in "let" or "pet", and now you hear someone say what sounds like "s-t-année" - no e sound at all, that's not impolite speech, let alone slang, it's just a colloquialism. It helps to know it since it sure sounds different, like gonna instead of going to, or wanna instead of want to.

Or things like "mon potte" for "buddy, pal" also used as a form of cheerful backslapping address - "Alors, mon potte, on-y-va?" "Okay then, buddy, shall we go?" Not slang, not bad language, just a colloquialism.

But you'd have to know when that is proper for you, the tourist, to say - probably never, unless you've become serious drinking buddies over many a glass during a long evening, and even then...

Another example: "bosser" for "to work" - not impolite, not unacceptable, just a colloquialism, familiar speech, something Dad might say at the dinner table, unless he's the kind of Dad who insists on the most perfect demeanour at all times...

A slang word that comes up a lot, has become less offensive to some over the years, but still is "not nice", is the verb foutre, as in J'm'en fous (a very strong way of saying "I don't care", more like "I don't give a s...&quot, or "Qu'est-ce que to fous là?" "What the f... are you doing there?"

Not for nice moments, but you hear it a lot. Don't say it, though, you'd look foolish.

These colloquialisms are tricky for someone who knows a bit of text-book French, but not enough to have learned the way the French really speak.

The most often heard (or, rather, not heard) difference is the dropped letter e. If you learned that "I don't know" is "Je ne sais pas", you'll hardly ever hear that, it'll be, at the most polite, a Jenn sais pas (a long n sound), or, a bit more crudely, Je sais pas, or, at the most impolite, a version that sounds like sheppah.

But don't try this yourself, as others have pointed out, to know it when you hear it is useful, to use it yourself is silly.

WK

WallyKringen

Typo: Qu'est-ce que to fous là? should be Qu'est-ce que tu fous là?

Sorry

WK

cocofromdijon

Félicitation WK, very precise! (mon pote with one T)
Instead of "se foutre de.." you can say "se ficher de ..." which would be more acceptable.

Bonnes fêtes!
corinne

Robespierre

That goes, my old?

Moi j'sais pas (shrugs).

cocofromdijon

pas mal et toi?

AR

Je m'en branle.

AnthonyGA

Never use a dictionary of slang that is more than a year old. If it's out of print, you should avoid it at all costs.

There is a difference between colloquial language and slang. Many people here are citing colloquial French as slang ("d'accord" is not slang). You can use colloquial language if you are reasonably fluent, but slang is much more risky.

As a general rule, the best way for a foreign speaker of a language to look really stupid is for him to try to use slang. It can also be very irritating to the natives. Slang is bad enough when spoken without an accent, but combine an irritating accent with words normally uttered by sailors, gangsters, and truck drivers, and some people will fairly fume with annoyance. It's not a way to make friends—people will start avoiding you just so that they don't have to hear you slaughter their language.

klondike

Are the origins of "mon pote" Breton? I remember "ar pote"(sp?) being Breton for "mec".

suze

hey, i think we lost buzzybuzz

jamie1984

I don't see why everyone had to attack buzzybuzz for asking. I think this is an interesting topic. It is possible to have a good grasp of the language and not really speak slang or the the more familiar everyday spoken language. I myself studied French in college and when I went over there I realized I didn't know slang/familiar expressions at all, simply because what I was taught in an academic setting was very much "proper" French. Really the only way to get a handle on this is to spend significant time immersed in the language. Like some people have already mentioned the slang changes really fast in France, so if you buy a slang book from several years ago, it's probably already outdated.

Art_Vandelay

David West,

"Racaille" (not "racille&quot is an old slang word from the 30s and always has the derogatory meaning of "scum". It was used on purpose by Sarkozy in a provocative way (quite effectively: we got three weeks of rioting after that... )

"Beur" is definitely non racist and used by Maghrebi descendants as well as by others in a harmless way. Actually, it illustrates the point of slang being volatile, since no one under 50 says "beur" any more, now it's "rebeu" (ie the same but in verlan, a slang within the slang)

Marie007

To St Cirq :

Et tout d'abord/And, first of all, "Bonne Année et Bonne Santé" to you and all the forumites !

Now, may I ask you what the expression you used "Y s'est fait marron par l'singe" means, please ? In slang, "le singe" corresponds to the "boss" (See "Le Grand Robert" : XVIIIe, péj. depuis XIXe,Fam. Patron*)" and "un marron" is a blow/un coup, "a thump/clout" ; "il m'a filé un marron" = "he landed me one&quot... Thus, it might mean "il s'est fait engueuler par le patron"/"il s'est fait passer un savon par le patron" ??? Cordialement. Marie qui révise son argot grâce à vous