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As a French, I want to bring some cultural precisions about the "Minikeums" clip. The explanations on the word "keum" are on point but I have never heard in my life someone saying "Minikeum" and I think it is a reference to the fench 90s kids' show "Les minikeums" (which was a children version of "Les Guignols de l'info") more than a intentional use of verlan. I'm not 100% confident on that take, mostly because I haven't watch the show but worst case scenario: I'm wrong but some people will check out on what was a huge part of childhood for many french at the time. PS: feel free to point out any mistakes in my comment, I can only do better with foreign languages.
J’ai commencé à regarder cette série mais le verlan me posais trop de problèmes. Cette vidéo m’aide beaucoup. Merci. J’aimerais voir une deuxième partie!
I did Level 4 French last year at the Uni of Nottingham and part of the course was learning about Verlan. I found it quite interesting, but difficult! I felt like I'd spent 7 years leaarning French and then someone came along and changed it all! I can't imagine speaking it at work, though, and most of my English friends who speak French won't have heard of it, but I think for watching certain TV programmes it will be quite useful. Thanks for the video, there were a few here I hadn't come across before.
I love the 'double verlan' where a verlan word has become so 'mainstream' that it is verlanised again: so beur (from arabe) become rebeu which is used in 'Drôle' I think; and meuf becomes feumeu although not sure how much that one is actually used.
Thank you for the explanation of “golri” and “chanmé”. I watched all the episodes of Drôle and I couldn’t figure out those words! I should have realized it was verlan. Cimer Alex !
Note regarding Verlan: You can pretty much reverse everyword if you want and I think most people would understand.. BUT. It's really a cliché and it will sound stupid if you do it to much. During the 90's, Verlan was a bit more mainstream (The real origin of verlan are way older than that btw) and to try to "reach" for the younger generations, they put lots of Verlan, too much Verlan. The overuse of Verlan is pretty much the French equivalent of "How do you do Fellow kids?"
That was really really interesting - also reassuring :) it made Verlan seem less intimidating to see that it was based on such a simple system and like you said you can just pick it up here and there when you need it or want it 👍🏻
Maybe it's just me, but I think a lot of anglophones find it easier to do the french "r" sound at the beginning of a word, as opposed to the middle or the end...
People tend to think "meuf" might be weird/degrading when they first hear it but it's actually a very very useful word in french. Since "homme" (man) is a bit formal (more than man is in english), people have invented a lot of alternatives to sound less weird in everyday conversations (gars, mec, type... which basically mean dude). However there are much fewer equivalents for women, I can only think of "nana" and "gonzesse" right now, which are dated and reductive. "Meuf" to me is the only term which enables you to talk informally about a woman in French, and it doesn't hold any negative connotation.
C'est un peu tard, mais tu serais intéressé dans le son «Le retour du rap français» par Kery James. Il présente un trésor d'utilisations diverses de verlan, et ça m'a fait penser que le verlan c'est quelque chose de très naturel. Les rappeurs français et râpeuses françaises l'utilisent pour générer, j'en suis sûr, un certain type d'effect dans le locuteur. Mais pour pouvoir y préciser de plus, il faudrait réfléchir un peu.
J'adore à quel point tu maîtrises le verlan !! Mais attention à ne pas faire s'enfuir les autres non-natifs ! Haha Guys, he/she really did just try to cram as much verlan in to the comment as possible :)
I am native. Usually I write my comments in English and I don't send a comment each Time. I follow your French lessons not because I need learn French but....I try to improve my English. It is a good exercice to listen to your English explanations. You give English idiomatic keys, solutions and it is a good help for me ! 😁 Thank you very much for your work 👍🤍 And thank you for your lesson about verlan language . And your English explanations. I could learn new English words and how to translate verlan words in English.
La forme correcte, selon les règles de la langue anglaise, est "you and I". Souvent on entend "you and me" dans la vie de tous les jours mais, si on suit les règles, c'est une faute.
@@FrenchinPlainSight Ça peut être à cause de la propagation de la langue anglaise dans le monde non-anglais, car en Inde par exemple l'on dit ça et autres expressions «fautives». Mais ceci n'expliquerait pas pourquoi les natifs et les natives le disent également.
Petit détail de prononciation: pour chanmé , on ne prononce pas le N du tout. le "an" se prononce exactement comme dans "méchant" qu'Alex prononce bien.
For holiday, yes you're probably right, unless you're going on holiday to meet friends who use verlan, then it might be fun to use it. As I say, you can go you're whole life not using it, and still be fluent.
Doesn't l'envers sound a bit like l'enfer? Hell yes, I think it does. I hereby invent ferlen, which is like verlan but a tad more firey. Kind'v golri, am I right? De ouf. L'enfer was always easy to remember because in English we've got cognates up the wahoo: on fire, inferno, infernal, probably furnace. Geez, I'm really on fire here.
I like speaking verlan even if I am ...oups ! I forgot my age. 😁😁😁 For example if I Come back home by foot I like saying : je rentre à iep ' . Or I like saying : c'est à oim (it's mine). But my favorite verlan word IS: vénère. I enjoy it !!!! And I enjoyed your lesson. Too chanme 😁
This is really depressing to be honest.. after learning this language for years and yet hearing these new slangs☺️☺️ it looks like learning french is lifelong process 😂
Remember what I say in the beginning Vicky: you can be totally fluent without using verlan. Stay curious and have fun with it. I'm watching a film right now where none is used at all :)
@@FrenchinPlainSight i agreed but it is disappointing when you watch a french movie and you wanna throw your phone in a frustration when you don't understand z thing even if you know the normal french! I recently tried watching LA HAINE and I just can't tolerate the speed and slang they talked in that movie. I will appreciate if you can cover this movie in one of your upcoming video☺️
@@MrVmalviya believe me, I understand the frustration! However, unless every few words in verlan, it's very likely that it's the combination of unknown or non-obvious vocab combined with speed and grammar that's still new to you that's causing the miscomprehension. I would recommend watching stuff not set in Paris or not with young(er) characters, which will reduce the chance of a lot of verlan popping up. Other than that, tiens bon Vicky (hang in there) !
@@MrVmalviya I can definitely understand that. But remember that's is also true the other way around. I'm french and I like to think rather good at understanding English, but sometimes you stumble on slangs, fast sentences or strange sayings and suddenly it's like you can only hear words without any meaning. But yeah, Verlan is just another way to about strangers, especially when several English words have been modified and accepted in Verlan. XD
Nice. We got that louche in English, though I'll admit it's not common. It's got a hint of "loose" in it, which provides a bit of subliminal kick to the word. Loose livers are louche, lacking in morals.
Because languages are constantly evolving. I et that natives of your native language can play with words too, to make them rhyme for songs, or to make jokes. Verlan is just like a whole other level! It can happen with verbs, but I barely know any verlan if we consider how much there is!
Regarding "MiniKeums" you need to know it's the name of a TV show from the 90's to early 2000's. It was a TV show for kids where they broadcasted cartoons and between each cartoons there were gigs with Puppets that looked like famous people. fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Minikeums
The Confident French Speaker Community is launching soon for intermediates. More info here: learn.frenchinplainsight.com/confident-french-speaker-community
It blew my mind a little when I found out that name of the popular Belgian (and French singing) artist Stromae is actually verlan for Maestro.
Wow never knew that
He's not French he's from belgium
Cool ! Verlan hidden in plain sight. Love it!
@@baboulinet8725 My mistake! Corrected post.
As a French, I want to bring some cultural precisions about the "Minikeums" clip.
The explanations on the word "keum" are on point but I have never heard in my life someone saying "Minikeum" and I think it is a reference to the fench 90s kids' show "Les minikeums" (which was a children version of "Les Guignols de l'info") more than a intentional use of verlan. I'm not 100% confident on that take, mostly because I haven't watch the show but worst case scenario: I'm wrong but some people will check out on what was a huge part of childhood for many french at the time.
PS: feel free to point out any mistakes in my comment, I can only do better with foreign languages.
Definitely a reference to the Minikeums TV show. (ua-cam.com/video/m-_uAIbFQvU/v-deo.html)
There's no other context where one would say 'minikeum'.
Thanks so much for the addition! I would never have got the reference!
les exemples tirés de situations réelles sont une excellente idée.
J’ai commencé à regarder cette série mais le verlan me posais trop de problèmes. Cette vidéo m’aide beaucoup. Merci. J’aimerais voir une deuxième partie!
Je suis heureux que la vidéo t'ait apaisée Christine :)
@@FrenchinPlainSight “apaisée”: j’ai dû le chercher dans la dictionnaire…un mot tellement utile!
I did Level 4 French last year at the Uni of Nottingham and part of the course was learning about Verlan. I found it quite interesting, but difficult! I felt like I'd spent 7 years leaarning French and then someone came along and changed it all! I can't imagine speaking it at work, though, and most of my English friends who speak French won't have heard of it, but I think for watching certain TV programmes it will be quite useful. Thanks for the video, there were a few here I hadn't come across before.
I love the 'double verlan' where a verlan word has become so 'mainstream' that it is verlanised again: so beur (from arabe) become rebeu which is used in 'Drôle' I think; and meuf becomes feumeu although not sure how much that one is actually used.
Thank you for the explanation of “golri” and “chanmé”. I watched all the episodes of Drôle and I couldn’t figure out those words! I should have realized it was verlan. Cimer Alex !
Why should you have? :)
@@FrenchinPlainSight excellent point! 😂
Bien joué pour le "cimer". C'est en effet un mot assez courant de verlan.
Alex, this is a video very well done and extremely interesting. Thanks a lot!!
De rien Valerio !
Note regarding Verlan: You can pretty much reverse everyword if you want and I think most people would understand.. BUT. It's really a cliché and it will sound stupid if you do it to much. During the 90's, Verlan was a bit more mainstream (The real origin of verlan are way older than that btw) and to try to "reach" for the younger generations, they put lots of Verlan, too much Verlan.
The overuse of Verlan is pretty much the French equivalent of "How do you do Fellow kids?"
An a non-native I only use the widely spoken verlan like ouf, meuf, louche. The others feel like I'm trying too hard.
Minikeum was actually a french tv show from the 90's
Great and very well explained ❤
That was really really interesting - also reassuring :) it made Verlan seem less intimidating to see that it was based on such a simple system and like you said you can just pick it up here and there when you need it or want it 👍🏻
Glad you enjoyed it!
C’est tellement pratique parce qu’il est beaucoup plus facile de dire “relou” que “lourd”!!
@Real Aiglon for her, yes :)
Super intéressant, Ailsa. Alors c'est un joli avantage que je n'avais pas prévu :)
Maybe it's just me, but I think a lot of anglophones find it easier to do the french "r" sound at the beginning of a word, as opposed to the middle or the end...
Redrum is from The Shining. Murder! In fact you could sort of think of verlan as a kind of mirror language, I guess.
People tend to think "meuf" might be weird/degrading when they first hear it but it's actually a very very useful word in french.
Since "homme" (man) is a bit formal (more than man is in english), people have invented a lot of alternatives to sound less weird in everyday conversations (gars, mec, type... which basically mean dude).
However there are much fewer equivalents for women, I can only think of "nana" and "gonzesse" right now, which are dated and reductive. "Meuf" to me is the only term which enables you to talk informally about a woman in French, and it doesn't hold any negative connotation.
Wonderful contribution. Merci !
C'est un peu tard, mais tu serais intéressé dans le son «Le retour du rap français» par Kery James. Il présente un trésor d'utilisations diverses de verlan, et ça m'a fait penser que le verlan c'est quelque chose de très naturel. Les rappeurs français et râpeuses françaises l'utilisent pour générer, j'en suis sûr, un certain type d'effect dans le locuteur. Mais pour pouvoir y préciser de plus, il faudrait réfléchir un peu.
Merci Alex. Je vais regarder la série Drole.
Comment t'assure trop de ouf keum en cefran !!!! Comment j'aimerais trop parler l'anglais comme tu parles le cefran. Ce serait vraiment chanme 😁😉👍🤍
J'adore à quel point tu maîtrises le verlan !! Mais attention à ne pas faire s'enfuir les autres non-natifs ! Haha
Guys, he/she really did just try to cram as much verlan in to the comment as possible :)
I am native. Usually I write my comments in English and I don't send a comment each Time. I follow your French lessons not because I need learn French but....I try to improve my English. It is a good exercice to listen to your English explanations. You give English idiomatic keys, solutions and it is a good help for me ! 😁 Thank you very much for your work 👍🤍
And thank you for your lesson about verlan language . And your English explanations. I could learn new English words and how to translate verlan words in English.
Tres bonne vidéo. Comme d'habitude !
Mais peux tu expliquer pourquoi en anglais on dit parfois : you and I mais en français toi et moi
merci
La forme correcte, selon les règles de la langue anglaise, est "you and I". Souvent on entend "you and me" dans la vie de tous les jours mais, si on suit les règles, c'est une faute.
@@FrenchinPlainSight Ça peut être à cause de la propagation de la langue anglaise dans le monde non-anglais, car en Inde par exemple l'on dit ça et autres expressions «fautives». Mais ceci n'expliquerait pas pourquoi les natifs et les natives le disent également.
Petit détail de prononciation: pour chanmé , on ne prononce pas le N du tout. le "an" se prononce exactement comme dans "méchant" qu'Alex prononce bien.
Ah oui. Merci !
Cc Alex. J’espère que tu es en forme. Je dis ‘cimer’ de temps en temps. Bonne continuation ❤
Cimer :)
Why, if I go to France on holiday, do I need to know or speak slang? Wouldn't nice, accurate and polite French be better in all circumstances?
For holiday, yes you're probably right, unless you're going on holiday to meet friends who use verlan, then it might be fun to use it. As I say, you can go you're whole life not using it, and still be fluent.
What camera do you use?
Panasonic Lumix GH4
Doesn't l'envers sound a bit like l'enfer? Hell yes, I think it does. I hereby invent ferlen, which is like verlan but a tad more firey. Kind'v golri, am I right? De ouf. L'enfer was always easy to remember because in English we've got cognates up the wahoo: on fire, inferno, infernal, probably furnace. Geez, I'm really on fire here.
Haha. Tu es en feu !
Je sais pas si cette expression se traduit en fait.
@@FrenchinPlainSight ça passe.
Ce n'est pas la plus utilisée et elle sonne un peu bof quand on a pas l'habitude, mais ça passe. ^^
0:26 so THAT'S where that other name for weed comes from! Neat!
I like speaking verlan even if I am ...oups ! I forgot my age. 😁😁😁 For example if I Come back home by foot I like saying : je rentre à iep ' . Or I like saying : c'est à oim (it's mine). But my favorite verlan word IS: vénère. I enjoy it !!!!
And I enjoyed your lesson. Too chanme 😁
Haha merci. Est-ce que tu es natif/native ?
Singer Stromae is a fan (Maestro)
As crazy as Verlan is, I think the Cockney rhyming slang has it beat for sheer weirdness!! Pig Latin, though, bows down to Verlan!
How old are you, sir?
I'd like to see verlan mixed with some spoonerisms.
Ah that takes me back. My grandad loved spoonerisms. He would use them any chance he had. He had a quick mind for that.
How is The French Academy reacting to this?
Unsure! They probably don't like it.
Ils se sont déjà enfuis en pleurant...
Cimer, mec.
redrum
This is really depressing to be honest.. after learning this language for years and yet hearing these new slangs☺️☺️ it looks like learning french is lifelong process 😂
Remember what I say in the beginning Vicky: you can be totally fluent without using verlan. Stay curious and have fun with it. I'm watching a film right now where none is used at all :)
@@FrenchinPlainSight i agreed but it is disappointing when you watch a french movie and you wanna throw your phone in a frustration when you don't understand z thing even if you know the normal french! I recently tried watching LA HAINE and I just can't tolerate the speed and slang they talked in that movie. I will appreciate if you can cover this movie in one of your upcoming video☺️
@@MrVmalviya believe me, I understand the frustration!
However, unless every few words in verlan, it's very likely that it's the combination of unknown or non-obvious vocab combined with speed and grammar that's still new to you that's causing the miscomprehension.
I would recommend watching stuff not set in Paris or not with young(er) characters, which will reduce the chance of a lot of verlan popping up.
Other than that, tiens bon Vicky (hang in there) !
@@MrVmalviya I can definitely understand that.
But remember that's is also true the other way around. I'm french and I like to think rather good at understanding English, but sometimes you stumble on slangs, fast sentences or strange sayings and suddenly it's like you can only hear words without any meaning.
But yeah, Verlan is just another way to about strangers, especially when several English words have been modified and accepted in Verlan. XD
I agree. French is hard enough without this and now it's some kind of pig Latin? UGH. It almost makes me want to cut my losses.
Nice. We got that louche in English, though I'll admit it's not common. It's got a hint of "loose" in it, which provides a bit of subliminal kick to the word. Loose livers are louche, lacking in morals.
"c'est" is "se" not "sey" and
"fait" is "fe" not "fey"
Why do they change the words like that?? Kind of OCD? I hope they don’t do it to the verbs too.
Because languages are constantly evolving. I et that natives of your native language can play with words too, to make them rhyme for songs, or to make jokes. Verlan is just like a whole other level!
It can happen with verbs, but I barely know any verlan if we consider how much there is!
you're a very handsome man
méchant ≠ chanmé
En termes de sens, non, mais c'est bien le verlan de méchant
Regarding "MiniKeums" you need to know it's the name of a TV show from the 90's to early 2000's. It was a TV show for kids where they broadcasted cartoons and between each cartoons there were gigs with Puppets that looked like famous people.
fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Minikeums