I heard someone say this on the radio recently:
On est en tabarnouche!
What does it mean?
The expression être en tabarnak is a vulgar expression meaning to be pissed off. Tabarnak is a swear word; to tone down the vulgarity of it, someone might say tabarnouche instead. The person who said the quote above didn’t want to swear on the radio, so she used tabarnouche instead:
On est en tabarnouche!
We’re peeved! (i.e., angry)
Of course, if you didn’t want to tone it down at all and wanted to swear, it would be:
On est en tabarnak!
We’re pissed off! (i.e., angry)
Check how you’re pronouncing on est en:
The liaison occurs twice in on est en, so in reality it sounds like on n’é t’en. Remember, with the liaison, it’s really the following word whose pronunciation is affected, not the first. In on est en, the pronunciation of on doesn’t change; it’s the pronunciation of est that changes — it’s pronounced né. Similarly, en is in fact pronounced t’en.
Put a pause where you see a slash below to make sure you’re saying it right:
on / n’é / t’en
