Nickel!

When you’re learning French in school, you don’t necessarily learn a lot of  slang and informal expressions. And when you do learn them, you don’t necessarily learn the things that people actually say.

Here are a few of the expressions I have picked up over the past 5 months. Disclaimer: some of these might be particular to parts of France; I live in the southwest, but other regions might have different expressions.

Pas de souci(s) – No worries / no problem. –Désolé d’être un peu en retard. –Pas de souci!

Pas terrible – (From the familiar meaning of ‘terrible’ – great, awesome) Not great, crappy; C’est pas terrible – That sucks. Il pleuvait tout le week-end? C’est pas terrible, ça.

Nickel – Awesome, great, perfect, fantastic; C’est nickel ~ Good as gold. –Ça va? –Nickel.

Tu m’étonnes – No kidding. (not necessarily sarcastic, just agreeing with an obvious statement.) –C’est pas facile de se déplacer dans les Landes sans une caisse (une voiture). –Tu m’étonnes.

Péter un plomb – To go crazy, (lit.) to blow a fuse. Quand elle a entendu que son copain a été infidèle, je croyais qu’elle allait péter un plomb!

Se la péter / se la jouer – To show off, to vaunt something. Oui, il joue bien, mais il se la pète trop!

Additions will probably follow. And corrections are welcome!