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FRENCH WORD OF THE DAY

French Word of the Day: Meuf

This French word is another example of verlan, and it is one you should be extra careful about misinterpreting.

French Word of the Day: Meuf
Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

Why do I need to know meuf?

It’s fair to say that some verlan words have become a part of everyday French more than others, and meuf is certainly one of them. 

How do I use it?

Meuf – roughly pronounced muhf – is the equivalent of saying ‘woman’, ‘girl’ or ‘bird’ in English and is often used to describe a woman who is sexually desirable. 

Meuf is a verlan word, meaning that it is formed by inverting another word’s syllables (for more on verlan, like the word teuf).

In this case, that word is femme which is turned into meuf as follows: fe – mme => me – fe => meuf. 

According to some sources it was invented in the 90s. Sometimes it is considered derogatory but it certainly isn’t always intended to be. Nevertheless, it’s probably best to play it safe with who you use it around. 

In recent years, it has been reclaimed by young women and teens to describe each other, as a gender specific version of ‘mate’. 

You’ll also hear young women addressing friends in the street with Eh, meuf! – Hey, girl!

The reason we stressed you should be careful about misinterpreting the meaning of meuf is because some English speakers in France known to The Local have admitted to being surprised when hearing it used – due to its similarity to the English word for a particular area on a woman’s body. 

Use it like this

J‘ai vu une meuf bizarre dans le bus. – I saw a weird chick on the bus.

Kevin est venu à la soirée avec sa meuf. – Kevin came to the party with his girl.

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FRENCH WORD OF THE DAY

French Expression of the Day: Caillou dans la chaussure

This one might come in handy when you’re complaining about French bureaucracy.

French Expression of the Day: Caillou dans la chaussure

Why do I need to know Caillou dans la chaussure?

Because, sometimes, you just need to tell someone about your frustration with life’s little, annoying, metaphorically painful niggles.

What does it mean?

Caillou dans la chaussure – roughly pronounced kay-oo don la shass-your – translates as ‘stone in the shoe’, is a phrase as old as time, and means exactly what it says.

You can use this in a literal sense, for example if you’re hiking and get gravel in your boots, but it’s more usually used as a metaphor.

When someone says they have a pebble in their shoe, it means that something is not right – and it describes the metaphorical feeling of something troublesome that is more painful than it really needs to be and is creating bigger problems than its size would suggest.

You can use it about your own problems, and it’s also used to describe something that is a big problem for someone else – in English you might say something is the ‘millstone around their neck’ to describe a big, weighty problem that won’t go away.

Use it like this

Nouvelle-Calédonie : le gros caillou dans la chaussure de Macron – New Caledonia is the millstone around Macron’s neck

Nous connaissons tous cette sensation désagréable d’avoir un caillou coincé dans notre chaussure – We all know that unpleasant feeling of having a stone stuck in our shoe.

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