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I have read the following sentence in the book Le Petit Nicolas:

Si ça ne te plaît pas, tu ne joues plus, c'est vrai ça, à la fin, tu nous embêtes.

Context: a group of children are playing Cowboys and Vikings. One of the kids suggests that the kid X will be an Indian which will try to kidnap someone and everyone will defeat him. The kid X which would be the Indian says that he does not like the idea and one of the kids answers the sentence above.

Does "c'est vrai ça" mean "à vrai dire" (= to tell the truth) or something else here? Does it refer to the first part of the sentence ("Si ça ne te plaît pas, tu ne joues pas") or the final one ("Tu nous embêtes") ?

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C'est vrai ça, à la fin emphasizes the fact that what has been just told is true, and also expresses annoyance.

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  • So you're saying that "c'est vrai ça" emphasizes the veracity of "Si ça ne te plaît pas, tu ne joues plus". It makes sense, but I guess the French sounded odd to me anyway because the English correspondent "that's true" is not used for emphasis at the end of a sentence like that. The (odd) English translation would be something like "If you don't like that, you aren't going to play anymore, that's true".
    – Alan Evangelista
    Commented Feb 11, 2020 at 5:01
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    I just modified my reply to make clear à la fin is part of the whole expression and express annoyance. I might translate the excerpt that way: If you don't like it, you quit. That's the rules, give us a break. You are a pain.
    – jlliagre
    Commented Feb 11, 2020 at 5:55
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    Maybe a loose translation of the sense imparted by this phrase could be "... I mean it."
    – TypeIA
    Commented Feb 15, 2020 at 13:01
  • @TypeIA Yes, that's the idea.
    – jlliagre
    Commented Feb 15, 2020 at 21:59

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