What does “se planter” mean in French?
Alexandre Mattiussi dit ce qui est in ou out
B1 French listening practice · French · Curated for intermediate learners
Se planter literally means “to plant oneself,” but in everyday French it means to get something wrong or to fail: je me suis planté à l’examen, “I messed up the exam.” Picture someone stuck in the ground after a bad fall. It can also mean a real crash, on a bike or in a car, and it’s casual but not rude.
Without the reflexive it changes again. Planter quelqu’un is to leave someone in the lurch or stand them up, and a computer that freezes plante: mon ordi a planté. The designer in this clip, reacting to a trend, says on est en train de se planter complètement avec ce truc, “we’re getting this completely wrong.” A gentler alternative is se tromper, “to be mistaken.”