What does the French expression du coup mean? Click the link above to learn all about it, and then come back here to share your thoughts.
More: French expressions | Common French phrases
More: French expressions | Common French phrases
Comments
Dear Laura,
I’ve been meaning to leave you a comment for a long time. I’ve subscribed to other language sites on about.com, and I have to congratulate you as I find yours BY FAR the best.
You make it SO interesting. It’s great to hear about your travels and about France. You describe everything so well I can almost imagine myself there! And the tips you give on using the language are excellent.
I was learning French because my partner was living in France and I hoped to join him there. Unfortunately he decided otherwise and I could well have given up the language for good! But your mailings kept my interest alive. Thanks and well done!
Carol
My Swiss French friend says “du coup” all the time and I finally had to stop her and ask her what it meant, but she couldn’t really explain it. I later asked a French friend what it meant and how it was used and he didn’t give me a translation, but said it is used when you want to refer back to something you were talking about before. I like your translation and examples. I’m starting to feel like maybe I could start to incorporate it into my speech.
Sometimes I think “du coup” could be translated as “moreover” or “not only that.” It is widely used but with a variety of connotations.
Thank you for explaining du coup. I hear it all the time from French speakers but have never understood its function. Like you I never learnt it at school and am wondering whether it’s a fairly recent expression or whether it’s been around for a long time but was just considered too colloquial 30 years ago to get into the textbooks. Another common expression I never came across at school or uni was “histoire de”.
Elizabeth
I think it’s funny when they say “donc, du coup”, which I hear quite a lot! It seems redundant to say that.
Roughly translated = “so then, on top of all of that”
There is a kind of momentum building in the story so the listener gets the idea that the plot thickens!
Traductions proposées pour :
du coup = de ce fait, à la suite de quoi ;
du même coup = en conséquence de quoi, par voie de conséquence.
Cette expression est très à la mode actuellement.
A quoi peut s’ajouter, je pense: aussitôt, ou encore,après quoi, non ? Mais de toute façon,”du coup” suggère quand même bien une conséquence,tout en y ajoutant une idée d’immédiateté, de rapidité de réaction, comme conséquence à un fait précédent. OK ?
Hi, I thought ” du coup” all of a sudden… thanks for enlightening me! Now will try & use it.
It’s an ugly expression who tends to replace some “more” correct ones like “donc”, “en conséquent”, etc…