I'm surprised you didn't mentioned the "euuuuuuh" we make when we hesitate or search for our words. I use it all the time ! There's also "mouais" or "mouaif" as a synonym of "bof", or a not really convinced "yes". But all the others examples you mentionned are true too ^^ Good video, it's funny to watch as a French person ^^
Our "Merde doooh" would be spelled "Merdeuh" in french :D It's actually simply the final E who is strongly prononced when we usualy skip it. ;) (It's not the same as "merdeux" who's mean "little shit" and is an insult xp). "Tak" would be spelled "Tac" (thanks the french comics for writting all our weird little words :D) and "Hop" means a little step, jump so for a child it would be the little jumps he has to make to walk up the stairs :) You can add " la" behind like "hop la" to make the word stronger. In general, adding "la" behind is making the expression stronger like "hop la", "houla" (or "houlala"), "hey la" or "Nan mais c'était nul là !" (work also with "oh") ;)
@@louisecorchevolle9241 Ou pas :) je ne vois toujours pas le lien entre les explications que j'ai donné sur les mots évoqués dans la vidéo et les stéréotypes débiles sur les français ;)
I caught myself doing it when I was very tired and annoyed by my son... I think it is mainly a way of saying yes but I’m so tired I can’t do it properly or sometimes when you feel sad for someone and as if you were saying yes but that would have been better if it didn’t happen, yes but this is unfortunate... For me, it does express a kind of regret... think it’s more used by women... And I think if you mock someone using it, it must be someone who think to much of him or herself taking himself too seriously, the kind that would think he or she is ’un artiste ou intellectuel incompris’... Du genre, houi jsais bien la vie est trop dure...
Yeah, the second one is really "upperclass" style. Rhooo is rather a way to disapprove something but in a gentle way. eg : A: I apologize for offering you such a ridiculous diner but I my fridge was empty ! B : Rhoooo no, it's is really good ! Didn't read all comment s below. Sorry if it was mentioned before XD
About the "hop" sound, there is another slightly different alternative when you say "hop hop hop" in a very quick way. It is more used when you want someone to perform an action, but you want it to be rather fast. For example, if you're late and you want your kids to hurry, you might say "allez hop hop hop, on y va !"
Yeah, you've got your point. This gaspy "oui" isn't an irreplaceable sound, you can just say oui on a normal way. I'm French and personnally I never do this noise, because it's arrogant as you said it. You definitely have other ways to express agreement ! 😂
The « oui » gasp made me laugh so hard !! I am Moroccan and literally spoke French my whole life, I’ve been living in France for more than 13 years, and I never got used to this one. I mean, can’t you just say oui and breathe after ? Do you really need to multitask in this context ? 😂
Je découvre ma langue ! Je n'avais jamais remarqué que c'était si français 😄 Très bonne observation !! Tes vidéos sont super et on les comprend bien. A bientôt 😉
Common combo : "Roohh" "Merde" "Dohh" "pffff" 🤣 When you are very pissed but also disenchanted 😅 For example if your cat just broke your flower pot or someone dropped the flour in the kitchen
5:10 As a francophone it's very interesting to hear your explanation about this sound! 😃 Love the explanation, I guess it could also be that one wants to confirm what has just been said but at the same time, they don't want to interrupt the person speaking so the weird sound "ouai" comes out 😂😅 Have a good day! :-)
That would mean she has to take down the video put it into an editing software edit it download he new version, then upload it to RU-vid and if she did that then the contract would be broken with the sponsor so she cant
Another one I really noticed in France is that French people tend to whisper/aspirate the word merci if it's just for a small thing, for example when someone says "merci" when you hold the door for them a lot of times just sounds like a really aspirated "cihhh", sometimes you even only hear a bit of air coming out of their mouth and it actually means thank you.
"roh" and "the growl" are the same thing actually. And poking your cheek to make a Prrt means "that's bullshit" or "i don't care" and not "i don't know". Another one you didn't mention is the succion sound we make with our tongue and our palate, like a "Tsk". If there is one of it, it's a (rude) way to express your displeasure (think of an elder woman making a tsk in the direction of some noisy teenagers, it would mean "hey! you make too much noise"), and if it is tsk tsk tsk, it's disapproval of something (sometimes if you want to exagerate it for fun) like "tsk tsk tsk *nodding negatively your head* i told you not to do that".
I'm sure I've heard the "prout" sound used for expressing both "that's bullshit", "I don't care" and "I don't know", but it's like an "I don't know and it doesn't seem very important to me". A single "tsk" sound can also mean "no", but it's a lazy and a bit impolite way of saying "non". At least, this is how my late (French) father-in-law explained it to me, and he was was very interested in and knowledgeable about all linguistic matters. And that's how I've experienced it myself: When living in Paris in 1988, I took a French course for foreigners at the Institut Catholique ... and the secretary there did not answer my questions with "non" but simply made that "tsk" sound. I was very surprised But I had in fact previously had a French teacher, Mme Prouillac, at my French university course in Sweden, who used "tsk" all the time in the classroom to signal to us that we had produced an incorrect answer to one of her questions ... She scared the shit out of us, since the "tsk" sound is used in Swedish also, but only as "tsk tsk tsk" and then meaning "[No, i'ts wrong and] you are stupid" or perhaps "What the hell are/were you thinking?!" as a commentary to something silly someone has done. Nobody wanted to answer in class, for fear of hearing that sound, so we mostly kept quiet and did not practice our French conversation. :))
I never thought of all the sounds we, french people, naturally make, but I now admit it can be disturbing for strangers :D But it's part of the charm, hahaha !
I'm french and for the "mmm" when you wanna say yes it's like a long "mmm" and when you wanna say no it's two little "mmm". I don't know if it's really useful for you to know...
I'm Norwegian and we also have the "gasping" sound when we say yes ("ja"). We also have the "m" sound for agreeing, but we double it up, like m-m. And last, where I come from we have the French "R" and we also use the "rohhh" sound when we're somewhat annoyed/irritated.
I think I heard the "ja" in the TV show SKAM. I'm so surprised by how reserved Norwegians are when they speak their language but how loud they can get when they party lol. Definitely such an interesting culture (almost too perfect to be true) & most beautiful country in Europe after France ! I sound so patriotic haha
I'm French and it's very interesting to me :) This unusual content proves you do care about us, who we are, how we sound ! Thanks ! Do you know about the skeptical "mouais" ? It means "yes" but in a very unconvinced mood. So it's more like a "maybe... you're probably wrong but I don't want to disagree". Conflict avoidance skeptikal word and sound :)
Haha, well spotted ! I am french and I always say « Ola » instead of « olala ». It’s less strong. The longer the word is, the more you are shocked. You can use it when you are blasé too or in an ironic way « ola/olala. Relax, you are not going to die » in response to a friend who is overreacting to something. There is also the word « Oula », which is slightly different. Most of the time it’s a reaction to a story, kind of agreement when someone is telling you something shocking, a situation which happened which was not ok or complicated. As an agreement, you can reply « oula, oui » or « oula, compliqué » or « oula, c’est chaud » = you agree and you are shocked too by the situation. You didn’t mention the sound « Han » which is like a gasp, a breathing too. We use it when we are shocked, when we discover something shocking « Han ! There is a water leak in the kitchen ! » or when we realise we have forgotten something « han ! mon passeport ! » etc In Alsace, people say « Hopla » instead of « Hop » and they use it in every sentence haha
Hi! I am French and I have to say, the inhaled yes I feel like is more used by parisians, I personally never use it except to mock it a little haha it makes me feel like I can’t breath.
Je suis bretonne et je le fais mais sans faire exprès, quand je respire et parle à la fois aha. Mais je savais pas que certaines personnes le faisaient car ils fument ou de manière non chalante 😅
On ne dit pas hein tout le temps quand on n'a pas compris :à part en Picardie et heing en Avignon)On dit comment,pardon dans un registre soutenu:)Encore plus élégant:plaît-il?Sacrée Roooo(h)sie:) Bah peut aussi signifier,souligner l'évidence d'un fait:" bah oui c'est gros comme une maison:)"Bah oui quelle prise du poids :ils boivent du gatorade et de la mountain dew toute la journée!
Ah ben si si, des fois, tant que étranger j'ai halluciné quand j'ai entendu le bruit 'khhoooo!!!' (le bruit français pour signaler la frustration). Une autre fois, j'étais dans le métro et quelqu'un a marché sur le pied d'une dame, quand elle a crié 'AA-YEUUH!!!!' j'étais mort de rire.
I am totally guilty of the gaspy oui. I also use it when I am bored or annoyed by the person I am answering to. And the pfffff and the rooooh, the longer the better LOL. I realize we have a lot of sounds to sound annoyed 😂
As a french person, those videos are always not just entirely true but also completely hilarious!! ... no wonder I am a fan of this channel and Paul Taylor !!! ;) Signed: Jean pierre (which actually makes me a wanker since it's not my true name xD)
Dated a Belgian, a French, and a Swiss; it could be a Francophone thing but they definitely do that "pfft" or "farty sound" or "cheek-popping sound" very naturally -- mid-convo, even! (I'd ask them what that was, and they would say "what sound?")
xD I'm french, and I never really realized how weird our sounds or expressions may be to non french speakers. It's very funny ! Another sound we always make is "euuuh"... Like "euuuuh... je (ne) sais pas".
My French teacher tried to get us to use this instead of "um" when we were thinking of the correct word, to at least keep our mouths and brains in French! It does help!
Hey I'm French and you should add the "ntt" we make when someone does or says something we don't agree with. We do it to show our disagreement without to say it.
Well observed & explained, Rosie! My French friends (from near Reims) would often say, “Oh la la la la!” with emphasis on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th syllables. Typical reaction to discovering what the 2 1/2 year old had managed to get up to 😂
One I've noticed as strange/annoying is when people hiss like an angry cat at the end of words that end in an "e" or in french, "i" sound. Like, merci, parti, gentille, etc. sounds like, "mercihhhhhhhhhhhhhh".
my mom does the ouais gasp for no specific reasons… my boyfriend mocks her so much about it, and sometimes I do it without even realizing it ! Sorry can't help you with it!
Super video 😛 My french friend used to pronounce mm mmm mmm when listening to me. I didn’t get at first. Though Russians took a lot sounds after French as we used to speak fluent French couple of centuries ago :) Allez hop we do still use!
I'd like to add a use of "hein" that hasn't been said or written: at the end of an exclamatory (scoldy type) sentence, for more emphasis: "C'est pénible, hein!" (with brows furrowed, voice up at "pé-", down at "-nible" and back up for "hein")
What about the weird aspiration thing that happens at the end of some words? Like « oui-shhh » or « boulangerie-shhh »? It’s not exactly a “shh”, but I don’t know how else to explain it. When I first heard this I was completely confused and thought I was hearing a different word. Can any Francophones shed light on what it means, if anything, and when it is used and not used?
Omg I am French 🇫🇷 I live in Chicago now. Your video was amazing!!! Yes we love growling lol 😆 pfff yes mmm yes I am things that I completely forgot about hein tak thank you for this video
"Bof" is usually used to describe something average, neither good nor bad. Like: Did you enjoy the movie? "hmmm, bof". What do you think of this idea ? "Bof, tu peux faire mieux". You're right, it can also be replaced by "je ne sais pas", but always with the idea that it's neither good nor bad. "Je ne sais pas" used like this would rather means that you have no opinion about the subject than not knowing about the subject. But "oui' oui' oui, bonne vidéo, et maintenant hop hop hop, au dodo (on va se coucher)" 😋
bof is actually a real word : "beauf" which mean "not great" in the current language. And "beauf" is actualy the contracted word of "beau-frère" which mean "brother-in-law"
Great video. When I was an exchange student in the US I once did a "Tsk-rhhhh" combo because I was annoyed at something, and my host family looked at me like I was coming from mars - I realised then that they had absolutely no idea what I was doing/expressing. It was so hilarious (especially for them) that I still remember it 35 years later :0)
Not only do we say those all the time, but I definitely write them when I text too! So important to the french language 😀 "pfffff" "rrrrrrr" "rohhhh" "holala" "bah" "euh" (and now I realize that the previous are all used more or less to express annoyance... the French love to complain, even as a joke)
As a Frenchman, this is funny to hear all those sounds out of their context... ^^ Nevertheless, they're perfeclty true. For the "Tak" thing, usually, it's when you are doing something quick with a pencil or your finger (draw a line on paper, draw a check mark on a list or cross a word on a list, follow a road on a map, do fast clicks on a computer(like when you are in a hurry)) and the length of the "tak" sound will follow the length of each actions like "taaaak-tak-tak-taak-tak-taaaak". ^^
I found “allez hop” very interesting. I remember when lifting children up on something we would say what sounded like “alley oop”. Maybe it was derived from “allez hop”.
The "houi" or "houais" sound is something a lot of us don't like and make fun of. It's pretty... idk, posh, superior ? As for the finger poking the cheek to make like a fart sound, someone already said below : it can mean "this is bullshit" ou "I'm not listening, whatever". "Bah" and "Ben" (pronounced like "bain") are the same thing, it's the slang equivalent of "et bien..." when you have to collect your thoughts or choose the right words :)
Thanks for confirming that "baaah" is actually "beeen", with a nasal vowel, n'est-ce pas = "eh bien" = "Well, ..." in English. This is how I've always understood it. And it's true that French people use it a lot. Me too, by the way, when I speak French ;) I like it!
In Canada, french canadians don't make most of these sounds. And for those we use, the meaning differs a little. For example, the sound "aie" could be translated as "hey!" in english or "enough" depending on the context. Same goes for "Allez Hop". Here, it's more like "Allez Up" meaning "Get up" it's time to go.
I'm french and realize we do make a fair amount of weird things. xD Just few things to flag on what you say. "bof" prononciation "o" is kinda pronounced like english "oa" like in "boat", "oat". Otherwise in french I mostly hear "boeuf" which french people will defintely interprete as "cow"/"beef" instead of "Meh". HAha The aspired "ouai"... It's good to be aware people can do it, but wouldn't recommend doing it as it definitely makes people somehow pedantic. And I guess it's mostly a smoker habit too. For "Merde" I guess they are multiple ways you could say it. Sometime this changes based on where you live in france. I would say splitting the word in two is enough to give more emphasize. You can drag the "r" a little too actually. "Merrrrr... DE !" Just my thoughts, great video anyway !
nice selection. you were a good observer of our sounds. I had the familier way to say 'oui' : 'ouais' (sound 'ou-è') as in english the 'yeah' for 'yes'.
Is it me or.... the first "Oh la la" was reeeally stereotypical of posh Parisian attitude ? 😁 (I do use it - but... not with this lingering quasi-existentialist expiration !)
Je pense que quand même ce qui nous caractérise le plus c'est le "putain" qui est devenu "t'ain" à force de le répéter 200 fois par jour. C'est devenu une ponctuation. "Putain j'ai oublié le pain" "t'ain elle est trop belle ta nouvelle voiture" "oh putain regarde ça tu vas pas le croire" "100€ ? T'ain c'est cher !!!" 😂
Mais carrément! J'enseigne en collège en Angleterre et des fois le 'tain' m'échappe et je suis trop contente de me parler toute seule trop vite pour les élèves, parce que sinon... C'est déjà comique quand je dis "flûte" (Miss, you've said the F word, OMG!!) mais alors si fallait expliquer 'tain...
I'd add the French make the sound "tuk" "tuk" "tuk" when they are thinking about something inside a meeting. Or just connecting to a web conference.. a lot like tak tak tak but they do it when they are performing an action
This is hilarious. As a daughter to a French mother (I live in Israel) many of these sounds are really natural to me but I had now idea that some might identify them with being French. Now that I think about it most of them are not common among my homeland friends :)
All of this is so true! But as a French person I think I would write "tac" with a c, not a k. Thanks for this video that made me realize all these sounds I was making without noticing 😅
I want to know more about that too! Have heard it a lot at the ends of phrases. Comme Nooon, je fais du sport le lundi💨 ou Saluttt💨 ou Dans la forêt il y avait un loup💨
@@Epintus06 Haha it's a mystery! I found a video, it's in Quebecois, and she says vie💨 around 0:17 - have you heard any French people say vie like that?
Great video ! I didn't realise we (I am french) were making all of these noises ahah ! Is there no equivalent for all of these sounds in english (I am curious) ? I could also add these explanations and other "onomatopées" (this is what we call these sounds in french : - "Bah oui" would mean yes of course / yes obviously (in this case bah would be short), - "ouais (aspiré) c'est vrai" is different from the normal oui/ouais. I think i shows enthousiam and that we really agree with the person (but I am not sure because it is hard to explain these without context), - "Hop hop hop" means quick quick quick or "hop hop hop pas si vite" rather means stop wait, - "bof, j'aime pas trop" means I don't really like it, - "Olala trop bien" shows that olala can be positive in this case it means oh great (i juste realised that i use "trop" a lot), - "hein, quoi ?" could also be used when you have perfectly heard the person but you can't believe what she says, - "ouf" would be used to express relief - "t" (I don't know how to write this one i should record myself) is used when you are upset a bit like the tchip sound in african countries There are so many other sounds but i will stop there :)
Haha that made me laugh so muxh and makes me wonder what my Aussie colleagues think of me when I make all these weird sounds haha 😅😅 Especially when I say: 'Hein?' 😂
Have you watched ‘Emily in Paris’ on Netflix yet? It reminded me of your Paris videos talking about the difference in culture. You might find the series a bit hilarious.
"allez hop!" is like 'let's go/let's jump in", you might have seen Air France planes with "Hop!" written on the side, mostly those used for short distance flights. It's like they're doing "small jumps". It''s like a sound you'd make(dont ask me why) when jumping.
Coucou, je dois dire que ta video etait vraiment divertissante ! En tant que francais, on en oublie facilement que l'on fait tant de bruits étranges , haha
Hi, we pop the cheek to show disbelief, when we think a situation won't happen. "Cette personne a dit qu'elle rappelerait." [This person said they would call back.] POP. ;-)
hello, "hein? " can also be use as a " stop dont go further in the subject or rephrase it " and " tsss" "t t t t t " or a smirk are use for desabrobation the french joy of arguing/debating
A friend makes a sound when she’s consternated~ she furrows her brow and makes a pout, and says “eu”, like ooh but shorter. She will say it a few times, but always with a pause
Thanks for this compilatioin. Loved it. The 'inbreath -yes' is actually a thing in the norther parts of Sweden as well. It is a dialect thing, saying 'Yoo' on inbreath (meaning yes), I hadn't noticed the French does it as well.
Ce serait trop cool que tu fasses une vidéo sur la série Netflix Emily in Paris : show vs reality. Y a plein de « polémiques » dessus en ce moment sur les clichés et moi je suis pas parisienne alors je me sens pas légitime de juger ^^
All the things I loved picking up by living around the French. I enjoyed predicting each one as you gave an explanation first, then the sound. I think my favorite is "bof"
That growling hhhhrrr, I really hate hate hate it!! Especially when I ask a favor to my husband and he does it and Rolling his eyes... it is a sign of being annoyed. I hate it.
🤣🤣🤣 at first i thought your video tittle was weird but it is actually spot on. The " asthma wai" is something that surprised me too. The "Oh lala la" is a super Parisian think. No one does it outside of Paris.
