Monday, May 08, 2006

How to sound French

Some important short words:
hein = what? but also used to fill in gaps or emphasize
hein ? = what ?
tu viens, hein ? = you're coming right ?
je suis pas content hein = I'm not happy

euh = er
euh je sais pas = er, I don't know. Note the missing "ne" in the colloquial form, the right way would be "je ne sais pas"

ouais (oo - ay) = yeah
ouais ouais j'arrive = yeah yeah I'm coming

nan = nah
nan je viens pas = nah I'm not coming

ben = pronounced like "bien" without an "i", and means the same (good)
ben ouais je viens = well yeah I'm coming

bah = so what
bah quoi ? = so what

ptet = short for peut-ĂȘtre (pronounced peutetr), maybe
ptet ben que oui, ptet ben que non = maybe, maybe not

quoi = what, but you can easily append it to any sentence without adding anything to its meaning
je sais, quoi = je sais = I know

You can combine these almost infinitely to come up with extremely annoying sentences. Think the equivalent of saying "like" every other word
ouais bon ben euh je sais pas, quoi, hein, bah ouais, ptet = I don't know, maybe

Needless to say you should not use any of this.

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