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What does “fameux” mean in French?

Fameux is only half “famous.” Placed before the noun, les fameux lions means the ones everybody talks about, the ones you came to see — often admiring, and just as often faintly ironic, as in le fameux projet that never arrives. Placed after the noun it usually reads as straight praise — un vin fameux is an excellent wine — or, in a more formal register, as “renowned.”

The negative is where learners get caught. Pas fameux does not mean “not famous” — it means “not great,” a mild, polite way to say something disappointed you: le film n’était pas fameux. The same adjective can therefore hand out a compliment or a quiet verdict depending on where it stands and how it is said.