African French idioms and expressions

Congo-Brazzaville

to move very slowly

In Congo-Brazzaville, this expression describes someone moving at the famously slow, deliberate pace of a chameleon, one careful step at a time.

Côte d’Ivoire

standing up

In standard French arrêté means stopped, or settled, as in une idée arrêtée. In Côte d'Ivoire someone arrêté is on their feet.

DRC

fend for yourself by any means necessary

In the DRC, 'article quinze' is an imaginary law that says 'débrouillez-vous!', figure it out yourself. It captures the Congolese spirit of survival and resourcefulness.

Côte d’IvoireBeninSenegal

to be persuasive

Describes someone who is skilled at convincing others through smooth, persuasive speech, often to get what they want.

DRCCongoCameroonGabon

to have a mistress

In Central African French, a man's 'deuxième bureau' is his mistress, a euphemism drawn from the world of offices and administration, where a 'second office' is where unofficial business happens.

Burkina Faso

to be unlucky

Standard French says avoir la poisse for a run of bad luck. Burkina Faso pins it on the guinea fowl instead.

Burkina Faso

to spread rumours

Standard French needs a whole phrase, colporter des ragots. In Burkina Faso one verb does it.

Congo-BrazzavilleBelgiumRwandaBurkina FasoMali

to repeat a school year

Standard French pupils redoublent. In Belgium, Rwanda, Congo-Brazzaville, Burkina Faso and Mali they bissent the year.

Côte d’Ivoire

an online scammer

A brouteur in standard French is a grazing animal. In Côte d'Ivoire it is the fraudster who works victims online, grazing on other people's money.

Côte d’Ivoire

how are you?

France asks ça va ? In Abidjan it is c’est comment ?, literally how is it.

DR CongoCameroonChadSenegalCôte d’IvoireTogoBenin

to give as a present

Standard French gives a present with offrir. From Senegal to Congo, people cadeauter one instead.

Côte d’Ivoire

a pupil who works extremely hard

Elsewhere a caïman is the reptile, and at the École normale supérieure it is the tutor who drills students. In Côte d'Ivoire it is the pupil who never looks up from the books.

DRCCongo

to drop out of school

In Congolese French, 'le bic' (from the Bic pen brand) represents school and studying. Breaking it means giving up on education.

Burkina Faso

a moped

In France char usually means a tank, or a float in a carnival parade. Burkina Faso keeps the word but points it at something far smaller: an everyday moped.

SenegalBurkina FasoTogoNiger

a catch-all verb for doing whatever it is

When the right verb will not come, standard French falls back on faire un truc. In Senegal, Burkina Faso, Togo and Niger, choser stands in for whichever verb you meant.

Burkina FasoRwanda

to trust

Confiance stays a noun in standard French: you say faire confiance à quelqu’un rather than turning it into a verb. Rwanda and Burkina Faso have made the noun do that job directly.

Togo

a country's uniformed security services collectively

Newsroom and political shorthand for the state's uniformed services taken together: police, army, gendarmerie, customs and the rest. Current across Francophone Africa and best documented in Togo, it turns up constantly in reporting on coups, security sector reform and crackdowns, treating the men and women in uniform as one bloc rather than naming any single service.

TogoBeninNiger

to ask after someone

Standard French would say prendre des nouvelles de quelqu'un. Togo, Benin and Niger repurpose d'après, which normally means according to, to do the same job as the English ask after.

Côte d’IvoireMali

to politely take your leave from someone

A courteous way of signalling you're about to leave, asking your host's blessing before heading off.

Congo-KinshasaBelgiumSwitzerlandCanadaHaitiHauts-de-France, Grand Est, Occitanie

to have your midday meal

In standard French you déjeuner at midday and dîner in the evening. Belgium, Switzerland, Canada and parts of France keep dîner for the midday meal, which is the older sense.

Côte d’IvoireMali

to bid someone farewell as they set off

A warm send-off said when someone takes their leave, answering the polite request 'demander la route' (to ask for the road).

TogoBenin

previously

Standard French uses dorénavant to mean from now on, looking ahead. Togo and Benin point it the other way, back into the past.

DR CongoCentral African RepublicChadSenegalCôte d’IvoireTogoBeninNigerMali

to have been somewhere a long time

Durer means to last in standard French. In much of West and Central Africa a person who dure somewhere has been living there a long time.

Côte d’IvoireBelgium

sparkling water

Standard French says eau gazeuse. Belgium and Côte d'Ivoire both ask for eau à ressort, water with a spring in it.

Côte d’Ivoire

room-temperature water

This is standard French for still water, the opposite of sparkling. In Côte d'Ivoire the same two words describe something else again: water that is neither fridge-cold nor freshly boiled, just sitting at room temperature.

DR CongoChadSenegalCôte d’IvoireBurkina FasoTogoBeninNigerMali

to lend

The other half of the swap: here emprunter is to lend, where standard French would say prêter.

Burkina Faso

to hurry

Standard French says se dépêcher. In Burkina Faso someone in a hurry is a plane that never quite leaves the ground.

Senegal

to earn your living through prostitution

Sex work described in the flat language of retail, where you keep a shop and the shop is your own backside. There is no euphemism anywhere in it. The phrase is West African argot, and it has followed the people who use it into French fiction as well.

DR CongoChadCôte d’IvoireTogoBeninNigerMali

to put on airs

In France faire le gros dos is to keep your head down until trouble passes, like a cat arching its back. In much of West and Central Africa it is what the show-off does.

CameroonGabon

to spread rumours and gossip

'Kongossa' comes from the Douala language of Cameroon and means gossip or rumour. 'Faire le kongossa' is the everyday way of saying someone is spreading neighbourhood news.

Côte d’IvoireSenegalMaliBurkina Faso

to have a lengthy discussion

Refers to holding a traditional African assembly where community matters are discussed at length to reach consensus or resolve disputes.

Burkina FasoRwandaNigerMali

to steal someone's romantic partner

Standard French has no set phrase for it, only piquer la copine (or le copain) de quelqu'un. In Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali the rival stages a coup.

Côte d’Ivoire

a naive person who is easily fooled

Standard French has no single word for it; naïf or pigeon come closest. Gaou is Nouchi, the street French of Abidjan.

CameroonDRCCongo

to damage someone's reputation

In Cameroon and across Central Africa, your 'nom' is your honour and public standing. To 'gâter' it means to tarnish or ruin it through scandal or bad behaviour.

DR CongoChadSenegalCôte d’IvoireBurkina FasoTogoBeninNigerMali

a long, learned word

A gros mot is a swear word in France. In much of West and Central Africa it is the opposite, a long, bookish word.

SenegalBurkina Faso

a loose sense of time that allows for turning up very late

Standard French has no name for it beyond une heure approximative. In Senegal and Burkina Faso it takes its name from the franc CFA, and the wait can run long.

SenegalCôte d’IvoireBurkina FasoNigerMali

to point at someone

Indexer normally means to add something to an index. In Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali it also means to point a finger at someone.

SenegalCôte d’IvoireBurkina FasoNigerMali

to make someone fall for you

Standard French would say subjuguer, a heavier, more literary word. From Senegal to Burkina Faso and Mali, kaoter is the everyday one for being bowled over by someone.

Burkina Faso

to slip an official a bribe to get something done quickly

Elsewhere laisser tomber means to drop something, or to give up on it entirely. In Burkina Faso it can also mean slipping a civil servant something extra so the paperwork moves along.

CameroonNigerSenegalBenin

to embezzle funds

Describes corruption where a person in a position of trust appropriates money for personal benefit rather than its intended purpose.

TogoBenin

to fail badly

Standard French bites the dust, mordre la poussière. In Togo and Benin you eat the stone instead.

Burkina FasoCôte d’Ivoire

a cheap local eatery

Elsewhere maquis is scrubland, or an underground resistance movement. In Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire, it is simply the corner spot for a cheap plate of food.

Côte d’Ivoire

a fellow

Standard French would say un mec or un gars. In Abidjan's Nouchi any man is a môgô.

Côte d’IvoireChad

to grin broadly

Do this in France and you are squaring up for a fight, baring your teeth the way an animal does. In Côte d'Ivoire and Chad it means grinning broadly, and it is not usually meant kindly.

CameroonDRC

to bribe someone

In Central African French, wetting someone's beard means slipping them money to get a favour, the beard being a symbol of authority that needs 'refreshing' with cash.

BeninTogo

to die young

Standard French just says mourir jeune. Benin and Togo picture it through hair that is still black, not yet turned with age.

Congo-KinshasaSwitzerlandBelgiumAcadia

ninety

France counts its way there with quatre-vingt-dix, four-twenty-ten. Switzerland, Belgium, DR Congo and Acadia just say nonante, nine tens.

DR CongoSenegalCôte d’IvoireBurkina FasoTogoBeninNiger

please, when asking for something

Say pardon in Paris and you are apologising. In much of West and Central Africa, from Senegal to Congo, it is how you ask for something politely.

Burkina Faso

to go and fetch

Standard French does this errand with aller chercher. Burkina Faso chains two verbs instead, take and bring.

DR CongoCameroonCentral African RepublicChadSenegalCôte d’IvoireBurkina FasoTogoBeninNigerMali

to borrow

Standard French lends with prêter and borrows with emprunter. In much of West and Central Africa the two have swapped, so prêter means to borrow.

DR CongoCongo-BrazzavilleGabon

unofficial news that spreads by word of mouth

It's the informal news network people rely on when the official press can't be trusted or reached, especially widespread across Central Africa.

Togo

to stay unmarried

The plain standard version is rester célibataire. Togo's take comes with a wink, aimed at anyone who has stayed single a suspiciously long time.

Abidjan

to party

Means to go out and have fun, especially to nightclubs or parties, enjoying a festive atmosphere.

SenegalCôte d’Ivoire

to take on European ways and manners

Used, often disapprovingly, for someone who's started acting, dressing or talking like a European rather than staying true to home.

Congo-KinshasaBelgiumSwitzerland

seventy

France says soixante-dix, sixty-ten. Belgium, Switzerland and DR Congo kept the older word.

Côte d’Ivoire

short of money

Old-fashioned standard French already uses serré for someone stingy by nature. The Ivorian sense is not about character at all, just about the wallet being empty right now.

CameroonSenegalCôte d’IvoireBurkina FasoTogoBeninNiger

the afternoon

Standard French keeps soir for the evening. In much of West and Central Africa it starts after lunch, so three o'clock is already le soir.

CameroonChadSenegalCôte d’IvoireBurkina FasoTogoBeninNigerMali

a soft drink

In France sucreries are sweets. In much of West and Central Africa a sucrerie is a soft drink, fizzy or not.

Côte d’IvoireBurkina Faso

a police van for people under arrest

Standard French calls the same van a panier à salade, a salad basket, for the wire mesh over the windows. Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso name it for the free ride instead.

Côte d’IvoireBurkina FasoTogoBeninNigerMali

so-so, said in reply to how are you

Comme ci comme ça is the standard French reply. From Côte d'Ivoire to Mali people say un peu un peu.

SenegalTogo

a window pane

In standard French a vitrine is a shop window and a vitre an ordinary pane. In Senegal and Togo a vitrine is any pane of glass.

BeninTogo

an unpaved side street

Ruelle is the nearest standard word, though a von is usually unpaved. Benin and Togo use it for the dirt side streets off the main roads.

Côte d’Ivoire

a word of sympathy for someone going through a hard time

Standard French reaches for courage, or something more specific to the situation. Yako covers all of it at once, whether the trouble is a death, an illness or a stroke of bad luck.