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My French penpal has introduced this verb to me with some more “slang” contexts and I'm still trying to figure out good translations to English to better understand the use of it. I'd appreciate any explanations on general usage of this verb in these kind of contexts.

Here are some examples that I need help with:

J'espère qu'elle va pas me souler !

Arrête de me souler !

Putain tu me soules !

Je suis soulée.

Ça me soule.

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Bryan Denny
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    Right in http://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/souler A2b. – Evpok Jul 02 '12 at 16:24
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    Remarque (et ajout de mots-clés pour les recherches), on voit souvent ce verbe orthographié soûler ou saouler, la variante souler introduite par réforme de 1990 n'a pas vraiment pris. – Stéphane Gimenez Jul 02 '12 at 19:22

2 Answers2

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Evpok has it right with his comment: all is well explained in the article if you want the French definition of the term. To clear up things, we can try some possible translations (I tried to vary on purpose but it's quite arbitrary. Just giving an idea):

  • J'espère qu'elle va pas me souler.

    I hope she won't get on my nerves.

  • Arrête de me souler !

    Stop pissing me off!

  • Putain tu me soules…

    Damn, you're boring me to death…

  • Je suis soulée.

    I'm cheesed off with it. / I'm fed up with it. (pick your prefered version)

  • Ça me soule.

    This really sucks.

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Romain Valeri
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  • I'm American, I've never heard of "I'm cheesed off with it." Is that British for something like I'm annoyed? Otherwise, thank you! This has really helped me. – Bryan Denny Jul 02 '12 at 18:07
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    @BryanDenny: EL&U is the place to ask about English usage. – None Jul 03 '12 at 07:19
  • @BryanDenny Laure is right... but I guess a web search should clear up things rather well, there are some informative results. – Romain Valeri Jul 03 '12 at 09:24
  • fed up is probably more common. – Stéphane Gimenez Jul 05 '12 at 11:08
  • I don't think "boring me to death" corresponds to "tu me soules". What you said before was correct, "you're pissing me off" or "you're getting me upset/on my nerves" fits better. – FrenchKheldar Nov 04 '12 at 16:59
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    @FrenchKheldar It depends mainly on the context, and these are just arbitrary examples, precisely to show the different possible meanings of saouler. And boring someone to death certainly IS an existing meaning of saouler quelqu'un. – Romain Valeri Nov 04 '12 at 20:03
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    We'll respectfully disagree then. If I want to say someone is boring, I would use some other slang, like tu es chiant (although not exactly a good fit as too close to souler in that case) or expressions involving rasoir or mortel (like ennui mortel). One concept behind souler is the overdose of activity/chatter, which seems counter to the idea of boredom. The other concept as shown in the latter example is the one of ennui, but, to me at least, not in the sense of boredom, but in the sense of fatigue/obstacle/hazard. – FrenchKheldar Nov 04 '12 at 20:23
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souler quelqu'un means "to get someone drunk". Se souler means "to get drunk". The other meaning which is much more frequent is "to piss someone off".

Yves
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