What does “kinébu” mean in Quebec French?
Découverte de Marienplatz à Munich pendant une escale
B1 French listening practice · Québec French · Picked for people who know some
Kinébu (also spelled kin'-bu, que-cebu) is a Québécois slang interjection close to I don’t even know or go figure. It often precedes a confession: “J’ai eu kinébu, c’est quoi le style” in this clip means “I had no idea what style it was.” It’s casual oral French, almost never written, and shows up in vlogs and stand-up rather than print.
In this clip, the Wandering French traveller emerges from the Munich S-Bahn at Marienplatz with two hours before her flight, gawks at the Neues Rathaus and the Glockenspiel, and admits she has kinébu what the architectural style is. The word does the work an entire English shrug-and-eyebrow combo would.
How common are the words?
How common are the words in this B1 French listening practice video?
How common in written French
How common in spoken French
Harder words in this video
These words are harder than B1. Here is what they mean.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · Lexique 3.83 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.
- ▸In Québécois stand-up at Just for Laughs / Juste pour Rire and on the ComédiHa! festival circuit
- ▸In oral-French reporting by Le Devoir, La Presse and Urbania on Quebec slang shifts
- ▸In the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) usage notes and the Banque de dépannage linguistique
- ▸In Quebec travel-vlogger comment sections on TVA Voyage and Évasion shows about Europe