French Expressions With Mauvais

Idiomatic French Expressions

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Weeds. Harry Rose/Flickr/CC BY 2.0
By ThoughtCo Team
Updated on November 05, 2017

The French word mauvais literally means "bad" and is also used in many idiomatic expressions. Learn how to say mean trick, weed, ill repute, and more with this list of expressions with mauvais.

French Expressions Using Mauvais

avoir mauvaise mine to look unhealthy
La balle est mauvaise. (tennis) The ball is out.
faire un mauvais coup to play a mean trick (on someone)
se faire du mauvais sang to worry
en mauvais état in bad condition
un mauvais contact faulty connection
un mauvais coucheur awkward customer
une mauvaise excuse poor excuse
la mauvaise graine bad seed, bad lot
une mauvaise herbe weed
une mauvaise langue a gossip
un mauvais lieu place of ill repute
le mauvais œil evil eye
Les mauvais ouvriers ont toujours de mauvais outils. (proverb) A bad workman always blames his tools.
mauvais rapport qualité-prix poor value
le mauvais temps bad weather
regarder l'œil mauvais to look threatening, to fix someone with a threatening look
recevoir un mauvais coup to get a nasty blow
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Team, ThoughtCo. "French Expressions With Mauvais." ThoughtCo, Dec. 6, 2021, thoughtco.com/french-expressions-with-mauvais-1368688. Team, ThoughtCo. (2021, December 6). French Expressions With Mauvais. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/french-expressions-with-mauvais-1368688 Team, ThoughtCo. "French Expressions With Mauvais." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/french-expressions-with-mauvais-1368688 (accessed March 26, 2023).