On this page, we are going to teach you all the things you want to know about the funny French phrase "Je suis à la bourre". Including a full definition of what it is and how you can use it in a normal conversation with an audio example. And because we want to help you on your learning journey, we also added some useful informations like slow pronunciation audio, synonym, dialogue example and more!
Translation : I'm late
Register : Informal - Funny - Slang
Slow
Normal
IPA : / ʒə sɥiz‿ a la buʁ /
When French people are running late for something, you can hear them saying: "Je suis en retard" or "Je suis à la bourre" → both versions mean "I am late". The first one is common and has a neutral register while the second is much more informal.
But both are useful in daily life, unless you are always on time! Let's see some examples...
The examples below are valid in an informal context, for something more formal (ex: at work) I advise you to use "Je suis en retard instead".
Ex: You are running late for an appointment, and your sibling asks you for something. You can't do it right now, so you say: "Je suis à la bourre" (I'm late). This implies that you have an excuse for not helping him/her now.
For more complete sentences, you can say: "Je ne peux pas, je suis à la bourre" (I can't, I'm late) or "Plus tard, je suis à la bourre" (Later, I'm late) or even "Pas maintenant, je suis à la bourre" (Not now, I'm late).
Dialogue
Désolé, je suis à la bourre
Sorry, I'm late
It was about time!
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