Yo in English means hey. “Yo, where are you going?” Somebody told me that the word is offensive because yo in French means bitch. I am doubtful.
Is this true?
I realize this isn’t a terribly useful post, as I’m not a native French speaker, but when I was a senior in high school my Level 5 French teacher spent the day after our final oral exams teaching us “useful phrases” - including pick-up lines and swear words - and “yo” was not among the terms he included.
In Quebec at least, “Yo” does not mean “bitch”, or anything offensive at all. I’ve only heard, and used, “yo” in the English way. Sort of a substitute for “hey”.
Maybe in France it’s been adopted as a nasty word, but I haven’t heard about it yet.
No. “Yo” isn’t, or wasn’t, a French word. It was adopted, however, by rap artists and is now part of the urban lexicon. It means exactly the same thing as in English.
For a while in Quebec, “yo” was also used as a noun to refer to hip-hoppers, i.e.people who say “yo”.
Ha. I knew it.
Merci!