Today we’ll cover the informal adjective marrant, marrante which means funny, comical, strange and ironic. The reflexive verb se marrer (to have a good laugh) is related to marearse (to be seasick) in Spanish. An underlying connotation of marrant is to find humor in something that’s not so funny.
marrant, marrante
funny, comical, hilarious, weird, strange, ironic
Pronunciation [maʀɑ̃, maʀɑ̃t]
Marrant – funny, comical
Example sentences
This first sentence uses raconter, which means “to tell” in the context of telling jokes or lies. The verb for “to tell” or “to say” as in “What did you say?” is dire.
Sylvie est une fille très marrante. Elle adore raconter les blagues.
Sylvie is a very funny girl. She loves to tell jokes.
This second sentence uses the advanced past subjunctive mood. Here, the auxiliary verb for ils n’ont pas (they didn’t) is formed in the subjunctive: ils n’aient pas.
C’est marrant qu’ils n’aient pas répondu à notre question.
It’s strange that they didn’t answer our question.
This final sentence uses the pronoun on, which has many meanings including “we”. As a reflexive verb, se marrer means to giggle, laugh or have a good laugh.
J’adore passer du temps avec Jean. On se marre bien ensemble.
I love spending time with Jean. We have a good laugh together.
Related expression
Se marrer comme une baleine – to laugh your head off
Related lessons
- Drôle – funny, weird
- Passer – to pass, spend time (Word of the Day)
- Adorer – to love (conjugation chart)
- Personality vocabulary
References
- fr.wiktionary.org (se marrer)
- cnrtl.fr (marrant)
Word of the Day archive | Lessons by David Issokson
