sauvais

Sauvais is a French adjective that expresses a negative judgment about a quality, action, or situation. In standard usage, it conveys that something is bad, improper, harmful, or morally wrong. The term is closely related to the more common word mauvais, and in many contexts the two can be used interchangeably, though sau vais often carries a stronger emphasis on harm or fault and can have a more formal or literary tone.

In French, sau vais is typically used to describe people, behaviors, or outcomes that are judged harshly or as morally or practically problematic. It appears across a range of semantic fields, from everyday criticism of a decision or action to more severe condemnations of character. The nuance is similar to that of higher-intensity synonyms such as néfaste or malfaisant in some contexts, though sau vais remains a general-purpose everyday adjective in many registers.

Usage notes and related terms: sau vais is part of the same adjective family as mauvais and is often contrasted with it in discussions of nuance. While mauvais is the baseline word for bad quality or unfavourable circumstances, sau vais tends to imply stronger censure or potential harm. In fixed expressions, French also uses phrases like “à mauvais escient” to indicate misapplication, where the emphasis falls on misuse rather than on the object itself.

See also: bad, evil, harmful, negation, French grammar.