Discover the French phrase "Je suis à la bourre"

You are going to discover everything you want to know about the funny French sentence “Je suis à la bourre”.

To be more specific, this includes a complete explanation of what it is and how you can use it in a conversation with an audio example. As well as the cool informations we sprinkled like dialogue example, synonyms, slow pronunciation audio and more!

Oh and before I forget, on this page you will find our others sentences guides plus all our tutorials about French words on this page. Enjoy!

Table of Contents

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French to English

Pronunciation example

Slow pronunciation

Normal pronunciation

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

  • Je suis en retard. (“I am late“)
  • Chui en retard. (“I’m late“)(Familiar)
  • Je suis charrette. (“I’m late“)(Familiar)
  • Je suis grave à la bourre. (“I am super delayed“)(Familiar)
  • Je suis à la traîne. (“I am delayed“)

Everyday life dialogue example

Audio dialogue from French people

Dialogue audio

Dialogue script

” Désolé, je suis à la bourre “
” Sorry, I’m late “
” It was about time! “
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