French · Frustration
Ça me fait chier !
sa muh fay SHYAY · /sa mə fɛ ʃje/
This pisses me off / What a pain in the ass
3/5 Watch your audience
genuinely rude; friends only, never at work
Literally
"It makes me shit"
Word-for-word — which is rarely what it means.
How to use it
The workhorse of French annoyance. "Ça me fait chier" = this pisses me off; bare "fait chier !" = "for f***'s sake, what a pain." "Chier" (to shit) is the engine of a whole family: "c'est chiant" (it's annoying), "un chieur" (a pain in the ass person). Coarse, friends-only, not aimed at anyone in particular.
Heard in the wild
Encore une grève ? Ça me fait chier.
Another strike? This pisses me off.
Where it lands
France (universal)
Quick answers
- What does "Ça me fait chier !" mean?
- In French, "Ça me fait chier !" means "This pisses me off / What a pain in the ass". Literally it's "It makes me shit". The workhorse of French annoyance. "Ça me fait chier" = this pisses me off; bare "fait chier !" = "for f***'s sake, what a pain." "Chier" (to shit) is the engine of a whole family: "c'est chiant" (it's annoying), "un chieur" (a pain in the ass person). Coarse, friends-only, not aimed at anyone in particular.
- Is "Ça me fait chier !" offensive?
- It's genuinely rude — a 3/5 (Watch your audience) on the Punch-o-Meter. Fine among friends, never at work or with people you've just met.
- How do you pronounce "Ça me fait chier !"?
- Say it "sa muh fay SHYAY" — capitals mark the stressed syllable. In IPA: sa mə fɛ ʃje.
Related in French
Putain ! poo-TAN Damn! / F***! / The all-purpose intensifier — punctuation, really Bordel ! bor-DEL What a mess! / Chaos! — also 'what the hell' as an intensifier Putain de merde ! poo-TAN duh MEHRD For f***'s sake! / Goddammit! Putain de bordel de merde ! poo-TAN duh bor-DEL duh MEHRD For f***'s holy sake! — the full three-word combo Nom de Dieu ! nohn duh DYUH Goddammit! / For God's sake! J'en ai marre ! zhahn ay MAR I'm fed up / I've had it
The same idea, elsewhere
Via concepts like "Damn".
- German Scheiße! Shit! / Damn! — the all-purpose German expletive
- Greek γαμώτο Damn it! / Dammit!
- Italian Cazzo! Fuck! / Damn! / The all-purpose Italian curse.
- Japanese くそ Damn! / Crap! / Shit!
- Korean 씨발 Fuck / fucking hell — the load-bearing Korean curse.
- Polish kurwa Fuck / damn / shit — the load-bearing word of Polish, and its most common comma.
- Portuguese Porra! Damn! / Fuck! — but mostly used as pure punctuation
- Russian Блин! Damn! / Darn! / Shoot!
Reviewed by native speakers. Rate it differently? Tell us what we got wrong.