50 French Slang Words You'll Actually Hear (Rated for Freshness)

Common French slang includes mec (guy), meuf (woman), truc (thing), fric (money), grave (totally), chelou (sketchy), kiffer (to love) and la flemme (can’t be bothered). Much of it comes from verlan - French backwards slang - and belongs strictly to informal conversation.

Fifty words, grouped by domain, each marked 🕐 (classic, still heard but a bit dated) or 🔥 (genuinely current). Friends-only register throughout.

Understand real French, register included. Get it on the App Store or Google Play.

People: mec, meuf, pote & co (1–10)

Stuff and vagueness: truc, machin, bidule (11–16)

Money and work: fric, thune, taf (17–24)

Reactions and intensifiers: grave, chelou, ouf (25–35)

For the full mechanics of this word-flipping system, see the art of verlan.

Party and social: soirée slang (36–43)

Texting and interjections (44–50)

How to use slang without embarrassing yourself

Match your interlocutor’s register, never deploy this in emails or with vous-people, and remember freshness matters - a 🕐 word can land as dated the way “groovy” would in English. Regional variation exists too, and what’s current in Paris isn’t always current elsewhere. For the register logic underneath all of it, see what is French register and formal vs informal French. If you already know the textbook word and just want its casual twin, see 20 French slang words that replace textbook French.