# Sécher les cours



## Ploupinet

Hi everybody!
How do you say "sécher les cours", which is a familiar expression to say you don't go to class (because you don't want... ) in English please?

*Moderator note: *multiple threads merged to create this one


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## KaRiNe_Fr

Salut Ploupinet,
Il y a déjà ce fil qui peut te donner des idées, non ?  Et dans un autre fil on disait pour "faire l'école buissonnière" : "to play truant from school"...
(mais il faut savoir sécher -truander ? - avec modération, bien sûr...)


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## Jazbina

slang could be "playing hooky"


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## Ploupinet

Ok thank you very much! (I will test it with my english teacher tomorrow )


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## wildan1

_cut class -_ for university students

_play hookey_ - traditional old expression for school children who secretly miss school


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## austin1014

Salut Ploupinet,

I would say "ditch class."


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## paulochine

yes,"dicth class",I will put the money on it.have you watched <Ferris Bueller's Day Off> ?the guy always dicthing but never get caught.


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## vegangirl

J'ai traduit cette phrase en anglais. Vous pouvez corriger les fautes s'il vous plaît ?

phrase : Doug a séché les cours.
traduction : Doug skipped the classes.


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## cropje_jnr

Doug skipped *class* (ou encore *school*).

Il y aussi _wagged, truented _(en anglais australien, du moins).

[...]


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## vegangirl

C'est "hookey" ou "hooky" ?


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## cropje_jnr

Chez moi (Australie) on dit _to wag school/class _(familier) ou _to truent._

Vanagrel a également proposé ailleurs _to skip class_, ce qui me semble approprié aussi.


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## david314

vegangirl said:


> C'est "*hookey*" ou "*hooky*" ?


  Both are correct according to Merriam-Webster.


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## vegangirl

Merci de m'avoir aidée. C'est "Doug truented" ou " Doug truented classes" ?


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## david314

vegangirl said:


> Merci de m'avoir aidée. C'est "Doug truented" ou " Doug truented classes" ?


  We don't really use the _intransitive verb_, *to truant*, in America.  *To skip/cut class *is just fine.


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## Hese

Hello everybody,

I am desperately trying to translate "sécher les cours" into English. My dictionary suggests "to play truant" but I think that corresponds more to "faire l'école buissonnière".

Then I found another translation "to skip class". However, I found the same expression "to skip a class" meaning you don't need to do an entire school year because of your good marks!

Could you please confirm my suspicious that to skip class is sécher les cours and to skip a class means sauter une classe.

Thank you very much in advance


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## Stéphane89

I'd say: *To skip lessons.*

But I don't see any difference between "faire l'école buissonnièr" and "sécher les cours", so I think you could as well use: *To play truant*...


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## Pipsy

In England they say _to bunk off lessons_
edit: in French we say _rater les cours_ when we miss a lesson.


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## gogoneddus

We always used to say in my area of south Wales "to bunk". So if someone wanted to know whether or not you were going to history, for example, they would ask "Are you bunking History?"

Obviously you'd never write that down, it's so informal- unless of course you were writing a script !


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## Mathieu12345

does "*bunk*" work in AE? When I was there my friends used to say "*skip *x class"


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## gogoneddus

Mathieu12345 said:


> does "*bunk*" work in AE? When I was there my friends used to say "*skip *x class"


 
What does AE mean ?! I'm not sure how to answer... but to clarify if you want to know if it works in the way you described 'skip', you would more likely say 'bunk off + subject/class', but just 'bunk + class' works too !


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## david314

gogoneddus said:


> What does AE mean ? ...


 _A.E. /American English, B.E. / British English._

*A.E: *to skip class *

In my day, we also said: _to blow off class _


*I have never heard 'bunk' used like this, but my age must be considered.


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## je-ne-regrette-rien

In Northern Ireland, we say 'to skive' 
e.g. _'Are you skiving History?'_ 
quelqu'un qui sèche les cours s'appelle *'a skiver'*.  
That's quite colloquial though! 

I've heard 'bunk'; it's the same as 'to skive'. 'Blow off classes' - I've never heard that; I'm at school now - so maybe it is a little old, david314! 

'Skipping' needs an object (e.g. to skip History - you wouldn't just say 'I'm skipping') 
'Bunking' doesn't. 
'Skiving' doesn't.


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## gogoneddus

je-ne-regrette-rien said:


> In Northern Ireland, we say 'to skive'
> 
> e.g. 'Are you skiving History?'


 
Yes, I've come across this too...Although, _slowly_ it's becoming a bit old-fashioned (so 90s !!)


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## david314

je-ne-regrette-rien said:


> I've heard 'bunk'; it's the same as 'to skive'. 'Blow off classes' - I've never heard that; I'm at school now - so maybe it is a little old, david314


  I imagine that there exists an _A.E./B.E. discrepancy_, as I am not at all familiar with your terms either.  I cannot attest to the slang of today's youth, but I'm certain that they would, nonetheless, understand _to blow off_.


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## non rien!

Blow off just doesn' sound right-

skipping class
skiving or skiving off
bunking bunk off


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## francophiletoujours

"Sécher les cours" is the usual phrase used for playing truant in (French) Canada. In English, one says "skipping school" or "skipping out" for unauthorized absences. Truant and truancy are very formal terms probably used only by school officials and in letters to parents. Another old-fashioned, casual term is "playing hooky." I have never head of some of those UK terms. To skip class or skip a class generally means to have an unauthorized absence. If you were to advance a level, you would skip a course or be accelerated. i.e. skip grade 6. Hope that helps.


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## doinel

Brian Moore:
_Mitch away_ long school afternoons.
J'avais déjà lu _mitch_ chez O' Flaherty.


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## je-ne-regrette-rien

gogoneddus said:


> Yes, I've come across this too...Although, _slowly_ it's becoming a bit old-fashioned (so 90s !!)


 
No, I don't think so...we still say it in school! We'd sooner say 'skive' that anything else, in Northern Ireland. I'm pretty sure it's the same in the rest of Britain (I don't speak a strange dialect, or anything. It's mostly plain British English with a few colloquialisms!). 

'Mitch away' is quite old-fashioned and poetic...I definitely wouldn't use it. 

david314, I don't think I'd understand 'to blow off' if I heard it. Did they use it widely when you were at school? There's maybe an A.E./B.E. discrepancy, though, as you said - perhaps an American teenager could confirm this for us?

Hese - for 'sauter une classe', I'd say 'to skip a year', not to 'skip a class'; the latter is practically the same as 'to skip class'.


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## ce que est est

American slightly older than teenager to the rescue:  to blow off a class is kind of forceful.  Plus, you can blow off anything, homework, parents, soccer practice, a penis even if we're going to be frank.

In America 2008 one *cuts *class/school.


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## je-ne-regrette-rien

Yes, cutting class works well. We don't say it in Britain, but I'd definitely recognise it, and I've heard it in Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty


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## Angle O'Phial

> In America 2008 one *cuts *class/school.


 and one skips school. That's been the preferred term in my neck of the woods for at least 25 years (yikes).


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## captain78

US : "to play hookey"


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## Angle O'Phial

_playing hookey_ is a bit outdated. The OED has quotations up to the mid-60s and that's about right.


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## JimboFr

To bunk off, to skive (UK only), to skip lessons, to miss lessons, to jump school...


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## Wopsy

In Ireland, the most commonly-heard would be 'to mitch', 'to skive off', 'to bunk off'.


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## Pedro y La Torre

To mitch (off) is by far the most common in Ireland. To skive off is said but rare while bunk off would almost never be said, it's too "English".


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## C'est claire

Recent American college graduate here.

The following are terms I know are still used commonly in the Southeast US:
(From most used to least used)
Skipping class
Cutting class
Blowing off class/lecture

Older terms that noone really uses but are understood:
Playing hooky (think "Saved by the Bell" years)

All other terms would not be understood in AE in this context. Especially 'bunking', which to me indicates sleeping in the same bed/sleeping bag/etc with someone else (ie - I'm bunking with Jeff tonight because my room is infested with termites). I consider this use of bunking to be a little old fashioned and/or of military origins.


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## Jocaste

To mitch off is what I always heard used in Dublin.


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## Gramsci

Hello - In Canada, where I went to school in the 70s and 80s, we would say "to skip off" in general, or to skip class.  We might say: "Let's skip off tomorrow".

Truancy is very technical and would never be used by young people in any context.  Play truant just sounds bizarre.

I know some people just used "skip" and it was understood.

For skip an entire year, we would say: "He skipped a grade".


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## swilliamf

I am in school right now we always and only say SKIP. Although the others would probably be understood. Especially SKIVE because of the popularity of the Harry Potter books.


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## DaveTraveler

Angle O'Phial said:


> and one skips school. That's been the preferred term in my neck of the woods for at least 25 years (yikes).


 
-cut classes or skip class/ a class/school in American English.

Tons of example of "cut classes", no need to scrap it for "school".


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## melb francophile

In Australia we use the following terms: 
wag school or class
bludge a class
skip class


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## sound shift

Round here, we say "skive off". Whether this means the whole school day or just one class will be clear from the context.


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## roi2verlan

wildan1 said:


> _cut class -_ for university students



Was this once the case? Today, university students are not the only ones who use this expression. I know children middle school age (12 - 13 yrs. old) who talk about "cutting" (albeit never with the word "class").


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## nastynass

So, if I say: "I cut yesterday" even without mentionning class or school people will understand that I'm talking about skipping class ?


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## melb francophile

Nastynass,
"I cut yesterday" doesn't really sound right. You would have to say:
I cut class yesterday. It's quite an american expression.


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## Aistriúchán

_*ditch/skip class* _

_play truant_ (faire l'école buissonière)

In Ireland if you stay away from school without permission, that's also called the slang word "_*a miching*_".
"A day's miching" = Une journée d'école buissonière (used by James Joyce too) 
So that means you skive off (bunk off school = sécher l'école) and you are happy doing it


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## Pedro y La Torre

Isn't it spelled mitching?

Anyway when I used to ditch class, I always called it "mitching off".


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## Aistriúchán

Yes it's miching according to the book "Dubliners" by James Joyce: "....we planned and carried out *a day's miching* together.."


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