In this video, I present you the 15 gestures that are very often used in France. These gestures will be useful to better understand your interlocutors and progress in French.

List of 15 gestures to know

0:00 - Introduction
0:47 - Being afraid
1:12 - Silver
1:38 - Fed up
2:07 - Being drunk
2:43 - To be blasé
3:35 - To have the balls, to be fed up
4:04 - Being crazy
4:28 - Hush, be quiet
5:01 - Ouch!
5:34 - I'm leaving, let's go
6:00 - Smoking, cigarette
6:26 - Fingers crossed
6:49 - Touch wood
7:32 - Conclusion

Transcript of the video

Hello, I hope that you are well and that your learning of French is going well.

So in this video, I propose you to see together 15 gestures that the French use to speak. These are gestures that will either accompany expressions or even replace them. Each language, each culture has its own gestures, its own way of making itself understood. So, here we are going to see 15 of them together to help you improve your learning of French, to learn more about the French culture. Here is the first gesture.

So, this gesture means to be afraid. We also say in French avoir les chocottes, so, for example, I could say "Yesterday evening, I watched a horror movie by myself, I was like this" to say that I was terrified, I was very afraid. So the next gesture is this. This gesture simply means money.

For example, I could say if a friend of mine says "I'm going to buy some beers", I could say "ah, do you have any money?" to offer to give him some, that even this gesture alone, everybody understands that it's money. Then the next gesture is this... So, it literally means you're in over your head. So, it's an expression that is really said in French to say that you are pissed off, that you are fed up.

So, for example, I might say "my boss is still forcing me to work overtime pfff" to say that really, you're sick of it. Then the next gesture is this. So this is a little bit of a strange gesture that means you or someone is drunk.

For example, if I go... it could mean I'm drunk, I've had too much to drink.

Also you can use it to talk about someone else, for example, I might say "Last night at the party, Celine was really... she was really messed up" to say that she was really drunk, really wasted. The next gesture is this one... So it's .... so it's a shoulder movement, a shrug, so it means whatever, I don't care.

For example, if my boyfriend goes to the bakery and I asked him for a pain au chocolat and he comes back and says "there was no more pain au chocolat, I got you a croissant" I can do ... to say that I don't care, it's a bit the same for me.

So you can use it for very simple things, but also to show your annoyance a little bit more, for example, if your phone is regularly down and again it's down, I could just say "as usual, it doesn't change". So the next gesture is this. So this is a gesture that means you're really pissed off, when I do this, I say I'm pissed off, it's that you're really fed up with a situation, you're pissed off, you're drunk, you can't take it anymore. For example, you could say that I've taken the same French exam twelve times, I'll never pass, I can't take it anymore. So, the gesture, often, is this one. So when you use that, you can say that someone is crazy, that he's not in his right mind, that he's not very well in his head. So, for example, I could use it to say "Christian ran a red light with his car and he insulted the policeman who stopped him, he's really crazy". The next gesture is this.

So, it's not a very nice gesture, in fact, when you do this, you're telling someone "shut up" or in more colloquial, vulgar French, "Ta gueule!" So, if you say that to someone, they might be a little pissed off. It's not very nice to get that gesture, but you can always use it in a slightly ironic way, in a humorous way, if, for example, someone is teasing you and you want to say "oh it's okay, shut up."

So the next gesture is this one. It means ouch, ouch, ouch! It's when a situation, or you've done something, or it's not very good for you what's going to happen next, you're not in a very good posture, in a very good situation. For example, I might say "I broke my mom's favorite vase, she's going to yell at me too much" to say that what's going to happen to you is not very cool and not very positive.

The next gesture is this. It's a gesture that means "I'm leaving" or "we're leaving" to say that you're going to leave a place or that you're telling someone, we're going. So, for example, you are at a party and you want to leave and tell the person who invited you, but there is music, you look at him, you can tell him to say "I'm going". The next gesture is this.

It's a gesture that actually represents a cigarette. You can use the gesture to propose to someone to go smoke, so you can say "let's go smoke" or to ask someone for a cigarette. The next two gestures that we're going to see are gestures related to luck in French, so they'll bring luck. So, the first one is this one. So, in French, we say "croiser les doigts". When you cross your fingers for someone or even you can cross your fingers for yourself, it's "you bring luck to someone or you try to bring yourself luck". For example, I could say to someone: "Good luck for your French exam, I cross my fingers for you". Then the next gesture, which is linked to an expression, and the expression is "touch wood". So when we touch wood in French, it is also to bring good luck. So, in fact, when I'm going to say "ah I hope you pass your French exam, I touch wood!"

You have to touch wood very quickly because if you don't, it's the opposite that happens, you bring bad luck to the person. So, as soon as you say in French, "je touche du bois pour toi", you have to touch wood very quickly.

So you can use it for example... I can say "I played the lottery tonight, the jackpot is 7 millions, I touch wood to win". That's it for today, we have seen together 15 gestures that will help you to improve, to go further in your learning of French. I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, don't hesitate to put a "Like" or to subscribe to the channel. If you want more content, you can also go to the blog www.hellofrench.com. See you soon!