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Essential French Expression
| Meaning | not bad, nice job; quite a bit | |
| Literally | not bad | |
| Register | normal | |
| Pronunciation |  |
[pah mahl] |
| IPA | [pa mal] | |
Usage notes: The French expression pas mal means "not bad" in response to "how are you?"
Par exemple…
| – Salut Angélique ! Ça va ? – Pas mal. |
– Hi Angélique! How’s it going? – Not bad. |
|
| – Bonjour Michel. Comment vas-tu ? – Pas mal, et toi? |
– Hello Michel, how are you? – Not bad, you? |
Pas mal can also be an understatement, to mean "good job!" or "way to go!"
Par exemple…
| – J’ai eu 19/20 en espagnol au bac. – Pas mal ! |
– I got 19/20 in Spanish on the baccalauréat. – Nice job! |
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| Tu as déjà fini ? Pas mal ! | You’re done already? Way to go! |
Pas mal (with verbs) and pas mal de (with nouns) are adverbs of quantity meaning "quite a bit" or "a fair amount."
Par exemple…
| Elle travaille pas mal le week-end. | She works quite a bit on the weekend. | |
| On peut épargner pas mal avec un peu d’effort. | You can save a fair amount of money with a little effort. | |
| Je fais pas mal de cuisine. | I cook quite a bit, I do a fair amount of cooking. | |
| Nous avons acheté pas mal de livres. | We bought quite a few books. |
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