Why do I need to know jusqu’ici tout va bien?

Because you might keep losing count of the necessary number of responses to the ça va ? question.

What does it mean?

Jusqu’ici tout va bien – roughly pronounced shooss-kee-see too va bee–en – translates as ‘up to now everything is going well’, which is something of a mouthful.

It’s more usually translated into English as ‘so far, so good’, which offers an upbeat take on things, but leaves the future open to possible problems.

‘There may be trouble ahead’ is always implied with the ‘so far, so good’ response.

It’s famously used in the opening scene from acclaimed 1995 French drama La Haine, which follows 24 hours in the lives of three young men in the French suburbs the day after a violent riot.

The full excerpt goes: C’est l’histoire d’un homme qui tombe d’un immeuble de 50 étages. Le mec, au fur et à mesure de sa chute, il se répète sans cesse pour se rassurer : ” Jusqu’ici tout va bien… Jusqu’ici tout va bien… Jusqu’ici tout va bien. ”

Mais l’important, c’est pas la chute. C’est l’atterrissage.

It roughly translates as “This is the story of a man falling from a 50-storey building. As he falls he reassures himself by saying ‘so far so good, so far so good’.

But the important thing is not the fall, it’s the landing.”

(And if you haven’t seen La Haine yet we really cannot recommend it highly enough. This autumn director Mathieu Kassovitz is reviving it as a stage show. The tagline for the new show is Jusqu’ici rien n’a changé – so far, nothing has changed).

Use it like this

C’est nouveau pour nous deux, mais jusqu’ici tout va bien – This is new for both of us, but so far, so good.

Comment se déroulent tes leçons de conduite ? Jusqu’ici tout va bien – How are your driving lessons going? So far, so good . . .