Overheard on the radio yesterday — a woman speaking about a friend qui file pas ce soir.
That was her informal way of saying that he wasn’t feeling well. Y file pas.
Many sources affirm that this expression is a borrowing from the English verb “to feel.” In French, you might even see it spelled feel (je feel pas) in informal writing.
Je file pas. Je file pas ben.
= je me sens mal
Je file pas fort ce matin.
I don’t feel great this morning.
Just remember that this expression is informal. It would appear out of place in careful writing.
If you needed to avoid all informality, you could try je me sens mal or je ne me sens pas bien or ça ne va pas. These last two expressions can be made informal by dropping the ne (je me sens pas bien, ça va pas).
Bonjour, ma femme est québécoise et je suis américain, et j’ai passé du temps au Québec. J’ai fait mes études universitaires en français. Je peux vous dire avec certitude qu’il est vrai que cet usage du mot ‘filer’ est emprunté à l’anglais ‘to feel’.
I totally agree with Kevin and do not think that the verb “filer” is related to this expression. The only link I can see from an anglophone point of view is that it might be more pronounced that way though! 😉
Have a good day!