Formidable by Stromae: Meaning, Lyrics & the Imparfait

Is formidable a compliment or a warning? If you've ever heard a French friend call a dinner formidable and wondered whether to be flattered, you've met one of the most interesting false friends in the language. Stromae's song Formidable turns that very word into a joke, a sob and a hit single all at once.

French learners usually meet formidable in a textbook as "great" or "wonderful," then hear it in Stromae's song about a heartbroken man in the street and feel confused. The mood is bleak, yet the word sounds cheerful. Understanding why unlocks a useful vocabulary lesson, plus a clean example of the imparfait, the French past tense for states and habits.

Why Formidable Is Not "Formidable"

English formidable means intimidating, as in "a formidable opponent." That was the original French meaning too, from the Latin formidabilis (fearsome). Over time French softened it into a strong compliment. Today formidable means great, fantastic, terrific, and it is common in everyday speech.

• C'est formidable ! (seh for-mee-dah-bluh) — That's fantastic!
• Un type formidable (uhn teep for-mee-dah-bluh) — a great guy
• Une idée formidable (ewn ee-day for-mee-dah-bluh) — a brilliant idea

Key Phrases

• formidable (for-mee-dah-bluh) — great, wonderful (today); fearsome (older sense)
• minable (mee-nah-bluh) — pathetic, hopeless
• fort (for) — strong; also "very" in a literary register
• quitter (kee-tay) — to leave someone
• Ça va ? (sah vah) — How's it going?

[AUDIO: formidable, minable]

Stromae plays with exactly this tension. The word praises the woman who left, but it is sung by a man who feels like the opposite of formidable. The title is an affectionate compliment and a bitter joke at once.

The Story Behind the Song

Formidable appeared in 2013 on Stromae's album Racine carrée (Square Root), the same record that gave the world Papaoutai. Stromae, the stage name of Belgian artist Paul Van Haver, wrote it as a kind of tragicomic monologue: a man, just abandoned, wanders around drunk, addressing the woman who left him, and sometimes the passers-by who stare.

The music video became famous almost as quickly as the song. It was filmed with hidden cameras in a real Brussels street, where Stromae staggered about as if truly drunk while ordinary people reacted, ignored him, or tried to help. Its power comes from that blur between performance and reality.

The song is funny and painful in the same breath. The man keeps calling his ex formidable, but the word comes out wounded, which is why the title works as a lesson in tone: the same French word can sound generous or bitter depending on how it is delivered.

For learners, this is a reminder that French meaning lives in context. A dictionary gives you "great," but only the situation tells you whether it is warm, ironic, or heartbroken.

The Imparfait in Action

The chorus looks back on the relationship with tu étais formidable (you were wonderful), using the imparfait. This tense describes what things used to be like, with no clear beginning or end: states, feelings, descriptions, and repeated habits.

Grammar Note

To form the imparfait, take the nous form of the present tense, drop -ons, and add these endings: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient. The one irregular stem is être, which becomes ét-.

• j'étais (zhay-teh) — I was
• tu étais (tew ay-teh) — you were
• il / elle était (eel ay-teh) — he / she was
• nous étions (noo zay-tyon) — we were
• vous étiez (voo zay-tyay) — you were (formal or plural)
• ils / elles étaient (eel zay-teh) — they were

Compare the two tenses side by side:

• Tu es formidable. — You are wonderful. (right now)
• Tu étais formidable. — You were wonderful. (and the feeling is over)
• Common mistake: using the passé composé (tu as été formidable) for an ongoing quality. It sounds like a single, completed event, not a state you lived in.
• Common mistake: forgetting that the endings -ais, -ait and -aient all sound the same when spoken, so only the written form shows the subject.

Notice also that formidable is an adjective that agrees with its noun. It is the same for masculine and feminine (un homme formidable, une femme formidable), and adds an -s in the plural: des vacances formidables.

Using Formidable Yourself

Try these everyday sentences. They show that formidable is warm and common, not literary:

• Le concert était formidable. — The concert was fantastic.
• Vous êtes formidables ! — You guys are amazing!
• Quelle équipe formidable ! — What a great team!
• Merci, c'est formidable. — Thank you, that's wonderful.

Be aware of one cultural nuance. In casual conversation, younger speakers often prefer génial (great), super, or top. Formidable sounds slightly more polished, and used with the wrong tone it can sound ironic. That ambiguity is exactly what Stromae exploits.

To get more from the song itself, listen three times: once for the beat, once reading the French lyrics alongside an English translation, and once listening only for each imparfait verb. You will notice how often the narrator slips into the past, as people do when something has just ended.

Practice Exercises

• Fill in the blank: In today's French, formidable means ___.
• Put into the imparfait: "Nous (être) heureux."
• Translate into French: "She was wonderful."
• Multiple choice: Which tense does the chorus use for "you were wonderful"? (a) passé composé (b) imparfait (c) futur simple
• True or false: formidable has a different form for masculine and feminine.
• Translate into French: "What a great idea!"

Answer Key

• Great / wonderful — the older sense of "fearsome" has almost disappeared.
• Nous étions heureux.
• Elle était formidable.
• (b) imparfait — tu étais formidable.
• False — formidable stays the same in both genders; only the plural takes an -s.
• Quelle idée formidable !

What to Take Away

• Formidable means "great" in modern French, even though the English cousin means "intimidating."
• Stromae's song uses it with irony, showing how tone changes meaning.
• The imparfait (j'étais, tu étais, il était...) describes states and feelings in the past, and être uses the stem ét-.

Ready to practice more? Head to Passage's Grammar section for a full lesson on the imparfait, then try using formidable in a message to a French-speaking friend. They will probably find it, well, formidable.