French Word of the Day: T’inquiète

Why do I need to know t’inquiète?

Because you might be wondering why people keep telling you to worry all the time.

What does it mean?

T’inquiète – usually pronounced tan-kee-ett – literally means ‘you worry’ but in actuality it means ‘don’t worry.’

It's a good example of the difference between spoken and written French.

It is the ‘tu’ conjugation of the verb ‘S’inquieter’ which means to worry.

The command “don’t worry,” which is reflexive in French, should actually be written as “ne t’inquiète pas” (do not worry yourself).

But in colloquial speech this is often shortened it to t’inquiète pas or simply t’inquiète.

It's one of many examples where the ne of the ne . . pas negative form disappears in spoken French. 

This is in the ‘tu’ form, meaning it is informal, it's not rude but you might not want to tell your boss to t’inquiete.

Use it like this

Vous vous en sortirez bien à l'examen de langue, votre français est excellent. T'inquiète. – You will do fine on the language exam, your French is great. Don't worry.

Non, non, t'inquiète ! Tout le monde a adoré ton idée. – No, no don’t worry! Everyone loved your idea.

Alternatives

If you want the more formal version of telling someone not to worry it's Ne vous inquiétez pas

If you want a 'no problem/don't worry about it' type response, especially if someone has apologised for something, you could say Ce n'est pas grave (it's not serious)

While you can also use Pas de soucis to say 'no worries', although that is slightly controversial and more often used by younger people.