Du coup...

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog. Today, I'm going to talk to you about a very common but also very controversial French expression: "du coup". What is its origin, meaning and correct usage? That's what we're going to see together in this article.

The expression "du coup" comes from the Latin "de ictu", which means "from the impact" or "from the blow". It was first used literally to describe the consequence of a blow struck at someone or something. For example: "A fist hit him and he fell unconscious as a result."

Subsequently, the expression took on a figurative meaning to introduce the consequence of an event, often unexpected or sudden. For example: "A tire burst and as a result the car skidded." In this case, "du coup" expresses the idea of a cause acting suddenly and can be replaced by "immediately" or "on the spot".

But in recent years, the expression "du coup" has become a real language tic among some speakers, who use it wrongly and indiscriminately to replace words like "therefore", "as a result", "consequently" or even without any particular meaning. For example: "He failed the exam. As a result, he had to retake it the following year." Or: "We're not going out tonight. What are we doing instead?"

This abusive use of "du coup" is considered incorrect and criticized by purists of the French language, who see it as a loss of richness and precision in vocabulary. The French Academy recommends avoiding this adverbial phrase when it does not express the consequence of a cause acting suddenly.

So how can you avoid falling into the trap of "du coup"? Simply choose expressions that are more appropriate to the context and meaning you want to convey. For example, you can say: "He failed the exam. As a result, he had to retake it the following year." Or: "We're not going out tonight. What are we doing then?"

There you go! I hope this article helps you.

https://www.academia.edu/98931791/Bonnes_nouvelles_des_%C3%A9toiles_de_Jean_Pierre_Luminet_Vulgarisation_et_traduction_du_fran%C3%A7ais_vers_litalien.

 https://fr.scribd.com/document/638555920/grebeshkova-o-these-udl 

https://archive.org/download/contemporaryfren0000unse_l3h1/contemporaryfren0000unse_l3h1_djvu.txt