The French phrase "C'est bizarre" explained

Get prepared to discover all the things you need to know about the basic sentence “C’est bizarre”.

It includes a detailed explanation of what it is and how you can use it in a casual conversation with an audio example. And because we want you to make progress in French, we also sprinkled some super useful stuff like slow pronunciation audio, dialogue example, synonym and more!

Oh and before I forget, you can also find more sentences pages like this one on this page and the directory of all our French words tutorials on this page. Have fun!

Table of Contents

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French to English

Pronunciation

Slow pronunciation

Normal pronunciation

What does c'est bizarre mean?

Definition

The literal meaning is:

  • C’est → It is
  • Bizarre → Weird

“C’est bizarre” is the common way to express “It’s weird” in French and it’s fine in most contexts.

How to use it

Use it exactly like you would use “It’s weird” in English. If you want something even more formal, you can say: “C’est étrange” (It’s strange). But for something more informal, you can use instead “C’est chelou“.

One example: you tell a friend that you had the same dream 5 days in a row, and you add: “C’est bizarre non ?” (It’s weird no?). And your friend would answer: “Oui, c’est bizarre !” (Yes, it’s weird!)

To highlight how weird this is, you can add the word “Grave” (Seriously) before the word “Bizarre” which makes the sentence informal. Or you can add instead “Très” (Very) or “Vraiment” (Really) to keep the sentence formal/neutral.

Examples: “C’est grave bizarre” (It’s seriously weird) or “C’est vraiment bizarre” (It’s really weird).

Synonyms

  • C’est louche. (“It’s suspicious/weird“)
  • C’est chelou. (“It’s suspicious/weird“)(Verlan slang)
  • C’est zarbi. (“It’s weird“)(Verlan slang)
  • C’est étrange. (“It’s strange“)
  • C’est curieux. (“It’s curious“)
  • C’est surprenant. (“It’s surprising“)
  • C’est étonnant. (“It’s surprising“)
  • Ça m’étonne. (“It surprises me“)
  • Ça me surprend. (“It surprises me“)

Audio dialogue example

Audio dialogue from French people

Dialogue audio

Dialogue script

” T’as vu ce qu’il s’est passé ?! “
” Did you see what happened?! “
Ouais, c’est bizarre ! “
” Yeah, it’s weird! “
Carrément ! “
” Totally! “
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