Discover one of the most fascinating features of the French language.
When you were a child, have you ever tried to play with some words and change the order of syllables or letters completely, maybe even creating a secret language to use with your friends? Well, you will be surprised to discover that in French this happened for real, and some people created Verlan, a type of colloquial speech that has become one of the most interesting features of the French language.
Verlan is a form of slang that originates in France and that involves reversing the syllables of a word to produce a new expression. Let's look at some examples.
merci (thank you) becomes cimer.
chien (dog) becomes iench.
Français (French) becomes céfran.
If a system like verlan existed in English, it would work in a similar way to create new slang expressions. The word apple could be divided into two syllables: ap-ple. If we reversed them, it might become pleap or simplified to something smoother like plea. Similarly, the word angry could be split into an-gry. Reversing the syllables would give us gry-an, which could be spelled gryan.
The term itself is an inversion of l’envers (meaning backward or reverse). In other words, the word verlan is verlanisé!
In verlan, spelling often follows pronunciation rather than standard orthography, which explains why français becomes céfran rather than a more literal saisfran. The goal is not grammatical correctness, but fluid, informal communication, and sometimes, concealment.
And there are also words that are doubly turned in verlan. For example, rebeu is the slang term to refer to people of Arab origin. The word arabe (Arab) was turned into beur using verlan. Then later, beur itself was reversed again to create rebeu. So rebeu is basically verlan of a verlan.
Verlan emerged in the 1960s in the working-class suburbs of Paris. It was initially used by marginalized groups, especially gang members and small criminals, as a coded language to prevent the police or outsiders from understanding their conversations.
Over time, verlan spread beyond its criminal roots, entering popular youth culture, particularly through music, movies, and urban life. Artists in French rap and hip-hop helped popularize verlan in the 1980s and 1990s, making it a key feature of urban identity.
However, verlan never became part of everyday formal French. Only a limited set of words have made their way into mainstream usage, becoming almost standard slang among young people.
Here are some of the most frequently used verlan words that you might hear in everyday French conversations:
Femme (woman / girlfriend) becomes meuf. For example, Cette meuf est vraiment sympa. (This girl is really nice.) Aujourd’hui Antoine sort avec sa meuf. (Today Antoine is going out with his girlfriend.)
Fête (party) becomes teuf. For example, Ce soir je vais à une teuf avec mes amis. (Tonight I’m going to a party with my friends.)
Fou (crazy) becomes ouf. For example, Hier il m’est arrivé un truc de ouf. (Yesterday something crazy happened to me.)
Choper (to hook up / to pick up someone) becomes pécho. For example, Il a pécho quelqu’un en boîte hier soir. (He hooked up with someone in the club last night.)
Louche (weird / shady) becomes chelou. For example, Ce mec a l’air chelou. (This guy looks sketchy.)
Lourd(e) (heavy or annoying) becomes relou. For example, Le nouveau professeur est vraiment relou. (The new teacher is really annoying.) C’est relou d’être bloqué dans le trafic. (It’s annoying to be stuck in traffic.)
Mec (guy) becomes keum. For example, Ce keum est cool. (That guy is cool.)
Moche (ugly) becomes cheum. For example, Regarde cette vieille voiture, elle est trop cheum! (Look at that old car, it’s so ugly!)
The word énerve (angry) becomes vénère. For example, Il était vénère parce qu’il a raté son train. (He was really mad because he missed his train.) Pourquoi tu es vénère comme ça? (Why are you so angry like that?)
Bête (stupid) becomes teubé. For example, C’est une idée teubée. (That’s a dumb idea.) T’es teubé ou quoi? (Are you dumb or what?)
The word noir becomes renoi and is used to refer to a Black person. Dans ce film, le héros est un renoi de Paris. (In this movie, the main character is a Black guy from Paris.)
Pay attention to the words renoi and rebeu. Because these words refer to people’s racial or ethnic backgrounds, they can be sensitive. Even if they’re sometimes used casually within certain communities, they can sound disrespectful or offensive, especially if used by someone outside those communities.
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