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My French penpal has introduced this verb to me with some more “slang” contexts and I'm still trying to figure out good translations to English to better understand the use of it. I'd appreciate any explanations on general usage of this verb in these kind of contexts.

Here are some examples that I need help with:

J'espère qu'elle va pas me souler !

Arrête de me souler !

Putain tu me soules !

Je suis soulée.

Ça me soule.

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    Right in cnrtl.fr/definition/souler A2b.
    – Evpok
    Jul 2, 2012 at 16:24
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    Remarque (et ajout de mots-clés pour les recherches), on voit souvent ce verbe orthographié soûler ou saouler, la variante souler introduite par réforme de 1990 n'a pas vraiment pris.
    – Stéphane Gimenez
    Jul 2, 2012 at 19:22

2 Answers 2

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Evpok has it right with his comment: all is well explained in the article if you want the French definition of the term. To clear up things, we can try some possible translations (I tried to vary on purpose but it's quite arbitrary. Just giving an idea):

  • J'espère qu'elle va pas me souler.

    I hope she won't get on my nerves.

  • Arrête de me souler !

    Stop pissing me off!

  • Putain tu me soules…

    Damn, you're boring me to death…

  • Je suis soulée.

    I'm cheesed off with it. / I'm fed up with it. (pick your prefered version)

  • Ça me soule.

    This really sucks.

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  • I'm American, I've never heard of "I'm cheesed off with it." Is that British for something like I'm annoyed? Otherwise, thank you! This has really helped me.
    – Bryan Denny
    Jul 2, 2012 at 18:07
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    @BryanDenny: EL&U is the place to ask about English usage.
    – None
    Jul 3, 2012 at 7:19
  • @BryanDenny Laure is right... but I guess a web search should clear up things rather well, there are some informative results.
    – Romain Valeri
    Jul 3, 2012 at 9:24
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    @FrenchKheldar It depends mainly on the context, and these are just arbitrary examples, precisely to show the different possible meanings of saouler. And boring someone to death certainly IS an existing meaning of saouler quelqu'un.
    – Romain Valeri
    Nov 4, 2012 at 20:03
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    We'll respectfully disagree then. If I want to say someone is boring, I would use some other slang, like tu es chiant (although not exactly a good fit as too close to souler in that case) or expressions involving rasoir or mortel (like ennui mortel). One concept behind souler is the overdose of activity/chatter, which seems counter to the idea of boredom. The other concept as shown in the latter example is the one of ennui, but, to me at least, not in the sense of boredom, but in the sense of fatigue/obstacle/hazard.
    – FrenchKheldar
    Nov 4, 2012 at 20:23
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souler quelqu'un means "to get someone drunk". Se souler means "to get drunk". The other meaning which is much more frequent is "to piss someone off".

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