If you want to learn how to speak like the French, this is the perfect companion to language guides that teach formal French. This book is not a study of foul language. Its scope goes beyond what anglophones refer to as slang. It is a collection of colloquialisms and idioms that are used in the underworld and in informal speech. It also includes figures of speech that have been deemed to have a strong figurative or metaphorical value.

Each expression in this collection is classified by part of speech, or grammatical function, and by register. The expressions that are classified as familier should not be used in a situation that demands politeness, civility, courtesy or deference.