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Familiar French Expression
| Meaning | holy cow! damn! wow! blimey! | |
| Literally | the cow! | |
| Register | familiar | |
| Pronunciation | [lah vahsh] | |
| IPA | [la vaʃ] | |
Usage notes: La vache ! This familiar French exclamation is an inoffensive, ubiquitous way of expressing surprise, whether good, bad, or neutral.
Par exemple…
| La vache, c’est bon ! | Wow, that’s good! | |
| La vache ! Tu m’as fait peur ! | Holy cow! You startled me! | |
| J’ai oublié mon portefeuille, la vache ! | I forgot my wallet, damn! |
Variations
- ah la vache !
- oh la vache !
Synonyms
Partial synonyms
* Good surprise
- chouette
- ouah
- super
- tiens
and more synonyms for bon
* Bad surprise
- oh là là
- sacrebleu (archaic)
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Fear of speaking, glossophobia, is one of the most common phobias – even just in one’s native language. If you feel nervous when speaking French, it’s probably due to a lack of confidence in your skills. The obvious solution is to improve your French, but there are also other ways to increase your confidence and feel more comfortable speaking French.
Learn how to translate French infinitives, imperatives, and participles into English.