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On risque d’avoir du pas pire fun!
I really like the wording that Lisa LeBlanc used in her Facebook update:
On risque d’avoir du pas pire fun!
We just might have some not-bad fun!
If this sentence leaves you feeling a little WTF, don’t worry — we’re gonna pick it apart good.
Let’s start backwards from the end of this interesting sentence.
>>> avoir du fun
On risque d’avoir du pas pire fun!
The expression avoir du fun is “to have fun.”
Tu vas avoir du fun.
You’re going to have fun.
J’ai eu du fun.
I had fun.
>>> pas pire
On risque d’avoir du pas pire fun!
Pas pire is used in the same way as English’s “not bad” or like the other French expression pas mal.
– Comment ça va?
– Pas pire, pas pire!
– How’s it going?
– Not bad, not bad!
– Qu’est-ce t’en penses?
– C’est pas pire.
– What d’ya think?
– It’s not bad.
Inquiète-toi pas. C’est pas si pire que ça.
Don’t worry. It’s not that bad.
If something’s “not bad,” or pas pire, does that mean it’s good? Not necessarily. But if one thing’s for sure, it’s not full-on bad. Or, at least, that’s the case with the three examples above.
Lisa’s Facebook update is different though. We really can interpret her use of pas pire as meaning “good” (and not just good but very good indeed). Saying “not bad” here is a form of understatement meant to make you smile.
Even more interesting is that she uses the expression pas pire in an unusual way — like an adjective that describes the fun to be had:
du fun — du pas pire fun
some fun — some not-bad fun
>>> risquer
On risque d’avoir du pas pire fun!
Literally, risquer (de faire quelque chose) means “to risk (doing something),” but we can translate risquer better here as “might” or “just might.”
Tu risques d’avoir du fun!
You just might have fun!
Écoute ça, tu risques d’aimer.
Listen to this, you might like it.
This usage might surprise you (or “risks” surprising you?) because there’s no real risk involved in these examples; there isn’t the negative sense you might have expected.
In colloquial Québécois French, the verb risquer is often used like this, in the general sense of “might.” There doesn’t necessarily have to be the risk of a negative outcome for it to be used.
If you haven’t already, check out Lisa LeBlanc and her music.
Mais attention — tu risques d’aimer. :-D
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