Published June 19, 2025 • Updated April 19, 2026 — By French teacher David Issokson • Native Audio by Marie Assel Cambier
See also: Connector words | En somme (in short) | En résumé (to sum up)
The French word of the day is bref, which means “in short” and “anyway” as an adverb and “brief” or “short” as an adjective.
📘 Bref meaning
Bref means “in short,” “in brief,” or “to sum up” in French. It is used to quickly summarize a situation or move a conversation forward, and is very common in everyday spoken French. For example, “Bref, on a décidé de partir un peu plus tôt” (In short, we decided to leave a bit earlier).
🎧 Bref pronunciation
The pronunciation of bref is /bʁɛf/ (IPA), which sounds like “brehf”.
📝 Bref examples
On a visité la Tour Eiffel, on est allé au café, on a marché sur les Champs-Elysées. Bref, on a adoré Paris!
We visited the Eiffel Tower, we went to a café, we walked on the Champs-Elysées. In short, we loved Paris!
Le cours était très long, le prof parlait de plein de choses sans arrêt. Bref, on n’a rien appris.
The class was very long and the teacher talked nonstop about lots of things. Basically, we didn’t learn anything.
Bref, il va falloir que tu prennes une décision.
Well, you’re going to have to make a decision.
Le discours du professeur était très bref.
The professor’s speech was very short (brief).
💡See also: En résumé, a word closely related to bref meaning “in summary” and “to sum up”.
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🔗 Related words and expressions
- en somme — in short, overall
- en résumé — in summary
- au final — in the end
- finalement — ultimately
- dans l’ensemble — overall
- tout bien considéré — all things considered
- en conclusion — in conclusion
- pour résumer — to sum up
📚 Related lessons
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