Ready to learn all the things you ever wanted to know about the funny French idiom "J'ai le cafard"? To be clear, this includes a complete explanation of what it is and how you can use it in a dialogue with an audio example. But wait, we also added useful things like synonyms, dialogue example, slow pronunciation audio and more!
Translation : I have the blues
Literal meaning : I have the cockroach
Register : Informal - Funny
Slow
Normal
IPA : / ʒe lə kafaʁ /
It literally means:
Introduced by Charles Baudelaire in 1857 in "Les Fleurs du mal" this expression designates dark thoughts that can settle in the head, just like cockroaches in a house.
You can use it to talk about how you feel: "Je m'en vais, j'ai le cafard." (I'm leaving, I got the blues.)
Or to ask someone about how he/she feels: "Tu vas bien ? On dirait que tu as le cafard." (Are you ok? You seem to have the blues.)
↓ Example in a story with slow French audio ↓
Finally, let's see an example in a parallel story with slow audio.
Cafard ou Coccinelle ?
Cockroach or ladybug?
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