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FRENCH WORD OF THE DAY

French word of the day: Bondé

This isn't a word you want to have to use during a pandemic.

Published: 20 July 2021 13:18 CEST
French word of the day: Bondé
Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

Why do in need to know bondé?

It’s particularly useful during the summer, or all year round if you live in Paris.

What does it mean?

Bondé means “full” or “packed”. Public transport, bars, beaches, shops… These are just some of the things you might refer to as bondé. It’s for when a place is bursting at the seams because there are so many people packed together.

It is usually reserved for talking about places crammed with people, but you might also hear it used in reference to objects.

A bonde is a plug such as you might find on the top of a wine barrel, and bonder means to fill something up to the plug, or the bung. So when you describe a venue as bondé, you might be paying homage to one of France’s greatest and most delicious traditions.

Not to be confused with the verb bander, which sounds almost identical when spoken and means “to have an erection”. Context is your friend here!

Use it like this

Le supermarché était bondé ce matin – The supermarket was jam-packed this morning.

Les Champs-Elysées étaient bondés de supporters quand la France a gagné la Coupe du monde – The Champs-Elysées was packed with supporters when France won the World Cup.

J’aime pas la Côte d’Azur, les plages sont toujours bondées – I don’t like the French Riviera, the beaches are always overcrowded.

Synonyms

Noir de monde – crammed

Comble – full to capacity

Bourré – packed

Member comments

  1. Possibly a better, more vernacular, translation is ‘rammed’. Do young people still say ‘rammed’? I’m out of touch with them these days.

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For members

FRENCH WORD OF THE DAY

8 favourite French Words of the Day

This month’s countdown of our favourite French words and phrases features one that sounds like an 80s jangly pop star, another that hardly makes any sense at first glance, and an apparent tax on rabbits that isn't…

Published: 3 May 2024 17:23 CEST
8 favourite French Words of the Day

Every weekday The Local publishes a French word or phrase of the day. We try to focus on colloquialisms, slang, sayings (and a bit of swearing) – you know, the type of French you won’t learn in the classroom, but will hear all the time in the street.

This daily habit means we have a very extensive back catalogue – find it here – and we’ve picked out eight of our recent favourites.

Taxe lapin

The literal translation of une taxe lapin – oon-tax la-pahn – is exactly what you would expect – ‘rabbit tax’.

However, this is not a tax on rabbits, or even on rabbit owners. It is in fact a ‘no-show fee’ or charge levied on people who make appointments and don’t turn up.

Fortunately, we showed up with an explanation, here.

Banco

Banco – bain-koh – is essentially the French word for “bingo!”. It might be colloquial, but politicians have been known to use it when indicating that something someone else has said is correct. 

There’s more, right here.

Radin

Radin – rah-dahn – is a  less-than complimentary French term for a penny-pincher, someone who is or ‘miserly’ with their money. 

We, however, are not in the least stingy with our definition.

Crevard

Speaking of words that definitely aren’t complimentary… Crevard – creh-varr – is a colloquial term that can be used to describe someone who looks ill or exhausted. It’s roughly equivalent to telling someone that they ‘look like death warmed up’.

Find out more, here.

À peine

À peine – ah pen – means ‘with or to pain’ or ‘with or to effort’, and therefore makes no sense in English. But in French conversation, it acts as an adverb meaning ‘hardly’, ‘barely’ or ‘scarcely’.

We make sense of it all, here. 

T’as dead ça

T’as dead ça – tah dead sah – combines the French verb avoir (to have) with the English word ‘dead’. And it’s a good thing, apparently. Because it refers to ‘killing it’ in the positive sense. If you tell someone t’as dead ça, it’s congratulatory, like ‘great job, you killed it!’

Simple comme bonjour

Simple comme bonjour – sahm-pluh com bohn-jor – translates as ‘simple as hello’.

It describes something that is very easy or quick, the French equivalent to ‘easy as ABC’, or ‘a piece of cake’. 

Our explainer is just as straightforward, too. 

J’en ai marre

J’en ai marre – roughly pronounced Johnny Marr – means ‘I’m fed up’.

We discuss this charming phrase in more depth here.

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