Overheard on the radio yesterday — a woman speaking about a friend qui file pas ce soir.
That was her informal way of saying that he wasn’t feeling well.
Many sources affirm that this expression is a borrowing from the English verb “to feel.” In French, you might even see it spelled feel (je feel pas) in informal writing.
Je file pas. Je file pas bien.
= je me sens mal
Je file pas fort ce matin.
I don’t feel great this morning.
Just remember that this expression is informal. It would appear out of place in careful writing.
If you needed to avoid all informality, you could try je me sens mal or je ne me sens pas bien or ça ne va pas. These last two expressions can be made informal by dropping the ne (je me sens pas bien, ça va pas).
