Juilletiste, aoûtien or je-m'en-foutiste ?
A field guide to French indifference, elegant or not.
In France, as summer approaches, there are three types of people: les juilletistes, who always go on vacation in July (juillet). Les aoûtiens, who go in August (août — Say “oute” if you want to sound like a Parisian). And then there are people like me, who couldn’t care less : les je-m’en-foutistes.
Suzon, barmaid des Folies Bergère, a l’air de s’en foutre royalement — Édouard Manet
So what is le je-m’en-foutisme ? If we check the dictionary — Le Larousse, évidemment — here’s the definition: “An attitude of total indifference toward events.”
Apparently this expression is considered vieilli by the dictionary. Well then. I guess I’m getting old too. Old-fashioned.
Old-fashioned or not, it’s worth knowing. If you’re a je-m’en-foutiste like me, this comes up more than you’d expect.
The verb to watch out for: foutre
The expression is built on foutre, a verb with a lot of meanings, cousin of a certain English word starting with the same letter — the F. Use it carefully! It’s usually less vulgar than its English relative, but not always:
Je m’en fous.
“I don’t care/I don’t give a damn.” Casual. Fine in most company. “En” replaces “de ça”, je me fous de ça.
Funnily enough, the very first sentence my wife ever learned in French was “je m’en fous, connasse” — courtesy of my very good friend Victoire, also a je-m’en-foutiste, when my future wife asked her what she should say to her future mother-in-law on their first meeting. Thankfully, she never actually used it. Maybe it’ll come in handy one day. In a different context, hopefully.
Now compare:
J’en ai rien à foutre.
That one’s crossed into F-word territory. Know the difference before you say either.
If you would rather skip foutre altogether, there is « Je m’en fiche ». It’s the same but softer. Say this one enough and you become a je-m’en-fichiste instead.
The polished versions
Not every situation requires “je m’en fous.” Sometimes you want to sound like you’ve thought about it and decided, calmly, that you don’t care.
Cela m’est égal — “It’s all the same to me.” The classic.
Peu m’importe — “It matters little to me.”
Cela n’a pas d’importance pour moi — self-explanatory, and about as warm as it sounds.
Qu’importe — two words, conversation over.
The everyday versions
For friends, for Tuesdays, for anything that doesn’t need the polish above:
Ça m’est complètement égal — the loud version of indifference. “Ça” is the casual version of “cela,” but it means exactly the same thing.
Je m’en moque — a bit more childish than the others, in a good way.
Je m’en tape — same meaning as je m’en fous, just as casual, arguably even more slangy. Popular with the younger crowd.
C’est le cadet de mes soucis — “that’s the least of my worries,” which is really just a fancier way of saying you’ve got other things going on. Et oui, le cadet is the second-born child — the one who gets less attention, less inheritance, and less of a title than the eldest (l’aîné), and less spoiling than the youngest (le benjamin). I’m a cadet myself. Coïncidence? Je ne crois pas !
That’s it. Pick whichever one fits you. Next time someone asks if you’re juilletiste, aoûtien, or aoûtienne, you’ll have something to say! Or, more accurately, a very elegant (ou pas) way of saying you don’t.
And to finish things off, a little Spoken French: a video from my master, my role model, the guru of je-m’en-foutisme himself:
Team juilletiste, team aoûtien, or team je-m’en-foutiste? Tell me in the comments. No pressure to care either way.
Qu’importe.
À vendredi pour un nouveau podcast !
Timo
Hey, I’m Timothée.
I write about the French language the way it’s actually lived: through cafés, music, awkward conversations, old expressions, cultural rituals, and all the small things textbooks usually forget.
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