French Word of the Day: Bref

Why do I need to know bref?

Because you might never learn this word in French class, but as soon as you get to France you’ll hear it everywhere you go.

What does it mean?

Bref - roughly pronounced brehf - is an adjective that officially translates as ‘brief’ or ‘short’. It comes from the word brièvement meaning ‘in a short space of time’.

In a sentence you might hear it used like Voici un bilan bref de notre reunion. (Here’s a short assessment of our meeting.)

In writing you might also see en bref (meaning ‘in summary’) used to introduce a concluding sentence or paragraph. 

But you’ll most commonly hear bref (or enfin bref or bon bref) used as a kind of filler word thrown in to keep conversations moving. 

When used in spoken French bref means something like ‘in a nutshell’, ‘basically’ or ‘anyway.’

For example, if the same points are being repeated over and over again in a discussion, bref could be used to summarise what’s been said and move the conversation on.

You'll also hear it when your friend realises the story they are telling has gone on for too long or people are already familiar with it. They might use bref to stop themselves rambling and summarise what they are saying - one might say bref, je n’avais pas trop de retard enfin (Anyway, I didn’t arrive too late in the end).

Use it like this

Enfin bref, le travail n’est pas encore terminé. Combien de temps nous faudra-t-il pour le terminer ? - So basically, the work isn’t done yet. How long will it take us to finish it?

Ça nous a fait deux mois d’organiser cette réunion. Enfin bref, je vais aller la voir la semaine prochaine. - It’s taken us two months to organise this meeting. Anyway, I’m going to see her next week.

Bref, tu me comprends. - Anyway, you understand.