Language/French/Vocabulary/Express-Surprise

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

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

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 !

• What a Luck!

Quoi ?

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

N’importe quoi!

It simply means “whatever,” and is commonly used in French when someone wishes to display disagreement in an informal way.

• "Je te jure! Je n’ai rien fait! (I swear, I didn’t do anything!)" - "N’importe quoi… (Whatever…)"

Similarly, in some other contexts, n’importe quoi can mean “anything,” like in this example:

• J’aurais donné tout et n’importe quoi ! (I would have given anything and everything!)

Je n’en crois pas mes yeux !

• I can’t believe my eyes!

Use this expression when you’re really surprised by something you are witnessing.

Trop bien !

• Awesome!

Oh la vache !

• holy cow!

Putain !

• f**k!

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).