What does “taf” mean in French slang?

Le taf is casual French for work — a job, or the graft a task demands. Il y a du taf means “there’s work to do,” the perfect line over a beat-up first car that needs fixing up. You will also hear mon taf for “my job,” un taf for “a job,” and the verb taffer, “to work / to graft.” It is the relaxed register friends and family actually use, far more common in speech than the textbook travail.

Despite sounding like backwards slang, taf is not verlan; it is most often explained as standing for travail à faire, “work to do.” It carries a slightly weary, roll-up-your-sleeves tone — fitting for a gift car handed over with the warning c’était le deal, “that was the deal”: you get the car, but you do the taf.