That’s something people often asked me, so here we go! Every week I’ll explain a French word… and its several meanings.

Sérieux /seʀjø/

1. When arguing with friends or family, we’ll say : Tu te fous de moi? Sérieux? Are you fucking kidding me? Seriously?

What you need to know is : the right word – the adverb – to say “seriously” is “sérieusement“, but…. It’s rarely used when talking (not by me, at least). We’ll most likely use sérieux? in these cases.

2. When talking about one of our students, or to defend one of our coworkers, we’ll say : Quoi? Nan! Il est très sérieux dans son travail! What? No! He’s very serious in his work! (think : hard-working, conscientious)

3. In a review, we might use : Ce livre traite de sujets sérieux. This book tackles heavy subjects.

4. When referring to someone who is not Trump, we’ll say : Il a été très sérieux lors de son discours. He appeared very solemn during his speech.

5. When whining to our best friend, we’ll say : J’en ai marre! J’ai envie d’être pris au sérieux! I’m fed up! I want to be taken seriously!

6. When unleashing our bitch mode, we could say : Pff… Ca ne fait pas très sérieux! Pff… It doesn’t make the best impression!

… and there are more meanings, but really, if you remember these ones you should be good^^

For full disclosure : Sérieux is perhaps the word I use the most *hides*

Is there a French word you’d want me to explain? Ask me in the comments!