Pas mal: “not bad” or “quite a lot”? A French meaning cheat sheet

Edited by Chris Lee · Updated 6 October 2026 · About the library

Tell pas mal from pas mal de: praise, quantity and time. Use a compact rule sheet, four food picture cards and a quiz to check the difference.

In short

Pas mal can mean “not bad” or “pretty good”: Ce n’est pas mal. Before a noun, pas mal de means “quite a lot of” or “quite a few”: pas mal de travail, pas mal de pommes. After a verb, it can also mean “quite a lot”: J’ai pas mal travaillé.

Yellow the idea to rememberBlue French to learn

Pas mal · fiche

1 · Evaluate something

The speaker gives a positive or moderately positive judgement. A following clause can add a reservation.

Ton idée n’est pas mal.Your idea is pretty good.

C’est pas mal, mais il manque un exemple.It’s not bad, but an example is missing.

2 · Name a quantity

Put de before a noun, or d’ before a vowel. Use a plural for countable items and a singular mass noun for substances.

Il reste pas mal de pommes.There are quite a few apples left.

Il reste pas mal de travail.There is quite a lot of work left.

3 · Describe how much you did

After a verb, the phrase can express quantity or extent. Let the activity guide the translation.

J’ai pas mal travaillé cette semaine.I’ve worked quite a lot this week.

Nous avons pas mal marché.We walked quite a long way.

4 · Keep an ordinary time expression

Pas mal de temps is a fair amount of time. It tells you the duration, rather than praising the activity.

La préparation a pris pas mal de temps.The preparation took quite a lot of time.

What does pas mal mean in French?

Quite a lot of what?

Compare Cette salade n’est pas mal (“this salad is pretty good”) with Il reste pas mal de salade (“there is quite a lot of salad left”). The first judges the salad; the second describes how much remains.

Une réponse à « Ça va ? »

Nora
Ça va ?
How’s it going?
Léo
Pas mal, merci. Et toi ?
Not bad, thanks. What about you?

Here pas mal answers a question about how someone is doing. In everyday speech, C’est pas mal often drops ne. The fuller Ce n’est pas mal keeps the same evaluation.