If you haven’t done so already, take a quick look at the lessons on gender in French grammar and gendered French pronouns.
Most pronouns are gendered to match the nouns they accompany or replace. There are a few, however, that remain the same for nouns of either gender (hooray!), and change only in plural form.
Your
Our
Their
Your (formal [...]
More »“Avec ceux-ci?” [a-v?k' sø-si’]
“With these?”
This is a favorite phrase uttered by pâtisserie [pastry shop] employees all over France. Even if you order just one croissant, the pâtissier [pastry maker] will undoubtedly ask you, “With these?” rather than, “With this?”
So what’s the big idea? The French, you see, are a proud people, and [...]
“Une chambre, deux lits”
“One room, two beds”
When my boyfriend and his brother were traveling by bike through the south of France, this was the phrase they lived by. It was simple, to the point, and got them what they needed as far as accommodation was concerned.
At the end of a long [...]
“Faire la bise”[fer la biz]
“To kiss on the cheek”
To faire la bise is to greet someone in the traditional French fashion: with a kiss on each cheek.
In some regions of France (and in other Francophone countries), three or more kisses is on par, but generally speaking, two is the [...]
“Ça va?” [sa va]
“How’s it going?”
Ça va is easily the most commonly uttered phrase in the French language; and just what is its secret appeal? Why, it’s both a question and its reciprocal answer.
If you want to know how someone’s doing: Ça va?
If you want to tell them right back [...]
The train is one of the easiest ways to get around France if you are planning a multi-destination journey through the country. Paris is usually the least expensive city to fly into, but there is so much more of the country to see outside of the capital!
The rail network–SNCF (Société Nationale de Chemins de [...]
Food is a huge part of the tourist industry in France, and critics come from around the world to put chefs to the test and write reviews for high-end magazine. You don’t have to be a foodie, however, to enjoy well-made French food, and you don’t have to be wildly adventurous to sample some [...]
More »Films are an integral art of French culture. France is famous for festivals, most notably the one at Cannes, and for producing edgy movies that are subtitled or dubbed to be replayed around the world.
If you happen to be in the right place at the right time to check out a film festival in [...]
In the States, May Day means classrooms full of elementary school students simultaneously weaving paper baskets, constructing tissue-paper flowers to put inside, and (after school) placing the baskets on a doorstep, ringing the doorbell, and running away while leaving behind the home-made surprise.
This tradition of flower-giving began in France as a way of marking the [...]
I know, I know, April Fools‘ Day was last week, but the French version is just too funny not to mention.
In France, April Fools’ Day is known as poisson d’avril, or the fish of April.
Where we’re more apt to employ whoopi cushions and plastic spiders, French youth have a different tradition: schoolchildren will stick a [...]
Anne has studied and spoken French for over a decade and has lived in both France and Francophone Cameroon. She strives to write lessons that reflect her real experiences and represent the way people really speak.
