21 Belgian French words and expressions every expat should know

Are you considering learning French in Belgium? Then you'll be happy to know that Belgian French shares many similarities with Parisian French. But, like most of the Francophonie, we have our own words and expressions that mean absolutely nothing in France.

If you're living in or moving to Belgium, learning a few of our belgicismes will help you better understand and adjust to life here. Not sure where to start? In this post, I'll reveal 21 Belgian French expressions every expat here should know.

1. Le déjeuner, le dîner, ou le souper?

If you take one thing away from this post, make it your mealtime vocabulary. Let's face it - it's pretty important!

In France, you start your day with le petit déjeuner (breakfast). We use this word in Belgium too, but you may also hear us refer to breakfast as le déjeuner… which is what the French call lunch.

In Belgium, we call lunch le dîner, which, just to confuse you a little more, means dinner in standard French.

So, how do we say dinner in Belgium? Le souper - like 'supper' in English.

It gets easier the more you practise, promise! Here's a little list for you to save:

2. Chicon

This tasty Belgian vegetable is known as endive in both French and English. But here, we call it chicon.

You'll find this root vegetable in everything - braised, grilled or added to soups, stews, pasta, quiches and sandwiches.

It's also the star of our classic national dish, chicons au gratin, which consists of chicons wrapped in slices of ham and baked in Mornay sauce and grated cheese. Yum!

3. Pain français

Did you know that we also have our own words for almost everything in the bakery?

Don't be surprised if the boulanger looks at you with confusion when you ask for a baguette, pain au chocolat, or un petit pain. Because in Belgium, we call these pain français, couque au chocolat and un pistolet.

And yes, un pistolet also means 'gun', but don't panic. The boulanger won't call 101!

4. Endéans

If, no, wait, when you have to wade through piles of paperwork in Brussels or Wallonia, you'll almost certainly come across this Belgian French word. It's the equivalent to dans le délai de, which in English means 'within the period of'.

You'll likely see it written on things like gas or electricity bills, or your tax invoices. So, it’s an important term to learn to make sure you don't miss any important deadlines!

Example: Votre commande sera exécutée endéans les huit jours.

5. Un bic

What did you use to fill in that official form? Probably un bic! This is how we say un stylo (pen) in Belgium, and as you might have guessed, it originates from the ballpoint pen brand, Bic. The French make fun, but it's easier to remember, non!?

Example: J'ai besoin d'un bic pour remplir le formulaire.

6. L'unif

L'unif is an abbreviation of the French word l'université that's commonly used in Belgium - both in conversation and in newspapers. But again, you won't hear this term in France, where it's more common to say la fac.

Example: Mon fils est sorti de l'unif l'année passée.

7. Un kot

When you were at l'unif, you might have lived in un kot - the Belgian French term for un logement étudiant (student accommodation). You can also refer to someone who rents un kot as un kotteur (a lodger) or someone you rent a flat with as your co-kotteur (flatmate).

But, before you tell your real estate agent that you want to live in un kot, you should know that as an expat employee, you can’t rent one due to tax reasons.

Example: Quand j’etais a l’unif, j’ai habité dans un kot avec mon ami.

8. GSM

Can you guess the meaning of this acronym? I won't be surprised if you can't - it's not exactly obvious that it's how we say téléphone portable in Belgium. In fact, even most native French speakers don't know what GSM means since it's named after the Global System for Mobile Communication mobile network.

While people will still understand you if you say portable, it's worth learning this popular expression!

Example: Appelle sur mon GSM quand t’es arrivé.

9. L’horeca

If you aren't sure what l'horeca means, you're not alone. A lot of French speakers are completely confused by this one!

It's no wonder - l'horeca is actually three French words abbreviated and squished together to form one. Take a look:

Hô(tellerie)

Re(stauration)

Ca(fés)

… Hotels, Restaurants and Cafés, better known in English as the hospitality industry.

Example: Je suis en train de chercher un travail à temps partiel dans l’horeca.

10. La drache

If there's one stereotype that everyone knows about Belgium, it's that it rains. A lot. And, yes, it's true. In fact, it happens so often that we have our own word to refer to heavy rain - la drache. It also doubles as a verb - dracher - meaning 'it's raining heavily'.

In standard French? Il pleut très fort. See how much easier we make it? ;)

Example: Vite, vite! Où est le parapluie? Il drache!

11. Il fait caillant

Fait-il froid? Not in Belgium! Well, not exactly. It does get cold here, but we don't use the exact same expression as standard French. We switch froid for the word caillant, to say il fait caillant.

Example: Il fait caillant en hiver à Bruxelles.

12. Savoir

In France, the verb savoir means ‘to know’ and pouvoir means ‘to be able’.

But in Belgium, savoir means pouvoir! Confused? So are a lot of French speakers. This difference makes for some funny misunderstandings.

For example, if a Belgian said to their French colleague… « Tu sais m'envoyer un mail avec les infos ? », a French person might think ‘I'm not that stupid, I know how to send an email and reply « Tu peux m'envoyer… ».

Or, the following situation could happen at the dinner table…

Belgian: Tu sais me passer le sel, s'il te plait ?
French: Tu peux / tu pourrais...

See? Even native speakers get confused sometimes!

13. Chouette

We use chouette to say something is nice, brilliant or cool… and we use it A LOT!

In fact, in Belgium, everything is chouette, trop chouette or super chouette.

But if you look up the word in the dictionary, you might be just as confused as one of my students was when she first heard people saying it.

She mistook the adjective chouette for the noun (une chouette) and began excitedly searching for an owl on the streets of Brussels! Oops.

Example: “Mes collègues m'ont dit que je n'avais presque plus d'accent” “Bravo! C’est chouette!”

14. Fort

In standard French, fort is an adjective that means strong. You'll hear it in sentences like il est très fort (he's very strong).

But in Belgium, we don't only use it this way. We also use it as an adverb to mean très…

Example: Tu es fort sympathique.

15. Non, peut-être!

If you've learnt some French before, you're likely familiar with false friends – words that sound similar to ones in another language but mean something completely different.

Well, in Belgium, we take this a step further by using phrases that, in French, would mean what you think they mean… but here, they mean the opposite. Take non, peut-être as an example. This literally means 'no, maybe', and that's precisely what the French would take it to mean.

But if you invite someone out and they reply non, peut-être, they're not giving you weird mixed signals! They're actually saying oui, bien sûr or certainement. Talk about confusing, eh!

Example: Tu veux sortir boire un verre ce soir? Non, peut-être!

16. Ça va

I only found out recently when speaking to some friends from France that we use the phrase ça va in a way they find really strange… to say d’accord (okay) in response to a statement.

It turns out the French only use this to say ‘I’m okay’!

So, even we get tripped up by les belgicismes from time to time.

Example:

- On fera la réunion demain matin si vous êtes d'accord.

- Ça va !

17. À tantôt

So, you've asked your friend to boire un verre with you tonight, they confirmed with a non, peut-être.

Now? All that's left to say is à tantôt. This is the Belgian way of saying à toute à l'heure or, in English, see you later.

Example: “On se vois a sept heure.” “À tantôt!”

18. Les anglicismes

The defenders of the holy French language detest this blatant destruction of la langue de Molière, but we Belgians? Don't really care. Like les Québecois, we borrow English words and use them when we're speaking French.

You might hear us break up sentences with words like full, show and drink. Pardon, Molière.

Examples:

Ce bar est top mais il est full tous les vendredis soirs.

J'organise un drink après le boulot, tu veux venir?

Tu as vu comme elle a fait son show à la dernière réunion?

19. Ça ne peut mal

Another common belgicisme you should know if you're exploring Belgium is the phrase ça peut mal or ça ne peut mal.

Ça ne peut mal / Ça peut mal: It’s not dangerous

We often drop the ne from the negation in colloquial French, so these two phrases actually mean the same thing.

I love this belgicisme because it makes absolutely no sense for a non-Belgian.

Example: Est-ce que ça peut mal de sortir toute seule? T’inquiétes pas, ça ne peut mal.

20. S'il vous plaît

You know this expression as 'please', right? Great! Now, here's the puzzling part.

In Belgium, s’il vous plaît means please, but it also doubles up as a synonym for voici or je vous en prie meaning ‘here you go’. You're most likely to hear it when you're being served in shops, or you thank a server for giving you your food in a restaurant. They're not asking you to do anything - it's just the Belgian way of being polite.

Example: “Un cornet de frites et une bière, s’il vous plaît.”

“S’il vous plait! Bonne dégustation.”

21. On se dit quoi

This classic Belgian French expression often trips up native speakers (and learners). That's because it literally means 'what do we say to each other?', which makes no grammatical sense… Except in Belgium.

What this means is that we'll keep someone updated about something. It's the equivalent of the standard French phrase je te tiens au courant.

Example: Après avoir parlé avec ce client, je vous dis quoi.

Before you panic and decide not to learn French in Belgium, know that most of the words, phrases and grammar we use are the same as in Parisian French.

So, everything you pick up here will prove helpful in any French-speaking country. Mastering these belgicismes will just make adjusting to life in Belgium easier!

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