What does the idiomatic French expression fais gaffe ! mean? Click to learn all about it, and then come back here to share your thoughts.
More: French expressions | Common French phrases
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More: French expressions | Common French phrases
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I had always thought that in this context, “gaffe” referred to the nautical context of a gaffe or barge pole which is used to control the movement of a boat when mooring, for example to prevent collisions with other moored boats or the bank. In this sense, in english we would say fending off (in nautical terms).
Interesting. Have actually been using it wrongly
Thank you so much for these really helpful hints for actually speaking the language, Laura!
Very useful. Does ‘Fais attention’ mean the same thing ?
As a native French speaker, and living in France, “Fais gaffe” and “Fais attention” mean exactly the same thing for me : “Be careful !”. It is sometimes shortened in “Gaffe!”. The only difference I sense is that “Fais gaffe” is very colloquial — I don’t think I have ever heard it with the “vouvoiement” (“*Faites gaffe” told to only one person.)
I think that this expression comes from slang, and this could explain why it seems to mean exactly the opposite : “Go on, do a mistake!”. It is very common for French slang expressions to use some rhetorical figures like antiphrasis, metaphor, understatement and so on.
A similar antiphrasis can be attached to “merde” — certainly the most well-known french word. In some occasions, like when somebody is about to assess an exam, or to perform a show, his/her friends often say : “Je te dis merde”, or “Grosse merde pour ton examen / ton spectacle…”. This can be softened in “Je te dis les cinq lettres”. But “avoir une merde” means having a tough misadventure and “*merder” is a vulgar synonym for “gaffer”.
This friendly “merde” is said to have been coined by actors. So it is somewhat similar — leaving outside the scatological aspect — to Mr Yung’s “break a leg”.
The same kind of slangy antiphrasis — or it might be an euphemism — can be found in words like “bagnole” or “caisse”, which mean pejoratively a car, but can also refer to an expensive one. Metonymies are very common as well : “un menteur” (a liar) is a lawyer, “la lourde” (the heavy thing) is the door…
These rhetorical effects are certainly made possible by the connivance between the speakers. Many other “rhetorical slang” expressions can be found in Michel Audiard’s dialogues in films like “Les Tontons flingueurs” by Georges Lautner, which rely heavily on them to attain a comical effect.
In English there is an expression “break a leg”, often used among performing arts circle meaning good luck, or don’t make any mistakes in performance.
salut, Laura!
bonne continuation!
je veux te remercier de tes lecons et les apprecier, car elles m’ont beaucoup aidé pendant mon apprentissage du francais, je suis autodidacte, et je viens de réussir l’examen DALF, je suis si contente, et cette page me rappelle de mes premiers pas en francais
Semblable à se méfier : Faire attention ; se tenir sur ses gardes : “Méfiez-vous, il y a du brouillard en cette saison !” ou “Méfie-toi de lui” : Etre soupçonneux.
Salut, Laura!
J’aime l’expression, au moin c’est court! Je vais l’utiliser tout de suite avec mes amis. Merci.
‘fais gaffe’ to me means: “you are about to do something inappropriate or say something embarassing or indiscreet – don’t do it!” It is often muttered, which is why I believe the pas has disappeared.
In Québec, “fait attention!” means the same thing. We say it when we cycle through the streets of Montréal a lot.
Bonjour Laura,
Tout d’abord je te salue pour ce bon et très utile blog… Toutes les informations que tu nous donne sont un bon apprentisage… Un grand merci à toi…
Dear Laura,
what a good website.I succeeded in an IPOS french degree last year and gained a distinction.I am looking to move from a retail career into one which means I can use my french.Your site is really good,particularly as its so in depth.
Pour l’instant il faut que je parte,mais je vais contribuer chez votre site en esperant de causer avec des autres francophiles
A bientot
Brent
The abbreviated form must be because, when one is about to do something dangerous or potentially disastrous, the urgency of the situation “cuts our tongue”, letting us say only the first short sounds that come out. If we’re lucky, we choose the most important sounds to convey the idea.
I always believed that there are semantic bridges in the realm of metalinguistics in French and other languages. It seems that French is very much into concerning itself in this metalinguistics, so I view this expression as “Injury!” or “You’re making to cause an injury!”, which ends up as “You make an injury!”
I am enamoured by French o_O. It’s such a …different language. Thank you Laura K. Lawless.
I had originally just tried to figure it out on my own (see above), then I asked my French wife. Her explanation was exactly the same as David Heath (the first comment in this post). I’m a longtime sailor, but it hadn’t occurred to me that the French also use a gaff on their boats – another thing that brings all together even while pushing us apart.
that’s interesting. in portuguese saying “faire une gaffe” or “faire gaffe” is simply the same thing (“fazer uma gafe” and “fazer gafe”) and it doesn’t mean “watch out” at all. it is always “make a mistake”, a mistake which can be embarassing.
It’s not so uncommon to have this kind of reversed meaning. In German you e.g. say “Hals- und Beinbruch” which litterally means “Broken neck and leg”. Of course it is a wish for the opposite.
Ça peut être dangereux – fais gaffe !
Delightful expression: lends itself to a simple typo:
If you add “ir”, you end up with “giraffe”
And that would certainly mean to “Faire une gaffe”
(pour de vrai )!
Two derivations have been suggested, Laura’s, that it is the opposite of faire une gaffe — a fact that is very important to remember — and the maritime one, which as a sailor I find attractive. The Trésor de la langue française suggests a third: that un gaffe was une sentinelle, un guetteur, particularly un gardien de prison, so faire le gaffe meant être en sentinelle, faire le guet, popularly shortened to faire gaffe. The first two come from the Provençal gaf, the third from the German kapfen, gaffen, or gaffer.
I didn’t know this. Thank you !
could you please explain the difference between faire gaffe and faire une gaffe…??
Merci
Truptie Arya
Faire une gaffe means “to make a blunder.” Fais gaffe means “watch out! be careful!”
J’ai appri que “soit prudent” veut dire la même chose.
Laura, concerning the expression “Fais gaffe” and similar expressions, do the rules of tutoyer/vouvoyer still apply? New to the blog and really enjoy it. Merci.
RCP
Yes, those rules always apply.
“Fais” is the tu form, so you’d say “fais gaffe” only to someone you tutoie. In addition, the expression is informal (see “register” under “literal translation”) so you should never say it to an individual you vouvoie. However, if you were talking to a group of friends or children, you could say “faites gaffe.”
Now I got it. Thanks.
I just love this phrase and keep trying to use it but my fluent speaking son and his French girlfriend explained that it should only be used with people one knows so I tested it out on my Parisien neighbour who has just fallen over her step and broken her hand. She explained it was vulgar French (whoops) and “faire attention” would have been better!!
“Vulgar” is an exaggeration. It’s informal, as it says in the lesson, which means you should only use it with people you tutoie. I’m guessing you vouvoie your neighbor. Also, it’s for warning people before they do something (e.g., they’re about to cross the street in front of a speeding vehicle), not after they’ve already hurt themselves.
Fais gaffe reminds me of when I was an exchange student in the Dordogne, many years ago. “Fais gaffe” was a common expression as we ran around doing the dangerous things young people love. Another was when we were riding in the car with some of my host’s cousins. One brother drove like a demon, while the other sat beside him saying “Ecrase! Ecrase!” I, terrified in the back seat, thought he was saying “Go faster” (Ecrase le champignon) whereas he meant “Take it easier”. Another peculiar French inversion, if my memory serves me well, 40-plus years on.
That one is similar to “s’écraser”, which means informally “to keep quiet”. Coluche often said : “La culture, c’est comme les parachutes, quand on n’en a pas, on s’écrase.”
A very loose translation could be “Culture is like a parachute : if you don’t have one, dive down to the earth.” (I hope this is not too bad English!)