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Discover the French phrase "Je suis à la bourre"

We are going to show you everything you want to know about the funny French phrase "Je suis à la bourre". It includes a detailed explanation of what it is and how you can use it in a dialogue with an audio example. But, we also added some useful informations like slow pronunciation audio, dialogue example, synonyms and more!


French to English

  • Translation : I'm late

  • Register : Informal - Funny - Slang

Pronunciation example

Slow

Normal

  • IPA : / ʒə sɥiz‿ a la buʁ /

aesthetic french quote etre a la bourre

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What does it mean?

Definition

When French people are running late for something, you can hear them saying: "Je suis en retard" or "Je suis à la bourre" → both versions mean "I am late". The first one is common and has a neutral register while the second is much more informal.

But both are useful in daily life, unless you are always on time! Let's see some examples...

How to use it

The examples below are valid in an informal context, for something more formal (ex: at work) I advise you to use "Je suis en retard instead".

Ex: You are running late for an appointment, and your sibling asks you for something. You can't do it right now, so you say: "Je suis à la bourre" (I'm late). This implies that you have an excuse for not helping him/her now.

For more complete sentences, you can say: "Je ne peux pas, je suis à la bourre" (I can't, I'm late) or "Plus tard, je suis à la bourre" (Later, I'm late) or even "Pas maintenant, je suis à la bourre" (Not now, I'm late).

Synonyms

Example in a dialogue

Dialogue

Désolé, je suis à la bourre

Sorry, I'm late

C'est pas trop tôt !

It was about time!

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Désolé pour le retard, je ne voulais pas venir