What does “ouais ouais, je vais le faire” mean in French?
Petites corvées à la maison et promesses
A2 French listening practice · French from France · Curated for beginners
French has a recognizable formula for reluctant agreement: “ouais ouais, je vais le faire” (“yeah yeah, I’ll do it”). The doubled ouais (the casual, slightly grumpy version of oui) plus the near-future aller + infinitive signals agreement that probably won’t happen soon. French partners, parents, and roommates hear this phrase across the country, and French sitcoms and TikTok skits play it for comedy. The pattern says yes without committing to a deadline; it’s the verbal version of nodding while changing nothing.
In this clip, a woman lists chores for her partner: clean the kitchen, change a lightbulb, put away clothes. He answers “Ouais ouais, je vais le faire” to each. By the end, she’s done everything herself.
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Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · Lexique 3.83 (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.
- ▸In French sitcoms about couples (Scènes de ménages, Fais pas ci, fais pas ça)
- ▸In French parent-and-teen TikTok skits about chores
- ▸In French stand-up about marriage (Florence Foresti, Gad Elmaleh)
- ▸In French YouTube content about French men and household tasks
- ▸In French podcast comedy and morning-radio sketches (France Inter, Europe 1)