French Phrases: Using and Understanding Verlan (You Didn’t Learn This In School)

Le verlan is a technique to build slang words. But it’s not a whole slang language by itself, really. And words in verlan are relatively easy to understand, once you know the rules I just described.
…But it’s harder to use in an organic way.

Since the 1950s, it’s been associated with the Parisian suburbs, and lower class urban youth. Nowadays some people use a lot of verlan words, while others not at all. And in between, depending on your social circle, some verlan words are seen as quite common, while other verlan words would be seen as trying too hard to sound like a young suburban guy.

That’s why I’m recommending that you don’t try to use verlan in your everyday French – it can be hard to pull off.

*** Le truc en plus ***

Using the verlan “Zy va” a lot, for “Vas-y” (= come on), is a stereotypical shortcut for youth culture, especially from the suburbs. “Zy va” is really used, but older people would use it as a way of meaning “I’m making an impression of a young person.” And it’s a tired cliché. Unfortunately, that’s what one might sound like when using verlan they’re not comfortable with.

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You can still use the verlan slang that your French friends use around you though.
Be careful of some subtleties, like how cimer can be more sarcastic than merci
for saying “Thank you.”

But it’s still important to know about these words, and how to understand verlan, because it’s used a lot in everyday French, including French pop culture.

So: If you hear a French word that you don’t understand, try to figure out if it’s not verlan. Place the last syllable or the last letter at the beginning, and see if it makes a word that you know. You might need to add a vowel in there as well.

For instance, if your French friend tells you: “Je suis chez wam.” and that you don’t know the word Wam, try to put the last part at the beginning.

Wam → Wa-m → Mwa → Moi
Chez wam → Chez moi = at my place

Of course, if a French person uses verlan and you have to take the time to figure out what they’re saying, then you’re not really “one of them” yet. You’re not talking the same lingo – and you’re probably a bit older than them. And that’s OK! (It does happen to me from time to time!)

The funny thing is, verlan itself is very old, it wasn’t invented by this generation. It started in the 1950s among cops and criminals, then it got popular in French banlieues (suburbs) in the 1970s, before spreading to the country as a whole through rap culture and immigrants.

Some main old examples:
– Laisse béton (Renaud, 1978) → Laisse tomber = “Let it drop,” forget about it
– Les ripoux (Zidi, 1984) → Les pourris = “The rotten ones,” corrupt cops

(That popular movie is the story of a young idealist cop being trained by an older cop more flexible with the rules, at the border of corruption – with two great French actors in the leads.)