Did you ever struggle to explain an English word to a French person? Well, French is a beautifully complicated language with plenty of unique words you will find hard to translate. Those words are what makes a language unique, so why not embrace it? Here are 10 untranslatable French words to learn in order to impress your friends or a native French person.
Untranslatable French Words To Know
Sortable
That’s an adjective mostly used among friends or family to talk about someone you can take anywhere without any fear of being embarrassed by them. Except French people love to use it to say that someone is pas sortable, which means you can’t take them out because they are likely to embarrass you.
Empêchement
Why should you think about a believable excuse to skip a boring dinner with friends, when you could use this simple word, empêchement? Yes, French people have a word to describe “an unexpected last-minute change of plans”.
Dépaysement
When you travel to a foreign country, and you’re a little bit overwhelmed with the new culture and new landscapes, you can say that you’re experiencing some dépaysement. Most of the time, it is used to express a positive experience.
L’esprit d’escalier
Do you often think about the best retort ever, but only after you left the room? The French have the best word for it: l’esprit d’escalier, which literally means “staircase wit”. Sometimes, untranslatable French words can seem philosophical…
Flâner
Sure, people might say that flâner can be easily translated with to wander. But flâner is much more than that: it’s a beautiful word to describe the subtle art of wandering a city with no goal or final destination. Flâner means you just want to experience and soak up the different vibes of a place.
Voilà
Voilà is such a versatile word! It means “there it is” and you can use it to show something, to make a point or to end a sentence when you don’t know how to wrap it up.
La douleur exquise
They say French people are hopeless romantics. Well, they do have a word to explain the feeling of loving someone who doesn’t love you back. It’s called la douleur exquise and could be translated as an “exquisite pain”.
Faire du yaourt
You might know the word yaourt, which means yogurt. But weirdly enough, faire du yaourt doesn’t mean that you are making yogurt from scratch. It means that you are singing a song with made-up words or trying to sing a foreign song without fully understanding the lyrics. Like these international singers who tried singing in French for one song!
Ras-le-bol
Are you fed up with a situation or with someone? Just shout out j’en ai ras-le-bol! It perfectly sums up the feeling of despair you can sometimes feel.
Être à l’ouest
If you’re the kind of person who regularly has their head in the clouds, or if people think of you as a daydreamer, then you are probably à l’ouest. Être à l’ouest literally means “being west”.
Can you think of other untranslatable French words? If you’re only beginning to learn French, maybe start with a list of the 200 most used French words.
