We are going to show you all the things you ever wanted to know about the basic French sentence "C'est pas grave". It includes a detailed guide of what it is and how to use it in a normal conversation with an audio example. But, we also added some useful things like slow pronunciation audio, dialogue example, synonyms and more!
Translation : That doesn't matter
Register : Neutral - Basic
Slow
Normal
IPA : / sɛ pa ɡʁav /
It literally means:
"C'est pas grave" is the French way of saying "No problem", "Don't worry about it", "It's not serious" or "That doesn't matter".
It's a very popular expression that we use to reassure someone after something happened. Typically: to minimize an issue, clearing up a misunderstanding or to reassure about our wellness after an unfortunate event.
Let's see some examples!
Scenario 1: your boss tells you that you will have to work on Sunday and want to be sure you are ok with that. You can answer: "Oui, c'est pas grave, je serai là." (Yes, don't worry about it, I will be there). Or "N'y pense même pas, dimanche je dors." (Don't even think about it, on Sunday I'm sleeping.) But that's another story...
Scenario 2: you are falling off stairs and then someone comes to ask you if you are ok. You might say: "C'est pas grave, je vais bien." (It's not serious/Don't worry about it, I'm fine)
Note that the full version is actually "Ce n'est pas grave" but we don't use it much. There is already the negation "pas", so it sounds redundant for us to say "Ce n'est" (" n' " is adding a negation) and then we shorten it into "C'est". (Saving one syllable: yay!)
You can also use the super short version "Pas grave", people will understand with context, but don't forget that it's more informal.
There is an infinite number of synonyms, here are the most used ones:
Neutral
Informal
↓ Example in a story with slow French audio ↓
Finally, let's see an example in a parallel story with slow audio.
Dialogue avec un collègue
Dialogue with a colleague
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