8 French Slang Words (starting with letter C)

Let’s have fun with a little French slang, today with 8 slang words starting with the letter C. Not the most distinguished of French of course but definitely kid friendly, not to mention amusing!

You might be thinking “I don’t want to use slang when I speak French!” and that’s fine, although I must say you would truly impress us and, whether you want these words to come out of your mouth or not, you’ll have to understand them when they come into your ears. So, you might as well watch this video I promise it’s good 🙂

1- UN CANON

Canon with one n looks a lot like cannon with 2 n, the big piece of artillery. It is that too in French. But that’s not the meaning I want to teach you today.

If someone, male or female, is canon, Raphaël est canon or Julie est canon, it simply means that they are drop dead gorgeous hot hot hot!

My new colleague is really hot!

Mon nouveau collègue est vraiment canon! 

Little bonus for you, the opposite of un canon is un boudin. You don’t really want people to call you that. However, canon is nice. If you hear someone calling you a canon, smile, at least inside.

2- UNE CLOPE

Une clope is another way of saying une cigarette. It’s familiar but not horribly vulgar. Something you’d say with your friends and it’s be perfectly fine. From the noun une clope we also made the verb cloper, to smoke a cigarette, fumer une clope or cloper.

You wouldn’t have a cigarette, would you please?

T’as pas une clope s’il te plaît? 

3- CLAQUÉ(E)

Here used as an adjective, claqué for a man or claquée for a woman. It means dead tired. Originally the word claque means a slap in the face. So if you’re claqué it means you’re as tired as if someone had slapped you real hard. Again familiar but not vulgar.

Haaa what a long work day, I’m totally exhausted!

Haaa quelle longue journée de travail, je suis complètement claquée!

4- LES CHIOTTES

Now this one is quite vulgar. But everybody uses it, from time to time. A synonym for les chiottes is… les toilettes! And now you know what that means! If you want to know the details and why this one does indeed sound vulgar, the verb chier in French means to shit. I told you. I just looked it up to make sure and it is a crapper. It’s such a silly word I can’t say it!

My parents’ bathroom is full of magazines.

Les chiottes de mes parents sont pleins de magazines.

5- CRADE

Crade means dirty. Your shoes can be crade, your hair can be crade, your shirt can be crade. You get the picture. A dirty book or a dirty magazine would not be crade, crade is only for stains, a dirty book would be cochon and yes I know cochon actually means pig.

Remove your dirty boots before entering my place.

Enlève tes bottes crades avant de rentrer chez moi.

Crade is not vulgar, just familiar.

6- CHLINGUER

I love this verb and I use it a lot. Again it’s just a goofy funny word, not vulgar. Chlinguer means, ewww ça chlingue or you could say ewww ça pue! It stinks.

She put too much perfume on it stinks!

Elle a mis trop de parfum ça chlingue!

7- UNE CROÛTE

I love this word, just the sound of it cracks me up, it sounds repulsive, une croûte, croûte, une croûte. Right? This can mean so many different things. First the meanings that are not slang.

You fall, you bleed, you have a scab. A scab is une croûte.

You go to the bakery, you buy a baguette, it is covered with the crust. The crust is une croûte. Same thing for Earth crust, la croûte terrestre.

Now for slang purposes, there are 2: un casse-croûte, literally, a break crust, is a snack. Must come from the  breaking of the bread, you break the crust.

And the 2nd one, which is my favorite, une croûte is a horrible unskillful bad painting that you hate.

Don’t tell me he bought this croûte!

Ne me dis pas qu’il a acheté cette croûte!

Now tell me, did you already know some of these French slang words? canon, clope, claqué, chiottes, crade, chlinguer, croûte? Do you know more starting with C? Share your comments with us!

#easyfunfrenchslang #Frenchslang #impressthefrench