What’s the French equivalent of “rats!” ?

February 6, 2022 9:02 AM

Ideally, I would like both the French and Quebec versions of this expression. Merci d’avance!
posted by BostonTerrier to Writing & Language (16 answers total)

"Zut!" is a fairly common mild expletive in Québec. "Flûte!" would be equivalent but it's a bit more French imo, I haven't heard it as much in Québec.
posted by Clyde Sparrow at 9:21 AM on February 6, 2022 [9 favorites]

Mince! (not a native speaker, please correct if need be)
posted by meijusa at 9:23 AM on February 6, 2022

I like wordreference.com for this sort of thing. It gives both mince and zut as possible translations.
posted by iamsuper at 9:52 AM on February 6, 2022 [4 favorites]

My late mother taught French professionally, and was about as close to a native speaker of European French as anybody could be without actually having been born into it. "Zut!" was on fairly high rotation in our house. Never heard her use "Flûte!" instead.
posted by flabdablet at 10:00 AM on February 6, 2022

Zut alors ! should work for French and québécois. Saperlipopette is another silly one for kids, fun to say. Used in Tintin.
posted by eyeball at 10:32 AM on February 6, 2022 [2 favorites]

"Sacrament", perhaps?
posted by pipeski at 10:34 AM on February 6, 2022 [3 favorites]

In Quebec you might hear someone simply say "Taaa...." (often accompanied with a shake of the head). It's an elided version of "tabarnak!" just as "'stie!" is for "hostie!"

There are quasi-humorous elisions of some of the Quebec curses. "Tabaslaque!" "Tabarnouche!",
"Câline de bine!" (for câlisse), "Cibole!" (for ciboire) and so on.
posted by zadcat at 12:21 PM on February 6, 2022 [8 favorites]

Best answer: Once, while on vacation, at a small attraction in the French countryside, a stout, little man in a beret and blazer said "Zut..." to himself as he stood and hurried off to fix a small problem.

I felt like I had fallen into an Asterix comic. :7)
--
As for those Quebec curses, I believe that the ones that refer to Catholic items (e.g., Tabernac) are pretty serious -- but that's based on a half-reembered podcast, so....more than a grain of salt there.
posted by wenestvedt at 1:19 PM on February 6, 2022

Another expression that is, I think, slightly misunderstood is "Oh là là" which is actually more or less a mild-mannered remark you might say if the pages in your document had got out of order, or some other minor mishap had occurred. It's sometimes portrayed as the sort of naughty interjection you might say at a can-can performance, but it really is not.

Quebec's Catholic swears are odd. People are not religious in Quebec now as they were when these arose, but you have to use them circumspectly. They're not allowed in the National Assembly, for sure. Obviously they do get used in dialogue in TV dramas, but if a public figure says something in the heat of the moment that includes a sacre it would raise an eyebrow, but only for the error in decorum and not because anyone really cares any more about chalices and ciboriums.

One odd point is that "fuck" has been deemed not a swear in Quebec. It's perfectly fine if someone says "mon char est tout fucké" on TV. It isn't officially a word at all.
posted by zadcat at 2:09 PM on February 6, 2022 [6 favorites]

In France, zut (but never zut alors) and mince are common, another option is punaise which also nicely retains the zoologic roots (punaise means bug as in stinkbug). Zadcat is spot on about oh là là being more a negative reaction rather than sexy, but it seems to me not equivalent to rats, it's both a bit more dramatic and sometimes used more in surprise.
posted by orchidee at 2:41 PM on February 6, 2022

In Quebec, equivalent of 'rats' would be: shit, fuck, merde. English swears sound more innocuous in French. You can say fuck on a French TV show in Quebec on primetime without anyone batting an eyelash.

Also in Quebec, saying: ostie, calice, tabarnak, etc. would be close to saying shit or fuck in English. Although still considered more crass than actually offensive.
posted by exolstice at 5:44 PM on February 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

I've heard of a Quebecois who'd say "Malheur," meaning "too bad," or more literally, "bad time."
posted by Sunburnt at 5:53 PM on February 6, 2022

I hear mince much more than zut in Paris FYI.
posted by ellieBOA at 12:35 AM on February 7, 2022

I would say punaise, mince, or purée, probably in that order of preference.

Purée is what you would say instead is the much more serious putain, especially in the presence of kids. Zut feels old fashioned, which is maybe what you’re going for?
posted by ohio at 1:01 AM on February 7, 2022

Zut feels old fashioned

which makes it a good match for "Rats!".

It's been a long time since I've heard anybody say "Rats!" when feeling the emotion now almost always expressed as "Shit!"
posted by flabdablet at 1:10 AM on February 7, 2022 [3 favorites]

I knew a French Swiss guy who used to say 'hôp là' as a general interjection, which could mean 'rats', 'all right!', 'interesting', or anything else, depending on context.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 3:29 AM on February 7, 2022 [1 favorite]