Essential French phrases

Literally 'one says what?', actually 'what's up?'. The default street greeting between people who know each other, used all day. Yodé et Siro even made a song of it.

In Ivorian French this means PLEASE, not sorry. 'Donne-moi un peu d'eau à boire pardon.' Parisians hear an apology; Ivorians are saying s'il vous plaît. The fastest way to stop sounding foreign.

Welcome. An Akan word shared by Ghanaian Twi and Ivorian Baoulé — common heritage, not a Ghanaian import. It's on the airport wall and on the giant Akwaba statue by the airport road.

All-purpose hello and thank you in Dioula, the trade language — the word Jula literally comes from the word for trader. Use it in markets; the reply particle by gender is what marks you as someone who's actually been here.

Commiseration — 'oh no, sorry that happened'. Someone drops their shopping, misses the gbaka, gets bad news: you say yako. After 'pardon', the most useful social word here.

To have a great time, to party. Nouchi that made it into Le Petit Larousse in 2020. The etymology is disputed — English 'enjoy' is the popular story, but a western-French dialect phrase is the other candidate.

A naive person who doesn't know the codes and gets charged triple. Magic System's 'Premier Gaou' made it global. The proverb everyone quotes: 'premier gaou n'est pas gaou' — it's the second time that makes you a fool.

'There's a problem' and 'no problem'. Literally 'there is a sheet'. Prendre drap is to land yourself in trouble — you will hear both halves of this pair constantly.

An open-air neighbourhood grill-restaurant. The name is literal history: in the 1950s these places operated illegally, unsigned and hidden in compounds to dodge inspectors. An unmarked maquis with a handwritten menu is still a good sign.

Steamed fermented cassava semolina, the national staple, originally from the lagoon peoples — Ebrié, Adioukrou, Avikam. UNESCO added the know-how of making it to its intangible heritage list in December 2024, and Ivorians are pointed about the fact.

Coarse attiéké with chunks of fried tuna, chilli and onion, from a street kiosk. The cheapest proper meal in the city and a genuine institution — you eat it fast, standing.

Fried sweet plantain with chilli and onion, sold on every corner. A snack, a side, or dinner. An allocodrome is a place that exists to serve it.

A shared taxi licensed to work one commune, so the paint tells you where it may go — yellow in Cocody, blue in Yopougon, green in Adjamé. Fixed low fare per seat, often still negotiable.

The battered minibus running fixed routes between communes, with an apprenti hanging off the step shouting destinations. About 8,000 of them work the city.

Someone who reads only the front-page headlines at a newspaper kiosk, free, then argues about them. La titrologie is real enough to have academic studies and a 2021 book written about it, and Ivorian news sites run a daily section under the name.