The men’s football World Cup tournament gets underway in June with France among the bookies’ favourites – so here are some helpful French football phrases to shout while watching.
The tournament – staged in the USA, Mexico and Canada – kicks off on June 11th and runs until July 19th – here’s how to watch the matches on TV if you are in France.
France is naturally hoping to add another star to the team jersey following their World Cup wins in 2018 and 1998 and the bookies put them among the favourites along with Spain, Argentina, Brazil and England.
So if you want to get involved, here are some helpful phrases.
Allez les bleus!
Let’s start with the basics. This literally means “Go the blues” and is perhaps the most popular phrase of French football (and rugby and handball) and you can shout it before, during, or after the game.
In French national teams everything is blue – men’s teams are les bleus, women’s teams les bleues and the junior teams are les bleuets (the ‘little blues’).
If you’d prefer, a similar version is “Allez les gars” (Allay lay garr) which means “Come on guys” in a kind of encouraging tone and can be used for both men’s and women’s teams (and other teams if you want to cheer on your home country).
And if you want to urge France to score a goal then just shout allez! it’s basically their version of come onnnnnn!
Anyone not jumping is not French
If things are heating up, there could be a moment when all the French fans start jumping and chanting, and you might want to jump with them.
They will likely be going through an old chant that basically says anyone who is not jumping isn’t French or in the native language: “Qui ne saute pas n’est pas Français“.
On est en finale
We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but if les bleus qualify for the final, you’ll hear this song a lot. Likewise, if they qualify for the semis, it can be adapted to on est en demi (we’re in the semi-final) – check out the tune below.
Le rond point de la gare de #Vichy investi par les supporters des Bleus. La nuit promet d’être belle ! #FRABEL pic.twitter.com/C8b0Q8m6a9
— Olivier Rezel (@OlivierRezel) July 10, 2018
Speaking of songs, the 90s dance hit Freed From Desire is one of the unofficial anthems of the team, so expect to hear that belted out too. No need to learn the words – Na-na-na-na-na, na-na, na-na-na, na-na-na will mostly suffice.
Goal!/Oui!!!/Buuut!
While the Brits may say “YEAHHH” and the Spanish will say GOOOOOL to celebrate a goal, the French seem to have a couple of options. They might shout “BUUUUUT” (but = goal), a caveman-esque OUUUUUIIIIIII (or YESSSSSSS), or just GOAAALLL in English.
Comédien
The French won’t hesitate to call out an actor, so if someone looks like they’re faking an injury then yell out comédien (actor).
Pénalité
The French will shout this, or more likely “Pénalitéeeeeee” if they think France deserves a penalty.
Tirs au but
Tirs au but is the dreaded penalty shoot-out at the end of games which are still level after extra time. Don’t mention 2023.
Putain!
This, as we’ve written before, is one of the most versatile and important swear words in French. It’s roughly the equivalent of “fuck”, and is useful to say when something astonishingly good happens (pu-taiiiiiiiin) or when something terrible happens (PU-TAIN! or Puttaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin).
There are two ways to pronounce it. The first is puTAIN (pronounced poo-TAHn), the other drops out the u and becomes almost one syllable, so p’TAIN (pTAHn).
And if things are not going well for Les Bleus we can expect the frustration levels to boil over and the swear words to really come firing out.
Putain will become putain de merde if the opposition score, and if they score again then feel free to use putain de bordel de merde in sympathy with your frustrated French friends.
Oh là là là là là là !
Slightly more family-friendly and often heard on TV commentary is the super-charged version of oh là là ! – it can be either good or bad but often used for moments of surprise, such as when a player misses an open goal.
Hors-jeu!
Feel like an opposing player is offside? Then yell out “hors-jeu“. Pronounced: orr zheurgh.
Arbitre carton jaune!
Does a player deserve a yellow card? Then tell the ref, of course. Just yell out something that sounds like “Arrbeet karton zhonne“.
But the reality is you will normally hear the French most football fans insulting the referee when he makes a decision they don’t like, in which case if you want to join in you could say:
Arbitre enculé! – which basically means you bastard referee, a phrase we obviously don’t condone.
The classic refereeing insult in French is Aux chiottes l’arbitre! which literally means “to the toilet referee!”
You also might hear these words a lot: Putain d’arbitre.
And another word you can shout at the referee if you think a French player has been fouled is Faute! If they doesn’t give the foul then see above for how to react.
Many French fans won’t hesitate to yell out payé after a bad call, suggesting the referee has indeed been paid off.
Main!
This word, pronounced kind of like “marn”, is what you should yell if a player appears to touch the ball (or “handball” in English).
Quel but!
Lastly, shout out “quel but” or “What a goal!” when the star strikers do their thing.
And the national anthem – La Marseillaise
France has one of the world’s best national anthems for sporting purposes, it’s got a really rousing tune and suitably combative lyrics. As such it’s often belted out by fans at key moments during a match, in addition to the formal pre-match anthems.
The full lyrics are;
Allons enfants de la patrie
Le jour de gloire est arrivé
Contre nous de la tyrannie
L’étendard sanglant est levé
L’étendard sanglant est levé
Entendez-vous dans vos campagnes
Mugir ces féroces soldats
Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras
Égorger vos fils et vos compagnes
Aux armes citoyens, formez vos bataillons
Marchons, oui marchons
Qu’un sang impur abreuve nos sillons
And here it is with the music
