Ch 17 · Lesson 18French · Chapter 17 · Lesson 18 · Grammar primer
Verlan: French said backwards
becomes , becomes , becomes chelou. Plus kiffer, seum and wesh, borrowed from Arabic.
The short version
The verlan trick
.
Why?Hide
French has a whole slang system built by flipping a word's syllables in half. becomes , becomes , becomes relou. It started as street code decades ago and has since gone completely mainstream, so you will hear these constantly, not just from teenagers.
Kiffer is not rude, just casual
kiffe .
Why?Hide
Kiffer means to really like or be into something, stronger than the flat . kiffe is I love this film. It is entirely ordinary between friends of any age, but it belongs nowhere near a job interview - save for anyone you would call .
Verlan: words said backwards
Verlan swaps a word's syllables, and the result becomes a word of its own. The name is the demonstration: (backwards), said backwards.
Two-syllable words swap cleanly:
| Word | Verlan | English |
|---|---|---|
| chelou | weird, dodgy |
| zarbi | weird |
| cimer | thanks |
| chanmé | wicked, great |
Other words flip more loosely. A one-syllable word usually gains an sound, flips, then drops its tail: (said fa-meu) becomes . Longer words get shuffled.
| Word | Verlan | English |
|---|---|---|
| | woman, girl; girlfriend |
| | mad, amazing |
| relou | annoying, a pain |
| vénère | wound up, fuming |
| teuf | party |
| keuf | cop |
Verlan works on slang too: keuf flips flic, a word that was already slang, and chanmé turns (nasty) into great, the same reversal as English wicked.
!- That's mad!relou.- He's so annoying.chelou, .- That thing's weird.vénère.- I'm fuming.teuf .- We're going to a party tonight.
Verlan boomed in the working-class suburbs from the 1970s and is now mainstream: and turn up on national radio. Some older verlan, like (forget it, from a 1977 song), now sounds dated rather than street.
Kiffer, avoir le seum, wesh: borrowed words
Not all slang is verlan. These three came into French slang from Arabic, and sit in the same register.
| Slang | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
kiffer | to really like | kiffe . - I love this song. |
seum | to be gutted | seum, . - I'm gutted, we lost. |
wesh | yo, all right? | Wesh, ? - Yo, how's it going? |
Kiffer is stronger than a flat and heard from teenagers and forty-year-olds alike. Wesh is youth slang, and sounds forced from anyone over thirty.
Going further: The everyday slang words and the rest of the guide, when you want them. This lesson does not need them.
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