Language/French/Vocabulary/Express-Surprise

Here are typical expressions to express surprise in French:

When something unusual happens, it is common for French to use expressions like in English "Oh my God" or "Madre mía" in Spanish.

This type of short expressions help us to express our emotions when something happens so that our interlocutor can see our reaction.

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French people have their own fun expressions like in the examples below:

spoken language

• Ça, alors ! (Whoops!)

• Ça, c'est bien ! (How good!)

• C'est impossible ! (It is impossible!)

• C'est magnifique ! (Magnificent!)

• Génial ! (Great!)

• Impressionnant ! (Awesome!)

• Incroyable ! (Amazing!)

• Mon Dieu ! (Oh my God!)

• Oh la la ! (Oh!)

• Ouf ! (Phew!)

• Quel malheur ! (What a disgrace!)

• Comme c’est beau! (How beautiful!)

• Quel travail ! (What work!)

• Quelle chance ! (Lucky!)

• Quoi! Il a fait ça! (What! He did that!)

slang words

• Trop bien! (Awesome)
• Oh la vache ! (holy cow!) - slang
• Putain ! (f**k!) - slang

Among young French people, “putain” is so common, it may even be used as often as the word “oui”. Its nearest equivalent in English is probably “f**k!”. It can be used to express anger, but can also be used to describe something amazing : "C'est un putain d’artiste!" (it's a f****ing! artist).