Why do I need to know c’est top?

Because your French friend might enthusiastically respond this way after you did her a favour.

What does it mean?

C’est top – roughly pronounced say toe-puh – is an anglicism that translates as ‘it’s great’. 

The colloquial word top unsurprisingly comes from the English word, but you would not hear a French person use it to describe something that is physically above another thing. Instead, they would use dessus. 

For example, ‘The pencil was placed on top of the notebook’ would be Le crayon a été posé sur le dessus du cahier.

In French, top is almost exclusively used enthusiastically, to call something or someone great. 

According to French dictionary La Langue Française, the word has mostly been used in France since the 1980s. It likely made its way into the French vernacular due to ‘top’ charts and rankings in entertainment (ie the ‘Top 100 songs’).

As such, for many rankings, French websites and advertising companies will simply write le top 10 de ventes (the top 10 bestsellers). 

But in regular conversation, if you did a good job with a task you were assigned, your French boss might congratulate you by saying c’était top!

An even better compliment would be top du top, which is akin to crème de la crème.

It can also be used on its own – for example if you did your friend a favour, they might just respond Top, merci! (Great, thanks!)

Use it like this

C’était pas top, mais je sais que tu feras mieux la prochaine fois.  – It was not great, but I know you’ll do better next time.

La chanson est dans le top 100. – The song is in the top 100.