All about the French sentence "Sans déconner"

Ready to find out all the things you ever wanted to know about the basic sentence “Sans déconner”?

Are included a detailed definition of what it is and how to use it in a normal conversation with an audio example. But that’s not all, we also sprinkled super useful stuff like slow pronunciation audio, dialogue example and more!

Oh and before I forget, on this page you will find more of these sentences guides plus the ultimate list of all our French words guides on this page. Ready to learn? Let’s go!

Artboard 1
Showcase of this quote from our Instagram account
Daily posts like this on Instagram → @all.french and Telegram

French to English

Pronunciation

Slow pronunciation

Normal pronunciation

What does sans déconner mean?

Definition

The literal meaning is:

  • Sans → Without
  • Déconner → Messing around / Kidding

The meaning can vary regarding context. If you are using it as a question, it means: “Are you kidding me ? / Really ?” but if you use it as a statement, it means “No kidding / Seriously / I’m serious / I kid you not

It’s expressing a feeling of surprise and scepticism and will help your conversation to be more passionate and flow easily.

Let’s see some examples!

How to use it

Someone you know tells you he/she found $1.000 on the street, you will probably react like: “Sans déconner ?!” (Are you kidding me?) because such things seem almost impossible and you are skeptical. Here, we can also translate it as “No way“.

Now, imagine the day after you found such money on the street too, you tell it to this person and he/she thinks you are making fun of him/her. To prove that it’s true, you might say for example: “Sans déconner ! Je te le jure !” (No kidding! I swear!)

Fun facts

For the slang / cool / shorter version, you can say “déc” instead of “déconner” but of course, this is not safe in formal situations…

Another famous slang version would be “T’es sérieux ?” which is the short version of “Tu es sérieux ?” and means “Are you serious?

Synonyms

  • Tu es sérieux. (“Are you serious?“)(Familiar)
  • T’es sérieux. (“Are you serious?“)(Slang)
  • Tu déconnes ?. (“Are you kidding?“)(Slang)
  • Sans déc. (“No kidding“)(Slang)
  • C’est une blague. (“That’s a joke“)(Familiar)
  • Sans blague. (“No joke“)(Familiar)
  • Sans rire. (“Seriously“)(Familiar)
  • Tu déconnes. (“You are kidding“)(Slang)
  • Tu me fais marcher. (“You are kidding me“)(Familiar)

Example in a story with translation

Now, let’s see a complete example of this idiom in a story with slow French audio and the English translation below.
Loading...
Conversation post-vacances
Post-vacation conversation
___
Léa:   Alors Marc, comment étaient tes vacances ?
So Marc, how was your vacation?
Marc:   Oh génial ! Nous sommes allés au ski avec ma famille !
Oh great! We went skiing with my family!
Léa:   Génial ! Dans quelle station ?
Awesome! In which station?
Marc:   Chamonix.
Chamonix.
Léa:   J’en ai déjà entendu parler. C’était bien ?
I’ve heard of it before. Was it good?
Marc:   J’ai adoré ! Tu devrais y aller aussi !
I loved it! You should go there too!
Léa:   J’y penserai, merci !
I’ll think about it, thank you!
Marc:   Et toi ? Comment étaient tes vacances ?
And you? How was your vacation?
Léa:   C’était génial aussi, j’ai passé du temps avec mes parents et ma soeur.
It was awesome too, I spent time with my parents and my sister.
Marc:   Tu as une sœur ? Depuis quand ?
You have a sister? Since when?
Get access to 365 French Texts and Quizzes

Become a member to access the full version of 365 texts and quizzes! 

Already a member? Login here