Level: B2 (Informal / Slang)
🎧 Audio by Marie Assel Cambier, native speaker from France
The French Word of the Day is chiant, a slang adjective that means “really annoying” or “a pain in the neck.” Use caution with this word — it’s considered borderline rude and should only be used with people you know well.
✅ Meaning
✅ Pronunciation
✅ Example sentences
✅ Related Words & Expressions
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📘 Chiant meaning
The French adjective chiant means “annoying,” “irritating,” “a pain in the neck,” or even “boring.” It comes from the verb chier (to defecate) and has two forms: chiant (masculine) and chiante (feminine).
🎧 Chiant pronunciation
👉 The pronunciation of chiant(e) is /ʃjɑ̃ • ʃjɑ̃t/ roughly “sheean” and “sheeant”.
📝 French and English example sentences
Chiant – Annoying, pain in the neck
Oh là là, c’est chiant !
Oh, what a pain!
Il m’énerve ce mec. Il est trop chiant !
That guy is bothering me. He’s really annoying!
J’en ai marre de ces voisins : ils sont vraiment chiants !
I’m sick of these neighbors. They’re really a pain in the neck!
Il est chiant ce chien. Il n’arrête pas d’aboyer.
That dog is annoying. He won’t stop barking.
Ce film est vraiment chiant. Tu ne vas pas l’aimer.
This movie is very boring. You’re not going to like it.
👉 This lesson covers the slang term mec (guy) in detail »
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🔗 Related words and expressions
- casse-pieds — annoying, a nuisance (polite alternative)
- pénible — irritating, bothersome, tiresome
- saoulant / soulant — exhausting, annoying (slang)
- relou — annoying (verlan for lourd)
- en avoir marre — to be fed up / sick of something
- en avoir ras le bol — to be totally fed up / “had it up to here”
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