Literally, the French adjective écoeurant means “disgusting.” Informally, it can take on quite the opposite meaning, though!
In a scene from the series La Galère, a teenaged boy called Hugo says that he’s going to get une job écoeurante. He’s not going to get a disgusting job — he’s going to get an amazing one!
Maybe you think écoeurant looks a little scary to pronounce… Fear not! Break it down:
é — keur — an
Or the feminine form écoeurante:
é — keur — antt
Job is very often feminine in spoken, informal French (une job), but you’ll come across the masculine form too (un job), more so in writing. Either way, both une job and un job are informal uses. To avoid informality, you can say un emploi.
[This entry was inspired by the character Hugo in La Galère, season 3, episode 10, Radio-Canada, Montreal, 22 November 2010.]
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