French word of the day: Clope
You know how some things just feel more ok when you're in France than at home? This cherished French habit - albeit in decline - is one of them.
Why do I need to know clope?
Because every self-respecting person living in France should know how to 'nick a fag/bum a smoke' in French.
What does it mean?
Clope is French slang for ‘cigarette’. Like the English 'smoke a cig', les français fument une clope.
French people love to smoke. Admittedly less now than before - the French too are increasingly worried about the health impacts of smoking - but anyone who has strolled down a street of Paris will have spotted elegant Parisians sipping their coffees while shamelessly puffing on a clope.
Like fatty cheese and red wine, cigarettes somehow seem less harmful when in France, a statement of the French joie de vivre rather than what they actually are - a stick full of potentially cancer-causing chemicals.
So if you ever want to spice up your French vocab when asking to bum a cig, you could say
Je peux te taxer une clope ? - Could I nick a fag?
Former French President Jacques Chirac enjoyed the occasional 'clope'. Photo: AFP
Where does it come from?
No one really knows. In the early 20th century clope meant ‘butt’ (of the cigarette), which slowly developed into a slang word referring to the whole thing.
Alternatives
Fumer une sèche - smoke a dry one
Fumer un mégot - smoke a cigarette butt
Fumer une cigarette - smoke a cgarette
Don’t use it like this..
Clope is something we can qualify as a tu-only word. If you’re addressing someone you would vouvoyer, you'd be safer sticking to:
Vous n’auriez pas une cigarette, madame/monsieur ? - You wouldn’t have a cigarette by any chance, ma’am/sir?
Comments
See Also
Why do I need to know clope?
Because every self-respecting person living in France should know how to 'nick a fag/bum a smoke' in French.
What does it mean?
Clope is French slang for ‘cigarette’. Like the English 'smoke a cig', les français fument une clope.
French people love to smoke. Admittedly less now than before - the French too are increasingly worried about the health impacts of smoking - but anyone who has strolled down a street of Paris will have spotted elegant Parisians sipping their coffees while shamelessly puffing on a clope.
Like fatty cheese and red wine, cigarettes somehow seem less harmful when in France, a statement of the French joie de vivre rather than what they actually are - a stick full of potentially cancer-causing chemicals.
So if you ever want to spice up your French vocab when asking to bum a cig, you could say
Je peux te taxer une clope ? - Could I nick a fag?
Former French President Jacques Chirac enjoyed the occasional 'clope'. Photo: AFP
Where does it come from?
No one really knows. In the early 20th century clope meant ‘butt’ (of the cigarette), which slowly developed into a slang word referring to the whole thing.
Alternatives
Fumer une sèche - smoke a dry one
Fumer un mégot - smoke a cigarette butt
Fumer une cigarette - smoke a cgarette
Don’t use it like this..
Clope is something we can qualify as a tu-only word. If you’re addressing someone you would vouvoyer, you'd be safer sticking to:
Vous n’auriez pas une cigarette, madame/monsieur ? - You wouldn’t have a cigarette by any chance, ma’am/sir?
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.
Please log in here to leave a comment.