Kiffer grave la teuf - about French verlan and other slang

There is nothing more difficult than trying to speak slang in a foreign language. Even in my own language I am too old to follow the trends, in French, I don't even try! Even today, after twelve years married to a Frenchman, I avoid slang. Among friends I might use some words that are declared 'familier', which means familiar in the sense informal. Like bagnole instead of voiture for car, bouffer instead of manger for to eat. But this is not slang.


Maybe you hear someone talk about a mega-teuf. Then you are on to one of the oldest slang phenomenon in France, the verlan. The word verlan in itself comes from the shuffled word l'envers, which in turn means topsy-turvy, upside down - and it describes the process of creating a word in verlan. Woman = femme will become meuf backwards. Fête = party will become teuf backwards. and so on. The French talked like this even when I was young about a hundred years ago, so it is really an old tradition. Today they might go one step further, so that the shuffled word is reshuffled... so that mother = mère will become first reum and then meureu! Or the word for like that = comme ça will become first aç and then askeum and then asmeuk... you still follow?

Another kind of slang is the word kiffer, where kiffer grave means to like alot. It comes from the Arabic word kiff. In Morocco and Tunisia it means hasch and the initial meaning was to enjoy smoking and then developed into just liking something. Not to be confused with the Arabic word kifkif, which means alike, similar!

Modern slang find inspiration in many places. Rap and rock, commercials, movies, Arabic and African languages will provide ideas. You say parler 93, talk 93, which refers to the departément 93 north of Paris. It is known for the many gangs and the tough environment. If you don't live there, you look cooler talking like them!