Netflix' Lupin Season 2: French Slang Explained in English

Welcome back for this second blog post about the French slang words from season 2 of the Netflix series Lupin. Hopefully, this article will help you with some of the French words you didn’t understand well. The series is still good in this second part and it is worth watching. A third season is coming and I am curious about what is going to be the scenario after the ending of this second season (no spoilers, don’t worry). Let’s start with the vocabulary explained in this season 2 of Lupin, the first French series to enter the top 10 series in the United States. For your information, in the first season, there are five episodes. 

French Slang from Netflix Lupin Season 2 Episode 1 

2’12 

Assane: 

Il ressemblait à quoi ce type ? 

Translation: 

What did this guy look like? 

“Type” is one of the many ways to say in English “guy” or “dude”. 

2’20 

Claire (Assane’s wife)

C’est le mec du train ! C’est qui ce mec, putain ? 

Translation:

It’s the guy from the train! Who the fuck is this guy? 

Another way to say “dude” in French is “mec”. Here I translated “putain” into “who the fuck”. It depends on the situation, most of the time “putain” can be translated as “damn it”. 

11’39

Pellegrini to Leonard 

Écoutez c’est pas le fils que je veux c’est le père. Alors, réparez votre connerie et faites ça proprement, merde ! 

Translation:

Look it’s not the son I want, it’s the father. So, fix your shit and do it right, damn it! 

When you have done some “conneries” it means you have been doing some silly or dumb actions. The second word “merde” is a classic and simple French swear word translated as “shit” (it is the direct translation) or with “damn it”.

12’50

Cop to another cop 

Man : Écoute, je suis en Normandie là. 

Woman : En Normandie ? Qu’est ce que tu fous en Normandie ? Faut que tu reviennes là, c’est chaud ici.

Man : comment ça, qu’est-ce qui ce passe ? 

Woman : On pensait avoir chopé Sernine mais c’est le mauvais gars. 

Translation:

Man: Listen, I’m in Normandy right now. 

Women: In Normandy? What the hell are you doing in Normandy? You have to come back there, it’s getting tense here.

Man: What do you mean, what’s going on? 

Woman: We thought we had Sernine but it’s the wrong guy. 

Here, there is a lot of French slang. First, we have the colloquial French verb “foutre” which has many vulgar variations. In that case, it means “what the hell are you doing?”. After, there is a tricky one with “c’est chaud”. In this situation, it does not mean “It’s warm” (the weather) but it means “it’s getting tense” or “it’s getting difficult”. Finally, we have the verb “choper”. You can find many uses of this verb, I invite you to read my article about French slang where I mentioned the verb “choper”. Here the verb means to catch someone.  

13’06

Cop woman

Mais, qu’est-ce que tu fous avec lui? 

Translation: 

But, what the hell are you doing with him? 

Again, another scene with the verb “foutre”. As you noticed, “fous” (second person singular) was used instead of the verb “faire” with “fais” (second person singular). By using the verb foutre you will make your sentence super colloquial. 

13’30 

Assane in the bar 

Excusez-moi je cherche un homme noir dans une voiture grise avec un adolescent de 14 ans, un métis aux cheveux frisés. C’est mon fils, il a été kidnappé. 

Translation:

Excuse me, I’m looking for a black man in a gray car with a 14-year-old, mixed-race boy with curly hair. He is my son, he has been kidnapped. 

The first word “métis” is not slang but actually, it was thanks to a Reddit conversation that I realized there is not a real English translation for it. In the English language, people would probably use mixed race but a BIG warning for French learners. There is the exact same word in French “race” but we do not use it at all. The French state considers that there are no races and the word is linked to the Second World War II. “métis” is a completely normal word to use but never use the word “race” in French. I remember my stay in the United States where people were asking me, “what are the races in France?” and I was completely confused the first time. 

The second might have surprised English speakers. French people are using many English words (t-shirt, weekend), and kidnapped is one of them. You noticed that French modified it by removing “ed” and adding “é” in the end. 

14’04” 

Cop to Assane 

Comme je vous ai dit, je peux vous aider à choper ce type.

Translation:

As I said, I can help you catch this guy.

As seen before “choper” means in that case “catch” in English and “type” means “guy”.

16’54”

Assane 

Il nous a semés.

Translation:

He shook us off. 

The verb “semer” does not mean to sow a seed (it can but not in this situation). Here it means to make someones lost his/her track or to shake someone off. 

19’

Léonard to Raoul 

Je vais ouvrir le coffre fait pas de conneries.

Translation:

I’m going to open the safe, don’t do anything stupid.

29’17

Assane to Cop (Guédira) 

J’ai ton nom et je sais que t’es flic.

Translation:

I have your name and I know you’re a cop.

Here “flic” is a simple French slang for “cop”. 

French Slang from Netflix Lupin Season 2 Episode 2

3’15

Assane to Cop woman

Assane : Qu’est ce que vous avez trouvé dans cette voiture ?

Cop woman : Il faut pas lui répondre il va chercher à nous embrouiller.

Translation: 

Assane: What did you find in that car?

Cop woman: We must not answer him, he will try to confuse us.

Embrouiller is a French verb that can be translated as “confuse”.  When there was “une embrouille” between two persons, it means there was a fight or there was a problem between two persons. 

3’35

Cop woman to Assane 

Maintenant, arrête de nous emmerder s’il te plaît.  

Translation:

Now please stop bothering us.  

The direct translation would be “now please stop shitting on us”. It is pretty visual, right?

7’05

Cop woman 

Merde ! Merde, Fait chier ! 

Translation: 

Shit! Shit, fuck! 

There was missing the third one of this famous trio with Merde, Putain, and Fait chier. Here the cop was pretty annoyed by the escape of Assane. 

30’54

Two kids in the street watching a smartphone 

Kid 1 : Là, là 

Kid 2 : C’est un truc de ouf, la voix ! 

Kid 1 : C’est un truc de malade ! 

Translation: 

Kid 1: There, there 

Kid 2: It’s a crazy thing, the voice! 

Kid 1: It’s a sick thing! 

The first one with “ouf” is the verlan version of “fou” (crazy). I invited you to read my article about what is verlan in French: Verlan: The Backward French Slang. 

33’32

Assane to Raoul 

Raoul : Maman dit que tu changeras jamais.

Assane : Si, quand j’aurai réglé toute cette histoire. Je te promets que les choses changeront.

Translation:

Raoul: Mom says you’ll never change.

Assane: Yes, I will, when I get this whole thing sorted out. I promise you that things will change.

“Régler” can be translated into English by “to fix something” or “to sort out”. In another situation, “régler” can be used to pay someone as “on peut payer l’addition?” (can we pay the bill?). 

French Slang from Netflix Lupin Season 2 Episode 3

0’39

Raoul to Claire 

C’était qui ces mecs ?

Translation: 

Who were these guys?

1’53

Best Friend to Raoul 

Poto, c’est pas à moi qui faut s’en prendre, c’est à Pellegrini.

Translation:

Buddy, it’s not me who should be blamed, it’s Pellegrini.

Funny, Netflix miswrote this French slang “Poto” by writing in the subtitles “poteau” (stick). Poto is a variation of the French slang “Pote” that can be translated as “buddy” or “bro” in English.   

French Slang from Netflix Lupin Season 2 Episode 4

4’02

Cop to Pellegrini

C’est qui ce type ? 

Translation:

Who is this guy? 

8’19

Benjamin Ferrel to Assane 

Ce clebs lit dans mes pensées. Je t’assure, il me fait peur.

Translation:

This dog reads my mind. I’m telling you, he scares me.

“Un clebs” is a French slang for dog. I did not know until this blog post but this word is coming from the Arab language (French was greatly influenced by the Arab language). It is from the Algerian Arab, “kleb” or “cleb ” design a dog. It came to France in the 19th century. The French dictionary Larousse added the word in 1863 “cleb” for the singular form.  It can be written in many ways as “cleb”, “kleb” or even “cleps” and “klebs” still for the singular form. 

18´

Cop 

Regarde-le, on dirait un gosse. 

Translation:

Look at him, he looks like a kid. 

“Un gosse” is a French slang for kid but be careful in Quebec it means a testicle, funny right? 

19’15

Assane calling Benjamin

Assane : T’es pas au courant ?

Benjamin : Quoi ?

Assane : Faut que tu quittes la boutique Benjamin, t’es grillé. Prends tes affaires et tire toi de là. 

Translation: 

Assane: You don’t know?

Benjamin: What?

Assane: You have to leave the store Benjamin, you’re busted. Get your stuff and get out of here. 

The first meaning of the French verb “griller” is “toast” but in that case it means to be busted. The second expression is “tire-toi” that can be translated into English by “go away”, “get out” or even “get the fuck out”. 

22’25

Assane 

Tu vas voir mec ça va être un truc de fou. 

Translation:

You’ll see man it’s going to be a crazy thing. 

43’25

Benjamin 

Franchement cette fois j’ai vraiment cru qu’on allait se faire choper.

Translation:

Honestly this time I really thought we were going to get caught.

French Slang from Netflix Lupin Season 2 Episode 5

9’05

Stranger to Assane and Benjamin 

Stranger : Qu’est ce que vous voulez ?

Assane : Pardon ?

Stranger : Vous faites semblant de lire la bête noire mystérieuse et votre pote tient son exemplaire du bouchon cristal à l’envers.

Translation:

Stranger: What do you want?

Assane: Excuse me?

Stranger: You’re pretending to read the mysterious black beast and your mate is holding his copy of the crystal cap upside down.

As seen before, “pote” can be translated into English by “friend”, “buddy” or “mate”.

21’07

Benjamin to Assane 

Hé poto ! 

Translation:

Hey buddy!

26’19

Assane to Pellegrini

Te fous pas de ma gueule. Il travaillait pour toi. 

Translation:

Don’t fuck with me. He was working for you. 

Again, there is the French verb “foutre” than can sometimes mean “go away” or “don’t care” but in that case it means “don’t fuck with me”.

27’

Assane to Pellegrini

Assane : Tu voulais me descendre ? 

Pellegrini : Évidemment 

Assane : Mais tu t’es foiré et tu m’as collé le meurtre de Léonard sur le dos. 

Translation:

Assane: You wanted to shoot me? 

Pellegrini: Of course 

Assane: But you screwed up and blamed me for Leonard’s murder. 

For the first French word “descendre” I translated it as “shoot me” but actually I could have translated it as ‘take me down”. Next one is the verb “foirer” that can be translated as “to screw something” in English. Finally, the last divided expression would be literally translated into English as “you stick it on my back” for “Blame someone”. 

45’47

Claire to Assane 

On s’en fout de ça.

Translation:

We don’t care about that.

Finally, for the last time in this season, there is the verb “foutre”. 

Thanks to the ones that read everything! It was a lot of work but I hope it helped some of you to understand this series and the French language better! As Arnold Schwarzenegger said in Terminator “I will be back” for the third season. If you want to discover the slang from the first season or discover some new French series on Netflix read the next two articles:

• Netflix’ Lupin Season 1: French Slang Explained in English
• 20 French Series on Netflix that You Might Binge-Watch

Work cited: 

https://www.lefigaro.fr/langue-francaise/expressions-francaises/2017/12/13/37003-20171213ARTFIG00020-mais-d-o-vient-le-clebs.php

Photo credit: Emanuel Guimier