h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Slang/youth-speak, meaning: dirty, unbearable.

A variation on "Ça craint" (literal ungrammatical meaning, "this dreads")

Example:
- T'as vu son nouvel appart?
- Oui, le quartier est plutôt craignos, non?

"Have you been to her new flat?"
"Yes, the neighbourhood is a bit iffy, isn't it."

wonderful, Martine! I have to say I really enjoy your occasional series, and I think that in a year or so you ought to collect all the entries for possible publication. No, I mean it - they're that good.

dagesh xx

Ooh! This is a new one for me, and it sounds useful. Unless it is truly youthspeak and not used by the over-50s?

Could you give some guidance on pronunciation, please?
[krenyo] or [krenyos]
I've tried to import phonemic symbols on here, but it doesn't work!

Thanks dagesh you're too kind.

You yourself could have a potential best-seller in the Peter Mayle format: A year in Stellenbosch...

And do go and see the pastor. If anyone knows useful openings, it will be he.

Why not set up a blog?

It's the "gn" sound of campagne or mignon, no /i/.

I use it with the intimate circle, between inverted commas as it were, obviously not with my students as I have my poise and dignity to think of. So perfectly safe for fifty-somethings. But not with perfect strangers.

Thanks for that martine. But my question was really about the final sound - is the final 's' pronounced, or silent (as in 'dos')?

Sorry, it's pronounced, as in Calvados...