‘I have a wooden face’: All the ways to say you’re drunk or hungover in French

For a country that has a reputation for moderate drinking, French certainly has a lot of ways to describe being drunk.

Starting with the basics, any one of these describes the mood and the moment perfectly well: [used with être] éméché, saoul, soûl, enivré, ivre, bitteré, bourré. For example je suis bourré (I’m drunk), j’étais bourré hier (I was drunk yesterday).

Listen to the team from The Local explaining these phrases on the latest Talking France podcast – download here or listen on the link below

Alternatively, there’s: Boire un coup de trop – which means to drink a bit too much (j’ai bu un coup de trop – I had one too many).

But they’re all a little formal. A romance language as poetic as French can do better. And it does. Here are just a few – you just may need to be a little careful in front of the boss or the in-laws:

[Être] pompette  – a lovely little phrase to describe that lovely little feeling of being just a bit tipsy, when you’re at that love-the-world stage of your night out. Your bar banter is the funniest it will ever be, and if you stopped now, everything would be fine . . .

Use it like this: je suis pompette – I’m tipsy.

Déchiré – is at the other end of the night out spectrum to pompette. You may have started the evening in saintly mode, telling everyone Je ne veux pas être trop bourré(e) (I don’t want to drink too much), but you went too far and got déchiré(e) – think ‘hammered’, and you’ll be on the money. 

Use it like this: je suis déchiré – I am hammered/wasted.

Se péter la gueule – literally, to break your face, and is a poetically brutal French way of saying you’re ‘smashed’. You could also use se beurrer la gueule (buttering your face) for that delightful ‘being plastered’ image.

Use it like this: elle s’est pété la gueule – she’s smashed.

Complètement pété – direct and to the point, this one, and about as poetic as a pissoir after a riot at a beer festival. If we’re being polite, it means ‘wasted’. Don’t say it about a co-worker in front of the boss at the Christmas do.

Use it like this: il est complètement pété – he is completely wasted/fucked

And a few more: 

Se prendre une culotte – trousered. Very sartorial. Use it like this: il se prend une culotte

Plein comme une barrique – (as full as a barrel) bladdered. Use it like this: Il est plein comme une barrique

S’arracher la face – (tear your face off) off your face. Use it like this: tu t’es arraché la face

S’éclater la tronche – literally to smash your face and one or several steps beyond s’arracher la face. Use it like this: il s’est éclaté la tronche

Se mettre la tête à l’envers  – out of your head (literally ‘turn your head upside down’) Use it like this: elle s’est mis la tête à l’envers

Paf – slang for drunk or intoxicated, often stated to indicate that someone is no longer capable of doing anything. Use it like this: Après une soirée bien arrosée, il était complètement paf. – After a night of heavy drinking, he was completely wasted.

If you’re having a night out and need to get home by car, just make sure you have a designated driver. 

Sam – Introducing the universal term for the non-drinking designated driver for the evening. The expression comes from an old French government road safety campaign to promote driving without drinking. The acronym stands for Sans Accidents Mortels (no fatal accidents).

Use it like this: Qui se fait Sam ce soir ? – Who’s the designated driver tonight?

Now after this crazy night out that you may have had, the next morning you’ll probably wake up feeling pretty miserable. Here are some words and expressions the French use to describe that pounding headache. 

Gueule de bois – This literally translates as a ‘wooden face’ and describes the tender head, churning nausea and vague sense of dread that follows a night out that perhaps went a little too far. It’s the most commonly used phrase for a hangover.

Use it like this: J’ai la gueule de bois aujourd’hui, je crois que j’ai bu trop de vin à la fête – “I am hungover today, I think I drank to much wine at the party.”

PLS – This acronym is handy to know if someone in your party goes overboard. PLS stands for Position Latéral de Sécurité – also known as the recovery position. It can also be used to describe how you’re looking after your tender morning-after self and definitely has a touch of the dramatic.

Use it like this: Aujourd’hui je ne fais rien, je suis en PLS sur mon canapé à regarder Netflix – “Today I’m not doing anything, I’m recovering on the couch, watching Netflix.”

Caisse – This French slang has three meanings – but we’re not interested in the one for ‘car’ or ‘fart’. We want to know about the one that refers to someone who’s enjoyed a bit too much of the happy juice. Prendre une caisse means to party hard – perhaps a bit too hard. Caning it, you might say.

Use it like this: il avait pris une caisse pendant la soirée – He was really caning it at the party.

Cuite – Along the same lines as caisse as a way to describe that you drank way too much. 

Use it like this: Je me suis pris une cuite hier, ça ne va pas ce matin. – “I got really drunk last night, I’m not doing too well this morning”. 

And the origins of this expression are interesting. It’s believed to come from the idea of “cuite” as in firing an oven or kiln, especially the process used to harden porcelain. This notion of intense heat causing a transformation mirrors what happens when someone drinks excessively.

Another very common phrase that you can say when you’re feeling really bad is je suis au bout de ma vie, which translates to “I’m at the end of my life”. But French people don’t only use this expression to describe a hangover; it’s just a dramatic way of saying that you’re tired or in bad shape.

Finally, the French don’t have an exact translation for the expression “the hair of the dog”, – which means to ease a hangover by having a drink, but you can say soigner le mal par le mal, which translates into “curing the bad with the bad”. 

Use it like this: Allez, prends-toi une petite bière, il faut soigner le mal par le mal. – “Take the hair of the dog, have a beer to ease the hangover.”

You can also use the word remontant, which literally means “pick me up”. It can refer generally to anything that helps you recover.

Use it like this: J’ai besoin d’un petit remontant sinon je ne vais jamais réussir à fonctionner aujourd’hui. – “I need a little pick me up, otherwise I won’t be able to physically function”.