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Get ready to learn everything you want to know about the basic phrase “C’est chelou”.
Are included a complete guide of what it is and how to use it in a normal conversation with an audio example. Together with the useful stuff we added like slow pronunciation audio, dialogue example and more!
Oh and… you will find more of these phrases explained on this page and all our French words tutorials on this page. C’est parti ! (Let’s go!)
The literal meaning is:
This French expression is coming from the word “Louche” (Suspicious) which got twisted through a slang mechanism called “verlan“. So the word’s syllables are reversed: Lou-che → Che-lou.
But what is even more interesting here, it’s that in people’s minds, the meaning of these two words ended up being different. “Louche” means “Shady / Suspicious” while “Chelou” means just “Weird“.
So now, “C’est chelou” is something we use in informal contexts to say “It’s weird” without necessarily implying that there is something shady.
Use it exactly like you would use “It’s weird” in English, except that it’s much more familiar and not suited for formal environments. If you want something more formal, you can say: “C’est étrange” (It’s strange) or another variation listed in the “Synonyms” section below.
One example: you tell a friend that you had the same dream 5 days in a row, so you add at the end of your sentence: “C’est chelou non ?” (It’s weird right?). And your friend would answer: “Oui, c’est chelou !” (Yes, it’s weird!)
To highlight how weird this is, you can add “Grave” before “Chelou“. For example: “C’est grave chelou !” (It’s so weird!)
