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French expression of the day: Mon Q

The Local France
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French expression of the day: Mon Q
Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond"

This - very vulgar - expression originally stated that your butt has become a chicken.

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Why do I need to know mon Q?

Because it's a really common, albeit vulgar, expression with a pretty funny backstory.

What does it mean?

Mon Q means 'my Q', Q here being a different way to spell cul, which means 'arse' in French.

Mon Q is the slangier version of the already slangy expression mon cul (my arse)It's like saying 'sure' or 'right', only with sarcasm layered so thick that there is no doubt that the underlying meaning is 'like hell it is'.

There's no underlying meaning of mon Q. It's pretty explicit.

Mon Q like saying tu te moques de moi (you're messing with me), but the more impolite version involving the F-word. A (much) less vulgar version is c'est ça (mm, right), but that one you need to add sarcasm to for it to sound right.

The full expression is actually mon cul, c'est du poulet, which means 'my butt, it's chicken'. In other words, 'what you said is BS'.

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It's a bit surreal, but the French language has a lot of odd expressions, several of which are inspired by feathery creatures - crier cororico (to shout cock-a-doodle-doo) is an every-day expression for 'to cry victory''.

READ ALSO: 15 everyday French expressions inspired by animals

There are several theories to how mon cul, c'est du poulet originated. One such theory is that the original phrase was Breton: mad ket'ch y-â poulenn - which means 'tomorrow, the weather will be nice'. The irony lies in that Brittany is known to be notoriously rainy and grey.

Use it like this

Tu étais où ? / Au travail, on avait tellement de choses à finir. / Mon cul ! Tu sens l'alcool. - Where were you? / At work, we had so much stuff to finish. / Bullshit! You smell of alcohol.

Il disait qu'on en aura fini avec la pandémie cet été. / Oui, c'est ça, mon cul.. - He said we'll be done with the pandemic this summer. / Yes, sure, like hell we will.

Toute cette connerie d'islamo-gauchisme mon cul. C'est juste du blabla. - All this ridiculous talk of 'islamo-leftism' my arse. It's just chatter.

PS: If you want it spelled out for you, there's a 1-minute French lesson video available online that puts it into, eh, context. It's pretty funny, click HERE to watch it on Vimeo.

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