Today we’ll look at the informal French interjection or greeting “coucou !”, which means “hi!”, “hey!” and “hi there!”. A French-to-French translation is “me voilà !” (here I am!).
Coucou !
Hi! Hi there!
Coucou !
Word origin
The French word coucou comes from the Latin word cuculus and refers to the cuckoo bird. The word coucou is an onomatopoeia of the bird’s sound.
In English “cuckoo” is slang for crazy or nuts. This doesn’t work in French. You cannot use coucou to mean crazy. French has its own slang words for crazy including dingue and barjot.
Example sentences with coucou
The most common use of coucou in French to mean “hi!”. The usage of this word is highly informal and definitely not appropriate for strangers.
Coucou, Mathilde ! C’est moi !
Hi, Mathilde! It’s me!
There are two ways to say “cuckoo clock”: l’horloge à coucou (masculine noun) or la pendule à coucou. Both horloge and pendule are synonymous for “clock”.
Marc fait une collection d’horloges à coucou.
Marc has a collection of cuckoo clocks.
This example sentence makes reference to the Common cuckoo or Cuculus canorus, a bird species.
Le Coucou gris est une espèce d’oiseaux.
The Common cuckoo is a bird species.
Related lessons
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