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The French quote "C'est un truc de malade"

You are going to learn everything you need to know about the basic French idiom "C'est un truc de malade !". Including a complete explanation of what it is and how you can use it in a dialogue with an audio example. As well as the useful stuff we sprinkled like synonym, dialogue example, slow pronunciation audio and more!


French to English translation

  • Translation : It's really crazy!

  • Literal meaning : That's something sick!

  • Register : Informal - Basic

Pronunciation guide

Slow

Normal

  • IPA : / sɛt‿ ɛ̃ tʁyk də malad ! /

aesthetic french quote cest un truc de malade

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What does it mean exactly?

Definition

The literal meaning is:

It means "It's amazing/crazy" and aims to describe an incredible experience, story, place, person... or anything exceptional. It's generally used positively, even though not always, just like in English "It's sick/crazy" can be negative.

This expression was at first very "slangish" and familiar, reserved to very young people. But with time it became so popular that a lot of people from different generations are using it right now! (It's still familiar though.)

You probably won't see it in French classes because the "academic" way to say it would be "C'est fou".

How to use

You are visiting Paris and someone asks you what you think of the city, you can say: "C'est un truc de malade  !" (That's sick!)

You can also use it in a sentence, for example: "J'ai découvert qu'on va bientôt conquérir la planète Mars. C'est un truc de malade !" (I discovered that we will soon conquer planet Mars. That's really crazy!)

If what you are talking about happened in the past, use instead "C'était un truc de malade !" (It was sick/really crazy!)

And if it will happen in the future, you can say: "Ça va être un truc de malade !" (It will be sick/really crazy!) 

Synonyms / Related

↓ Example in a story with slow French audio ↓

Finally, let's see an example in a parallel story with slow audio.

Le nouveau jouet

The new toy

Nicolas appelle Brigitte et lui demande si elle est disponible cette semaine.
Nicolas calls Brigitte and asks her if she is available this week.
Brigitte lui dit qu'elle était très occupée, mais qu'elle a un peu de temps jeudi soir.
Brigitte says that she was very busy, but has some free time on Thursday night.
NicolasD'accord, on se voit jeudi alors, j'ai quelque chose à te montrer...
Okay, see you on Thursday then, I have something to show you...
Sa voix était mystérieuse.
His voice was mysterious.
BrigitteEst-ce que tout va bien ?
Is everything alright?
Elle était un peu inquiète...
She was a little worried...
Nicolas se met à rire.
Nicolas starts to laugh.

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