In this lesson we’ll examine a slang adjective that almost never appears in the textbooks: chiant. Translations for chiant include really annoying, irritating, a pain in the ass and really boring. Be careful with this adjective! It’s considered vulgar and should only be used with people you know.
chiant
annoying, irritating, pain in the ass, boring
Example sentences
I learned the adjective chiant orally when I was an exchange student in a French lycée (high school). As mentioned, this word is very informal, and you’d generally only hear it in spoken French.
Chiant is the present participle (verb in the -ing form) of the chier (to crap). Given that chiant is an adjective, it has masculine and feminine forms:
chiant / chiante
Here’s how to use chiant is most commonly used in spoken French:
Oh, what a pain, it’s/that’s annoying!
If somebody is really bothering you, you can describe them with the word chiant. The following example sentence uses the slang word mec (guy). In this sentence, the adverb trop (too, too much) is a synonym for très (very).
Il m’enèrve ce mec. Il est trop chiant !
This guy is bothering me. He’s really annoying (a pain in the ass)!
The next example sentence includes the expression en avoir marre (to be fed up, sick of).
J’en ai marre de ces voisins : ils sont vraiment chiants !
I’m sick of these neighbors. They’re really annoying (a pain in the ass)!
In the following example sentence, the demonstrative adjective ce can traslate roughly to “this” or “that”. The verb arrêter (to stop) is followed by de + infinitive to mean “doesn’t stop + verb+ing”. This post explores verbs followed by the preposition de.
Il est chiant ce chien. Il n’arrête pas d’aboyer.
This/that dog is annoying (a pain in the ass). He doesn’t stop barking.
In our final example sentence, chiant translates to “very boring” or “very dull”. This sentence uses the near future tense.
Ce film est vraiment chiant. Tu ne vas pas l’aimer.
This movie is very boring (dull). You’re not going to like it.
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More French slang
- French slang (overview page)
- Ouf – crazy (verlan)
- Kiffer – to Like
- Nul, nulle – lousy
- Dingue – crazy
Word of the Day lessons | Lessons by David Issokson
