Scale
How good was it? French from nul to génial
Rate a film, a meal or a holiday like a French speaker: from nul and bof to pas mal, super and génial. Seven words, with the tone of each.
- A2
- 7 steps
- awful → brilliant
- Learn this in the A2 notebook →
In short
From worst to best: nul (rubbish), pas terrible (not great), bof (meh), pas mal (pretty good), bien (good), super / top (great) and génial (brilliant). Pas mal sounds lukewarm in English but is a real compliment in French.
Yellow the idea to rememberBlue French to learnRed watch out
brilliant
- génial / excellentbrilliantEnthusiastic.
- super / topgreatVery common, casual.
- biengoodNeutral.
- pas malpretty goodReal praise, often with vraiment.
- bofmehA sound as much as a word, with a shrug.
- pas terriblenot greatA polite way to say it was bad.
- nul / nullerubbishLe film était nul.
awful
Hear it in use
- Collègue
Alors, ce restaurant ?
So, that restaurant?
- Toi
Pas mal du tout ! Le dessert était génial.
Pretty good! The dessert was brilliant.
- Collègue
Et le film après ?
And the film afterwards?
- Toi
Bof… pas terrible. Trop long.
Meh… not great. Too long.
Watch out: terrible alone usually means amazing in casual French (c'était terrible !), but pas terrible means not good. Nul can be harsh about a person: il est nul en maths (he's hopeless at maths).
Franchement, le livre est génial, mais le film est nul.
Honestly, the book is brilliant, but the film is rubbish.
— Ça t'a plu ? — Bof, sans plus.
— Did you like it? — Meh, nothing special.
- C'était pas mal (I'm disappointed)C'était pas terrible.
Pas mal is positive.
- C'était très génial.C'était vraiment génial.
Génial is already the top: don't add très.