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FRENCH WORD OF THE DAY

French word of the Day: Engueulade

If you're in one of these, you'll know about it.

Published: 13 October 2021 13:56 CEST

French word of the Day: Engueulade

Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

Why do I need to know engueulade?

Because they happen from time to time, but they might get more frequent over the next six months.

What does it mean?

It means an argument, a row, a spat or a shouting match.

The word itself is colloquial but not offensive, although it does imply that the exchange was quite heated, so you wouldn’t describe a polite exchange of views between two colleagues as une engueulade. If they stand up and start screaming at each other, however, then feel free to wheel this one out.

It comes from the word gueule which is a colloquial term for mouth (like gob or maw) and which is often used in the phrase ferme ta gueule (or simply ta guele) which is a usually aggressive way of telling someone to shut up.

The below clip from comedian Bertrand Usclat warns of a ‘new epidemic’ of engueulade on the horizon, related to the 2022 presidential elections – an election campaign that still has more than six months left to run but is already increasingly ill-tempered.

Une nouvelle épidémie nous envahit ! 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/yA1i2iPnwK

— Bertrand Usclat (@BertrandUsclat) October 12, 2021

Use it like this

Mon voisin et moi, on a eu une belle engueulade – My neighbour and I had a proper shouting match

Je déteste ses vêtements, mais ça vaut pas l’engueulade – I hate his clothes, but it’s just not worth the bust-up

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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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