va te faire foutre

:-)

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RayGovett
Hughson CA
Be Prepared-- Strike Swiftly -- Who Dares Wins- Without warning-"it will be hard. I can do it"

casse ton cul!

; >

Merde is indeed a good answer but not an appropriate one!
The good one to use is “bonne chance” which means good luck!

Don't you guys have a war you should be surrendering in?

+1

Bonne chance or bonne courage

Courage in French is masculine, so it would be Bon courage...

Merde, indeed.

For the little story, it dates back to the 19th century and originates in theater. When plays were very popular, there would be many carriages in front of the theater and thus a lot of horse shit.
So saying merde in the theater world at the time was to say, I hope there'll be a lot of horse shit in front of the building.

I read the title too fast and thought that maybe you were having issues making french fries.

I worked in French-English translation. From what I understand, you're trying to give the kid a contrary way of saying good luck. The responses about 'merde' being not quite appropriate are right.

'Casses ton cul' as someone posted --> Literally "Bust your butt", but offensive, the kind of thing you'd say to your best buddy who is about your age. Not the best thing to say to a kid. that goes for anything with 'merde' in it.

In Quebec --> "Bonne chance!" is pretty much your best option."Bonne chance, mon gars" could be used to an older teenager --> literally, "Good luck, my boy", where "my boy" is a way of saying "kid".

If speaking to someone who is from Europe or learning French from a European --> "Bon courage!". Do not drop the "bon" as someone else suggested. "Courage" by itself is what you'd say to someone grimly facing a dire situation.

One suggestion is to say you're NOT wishing him good luck. This is used a lot among friends but not close friends: "Je ne te souhaiterais pas bonne chance parce que ca porte malheur." Literally: "I'm not going to wish you good luck because that brings bad luck." (The 'ca' needs the little squiggly at the bottom but my keyboard isn't doing it right now..)