Discover the French quote "Je m'en fous"

You are in the right place to discover everything you have to know about the basic French sentence “Je m’en fous”.

Including a detailed explanation of what it is and how you can use it in a normal conversation with an audio example. And also the useful stuff we added like slow pronunciation audio, dialogue example, synonym and more!

If you want, you will find more of these sentences pages on this page plus the directory of all our French words guides on this page. Wishing you a happy learning!

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English translation

Audio pronunciation

Slow pronunciation

Normal pronunciation

What does je m'en fous mean?

Definition

The literal meaning is:

  • Je → I
  • M’en fous → Am f**king it

Even if it literally means that you are f**king it, it’s a famous and very used expression that means for us: “I don’t care“. We don’t really think about the literal meaning since we don’t use the word “fous” from “foutre” in other situations.

But as you probably guessed, this is still very familiar and you shouldn’t use it in official situations, like with teachers, boss, etc.

It’s also useful to know that a “polite” way of saying it exists and it’s “Peu importe” (It doesn’t matter much). Ça m’est égal. (“It’s egal to me“) is quite polite too. Check the “Synonyms” chapter below for more variations.

How to use it

Someone asks you which is your favorite football team, but you don’t care about football… you can say “Le foot je m’en fous.” (I don’t care about football)

Now your boss asks you if you prefer working tomorrow or the day after, you can say: “Peu importe.” (It doesn’t matter much).

Fun facts

There are infinite ways to express this feeling in French, most of them very vulgar, but I personally have a favourite one…

And it’s: “Ça m’en touche une sans faire bouger l’autre.” which means “It’s touching one without the second one moving“. And it’s talking about…men’s genitals. Classy, huh?

Check the list below if you want to find your favorite one!

Synonyms and similarities

They are sorted from the more “formal” to the more “vulgar“, even though this is not an exact science and can vary depending on people, culture, religion, etc.

  • Peu importe. (“It doesn’t matter much“)
  • Ça m’est égal. (“It’s equal to me“)
  • Je m’en moque. (“I’m mocking it“)
  • Ça me passe par dessus la tête. (“It’s going above my head“)
  • Ça me passe par dessus la jambe. (“It’s going above my leg“)
  • J’en ai rien à faire. (“I have nothing to do with it“)
  • Rien à cirer. (“Nothing to wax“)
  • Je m’en fiche. (“I don’t care“)
  • Je m’en fous. (“I don’t care“)
  • Je m’en bats l’oeil. (“I’m beating my eye with it“)
  • Je m’en balance. (“I’m swinging with it“)
  • Je m’en tape. (“I’m beating myself with it“)
  • Je m’en contre fiche. (“I don’t give a f**k“)
  • Je m’en contrefous. (“I don’t give a f**k“)
  • J’en m’en tamponne le coquillard. (“I’m stamping my shell with it“)
  • J’en m’en tamponne le coquillard avec une queue de hareng. (“I’m stamping my shell with a herring’s tail“)
  • Ça m’en touche une sans faire bouger l’autre. (“It’s touching one without the second one moving“)
  • J’en ai rien à foutre. (“I have nothing to f**k with it“)
  • J’en ai rien à branler. (“I have nothing to masturbate with it“)
  • Je m’en branle. (“I’m masturbating with it“)
  • Je m’en bats les steaks. (“I’m beating my steaks with it“)
  • Je m’en bats les couilles. (“I’m beating my balls with it“)
  • Je m’en bats la race. (“I’m beating my race with it“)

Example in a story with English translation

Now, let’s see a complete example of this sentence in a story with slow French audio and the English translation below.
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Choisir un restaurant
To choose a restaurant
___
Emily et Philippe ont décidé de dîner ensemble après les cours.
Emily and Philippe decided to have dinner together after school.
Comme pour beaucoup de couples, c’est souvent une situation compliquée…
Like for many couples, it is often a complicated situation…
Philippe:   Alors, tu veux manger où ?
So, where do you want to eat?
Emily:   Peu importe. J’ai super faim…
Whatever. I’m super hungry…
Philippe proposa un restaurant chinois à proximité.
Philippe proposed a Chinese restaurant nearby.
Emily:   Non, je n’ai pas envie de nourriture chinoise…
No, I do not want Chinese food…
Alors il proposa de manger une pizza.
Then he proposed to eat pizza.
Emily répondit :
Emily replied:
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