dire m_rde - Mot du Jour

to wish someone good luck – French expression

Part of French Idiomatic Expressions | Saint Patrick’s Day

What does ” dire merde à quelqu’un ” mean? How do you say ‘ to wish someone good luck ’ in French? How is it pronounced? How is it used in a French sentence? Listen to Anne, a French native say it at FrenchHour.com.

dire merde à quelqu’un – to say shit to someone – I’ve hesitated a long time to introduce you to this expression because of the coarse language. However, it’s a fact: the French use a lot more crass words and expressions than English speakers do. I’m not sure what to do with that observation.

In everyday French, in a happy context, dire merde à quelqu’un means ‘to break a leg’, ‘to wish someone good luck’. Of course if the context is different, it can also means ‘to tell someone to go to hell’. I want to focus on the good luck context, as, even if it’s awkward, it’s an expression you hear all the time.

If you don’t want to use this crass word, you can use the euphemistic synonym expression ‘le mot de Cambronne’ instead.