What visitors should know
Learn the difference between place-specific identity and nationally familiar colloquial French. Verlan is a word-formation process and social resource, not a reliable marker of ethnicity, class, neighborhood, or a single banlieue accent, and visitors gain more from comprehension than from trying to perform a stereotype.
Reviewed words and expressions
chelou
In contemporary familiar French, chelou means suspicious, dubious, strange, or weird. It is a verlan form associated with louche.
Pariskeuf
In familiar French, keuf means a police officer or cop. It is a verlan form associated with flic and is especially recognizable in youth and urban colloquial speech.
Parismeuf
In contemporary informal French, meuf means a woman or young woman and can also refer to a girlfriend or female partner. It is a well-known verlan form of femme.
Parisouf
In contemporary familiar French, ouf is a verlan form of fou and can describe a person or thing as crazy, wild, bizarre, extreme, or remarkably intense depending on context.
ParisPaname
Paname is a familiar and historically argotic nickname for Paris. In modern use it can sound affectionate, urban, nostalgic, musical, or simply informal depending on context.
Parisrelou
In contemporary familiar French, relou describes a person, behavior, joke, task, or situation as annoying, tiresome, heavy-handed, awkward, or lacking in finesse. It is verlan of lourd.
Paristeuf
In familiar French, teuf means a party, celebration, or informal event. It is a verlan form of fête and can appear in ordinary nightlife talk as well as in references to free-party culture.
Pariszarbi
In familiar French, zarbi means bizarre, strange, or weird. It is a verlan formation from bizarre and overlaps semantically with chelou without being identical in every context.
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