Have you heard of the French paradox? The phrase was coined in the 80s by French scientists who noted a low incidence of heart disease in France despite a diet high in fat. Whether this French paradox still endures or whether it’s a myth is open for debate. One thing is certain, though: some foods are best avoided, and some dietary habits are not healthy. Let’s discuss how the French diet has changed over the years. Do the French avoid junk food, or do they secretly lap it up? Is there a word for "fast food" and "junk food"? Let’s find out and explore some new vocabulary.
The official term for “fast food” is la restauration rapide, but most people call it le fast-food. French businessman Jacques Borel adopted the concept and opened the first Wimpy hamburger restaurant in 1961, and later on McDonald’s first opened its doors in France in 1972. According to Wikipedia:
Le premier McDonald’s a été ouvert en 1972 près de Paris à Créteil.
The first McDonald’s opened in 1972 in Créteil, near Paris.
Fast-food chains in France, even places like McDonald’s, tend to have a little French flair to them, as it is necessary to accommodate the French palate. In some cases, fast food takes on a definite French flavor. For example, in Nice, people come at all hours of the day for a quick meal of la socca, a type of pizza, which is so popular that it has become the locals’ idea of fast food:
Ils ont créé une sorte de fast-food niçois
They created a kind of Nice fast food
Caption 78, Le saviez-vous? La socca, spécialité niçoise
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Another popular trend is les livraisons de repas à domicile (meal delivery services), which have gained momentum since the COVID pandemic. Meal delivery services like Uber Eats have flourished especially in major cities like Paris:
Il y a eu une prolifération de services de livraisons à domicile depuis le Covid en France.
There has been a proliferation of home delivery services since COVID in France.
French people also enjoy the convenience of prepared food and produits industriels (processed foods), which, like fast food, tend to be loaded with du sucre (sugar) and des graisses saturées (saturated fats), not to mention additives and other chemicals:
Comme on trouve du sucre dans énormément de produits industriels...
As sugar is found in a huge number of processed foods...
Caption 64, Le Figaro Elle a banni le sucre pendant un an - Part 1
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Les graisses saturées sont les mauvaises graisses.
Saturated fats are bad fats.
Like le sucre and les graisses saturées, les additifs are also hard to avoid in les produits industriels. The lack of additifs becomes a major selling point for this purveyor of natural foods:
C'est un bonbon à base de miel et d'essence de plantes avec aucun additif dedans
It's a sweet made from honey and plant extracts with no additives inside
Captions 84-85, Victoria dirigeante de Millymenthe
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What else is found in produits industriels? Preservatives (des conservateurs). Don’t be fooled by this false cognate!
"The preservative"... c'est un... un conservateur en français... et un préservatif c'est ce qu'on met pour se protéger des rapports sexuels.
The preservative... is a... un conservateur in French... and un préservatif [a condom] is what you put on to protect yourself from sexual intercourse.
Captions 71-72, 75 Français avec Nelly Les faux amis - Part 2
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Although French people are aware of the unhealthy aspects of processed and fast foods, they enjoy their convenience and affordability. In other words, people enjoy junk food. Interestingly, French does not have a specific term for this. The word la malbouffe (literally, "eating badly") is a close equivalent to “junk food,” referring both to unhealthy foods and poor dietary habits.
According to this article, young people are especially drawn to la malbouffe because it makes them feel a certain kind of independence from their parents:
Les jeunes aiment la malbouffe car c’est une façon de se différencier de leur parents.
Young people enjoy junk food because it’s a way to set themselves apart from their parents.
People also use the term manger n’importe quoi (literally, "to eat whatever," or indiscriminately) when referring to eating junk:
Il faut pas trop que je picole ni que je mange n'importe quoi...
I shouldn't have too much booze or eat junk...
Caption 65, Le Jour où tout a basculé Espion dans l'immeuble - Part 4
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In conclusion, although more and more French people are consuming les produits industriels and ordering la livraison à domicile, they still care very much about what they eat. France still has plenty of gastronomic delights to offer, as our numerous food-related videos will attest. In any case, don’t let la malbouffe ruin your appetite!
We've discussed the differences in meaning between the two ways of saying “day" (jour/journée), “morning” (matin/matinée), and “evening” (soir/soirée). Now we’ll take a look at the remaining word pair, an/année (year).
An/année works similarly to the other word pairs. The masculine term (un an) usually refers to a specific point in time with an emphasis on quantity, while its feminine counterpart (une année) focuses on duration, content, and quality.
However, there are many exceptions, mostly with année. So, let’s begin with time expressions that call for année exclusively.
The demonstrative adjective ce (this) is always paired with année: cette année (this year).
Cette année, nous avons décidé d'interviewer Vincent Glad
This year, we decided to interview Vincent Glad
Caption 20, Caroline - et L'Express
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Even though we can say ce matin/soir/jour (this morning/evening/day), we can never say cet an! Logic doesn’t always apply…
We also always use année with ordinal numbers like première/deuxième/dernière (first/second/last). So we say la première année (the first year):
Et c'est la première année qu'on a autant de monde qui reste à la party.
And this is the first year that we had so many people stay at the party.
Caption 27, Ultimate frisbee - KYM, le tournoi
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Année is also required with the indefinite adjective quelques (a few): quelques années (a few years). In the conversation below, two friends discuss what they did il y a quelques années (a few years ago):
Oh, j'y allais beaucoup avec ma fille, il y a quelques années.
Oh, I used to go there a lot with my daughter a few years ago.
Caption 47, Claire et Philippe - La campagne
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The same rule applies to indefinite plural article des (some), as in depuis des années (for years). In the video below, Caroline tells her friend Amal, who has been singing depuis des années (for years), that she should stop because she’s an awful singer. Apparently, Caroline has been putting up with her bad singing for years:
Euh... je sais que tu fais ça depuis des années.
Uh... I know that you've been doing this for years.
Caption 7, Amal et Caroline - Je n'aime pas quand tu chantes
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And Amal is wondering what took Caroline so long to finally tell her what she really thinks. After all, they’ve been friends depuis plusieurs années (for several years):
Justement on est amies depuis plusieurs années.
As it happens, we've been friends for several years.
Caption 45, Amal et Caroline - Je n'aime pas quand tu chantes
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Although we say chaque jour (each day), we can’t say chaque an, even though we're referring to a specific point in time. We have to say chaque année (every/each year). In the video below, a journalist asks people on the street if they come to the gay pride parade “every year," first using tous les ans, then chaque année.
Tous les ans (every year) is more or less equivalent to chaque année, except it emphasizes the quantity of years. It literally means "all the years":
Vous venez tous les ans ou pas? -Oui, tous les ans.
Do you come every year or not? -Yes, every year.
Captions 11-12, Gay Pride - La fierté
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Then the journalist uses chaque année (every year) to emphasize the experience itself:
Et pour vous c'est important de... chaque année renouveler, euh...?
And for you is it important to... every year, to repeat, uh...?
Caption 13, Gay Pride - La fierté
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The journalist could have also asked the people combien d’années (how many years) they had been going to the parade:
Vous y allez depuis combien d’années?
How many years have you been going there?
Finally, we have one more instance that requires année: de/en quelle année (from/in what year). In the example below, Lionel asks de quelle année (from what year) the cloister dates:
Et le cloître, il date de quelle année?
And the cloister, it dates from what year?
Caption 1, Lionel - La Cathédrale de Toul - Part 2
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Interestingly, to answer the question de quelle année (from what year), we revert to the masculine term an(s) to refer to the specific point in time:
La plus vieille structure
The oldest [umbrella] structure
que l'on ait trouvée
that was found
date de six mille cinq cents ans avant Jésus-Christ.
dates back to six thousand five hundred years before Jesus Christ.
Captions 74-76, Pep's - Réparation de parapluies
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We almost always say an with numbers and dates. So, we use an to date a building or an object and, of course, to describe the age of a person:
Pierre a alors vingt-six ans
Pierre was twenty-six years old then
quand est déclenchée la Seconde Guerre mondiale.
when the Second World War started.
Captions 36-37, TV Vendée - Vendée : Pierre Zucchi, 104 ans, raconte ses mémoires
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With time expressions like pendant (for/during), we tend to use ans for counting the years. In the first part of this video, the journalist tells the story of a woman who decided to give up sugar pendant un an (for a year), with an emphasis on a definite time:
Elle a décidé de supprimer le sucre de son alimentation pendant un an.
She decided to remove sugar from her diet for a year.
Caption 2, Le Figaro - Elle a banni le sucre pendant un an - Part 1
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Then the journalist switches to pendant une année (for a year) to emphasize the woman's experience:
Et vous avez raconté cette expérience de supprimer le sucre
And you recounted this experience of removing sugar
de votre alimentation dans cet ouvrage, "Zéro sucre",
from your diet in this book, "Zero Sugar,"
pendant une année.
for a year.
Captions 10-12, Le Figaro - Elle a banni le sucre pendant un an - Part 1
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As you may have noticed, there is some flexibility within those guidelines depending on the situation. So much so that, sometimes, the choice is entirely yours! For example, the expressions l’an prochain/dernier and l’année prochaine/dernière (next/last year) are pretty much interchangeable, as the difference in meaning is negligible.
Here, the speaker uses l’an dernier to refer to a point in time, but l’année dernière would have worked too:
L'an dernier, huit départements français avaient participé à cette enquête.
Last year, eight French departments had participated in this survey.
Caption 17, Canal 32 - Les secrets des cailles des blés
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And in this example, the speaker uses l’année dernière, as the exact timing is not as important as what happened. But he just as well could have said l’an dernier:
Ça a commencé l'année dernière.
It started last year.
Caption 6, Le Jour où tout a basculé - À l'audience: Mon chirurgien était ivre - Part 4
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Here are a few examples of idiomatic expressions with an/année.
To refer to New Year’s, the public holiday, we say le Nouvel An:
...au lendemain du réveillon du Nouvel An.
...to the day after the New Year's Eve celebration.
Caption 34, TV Vendée - Fêtes de fin d’année : manger léger et équilibré
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(Note, however, that when referring to the “new year” in general, we say la nouvelle année.)
And au Nouvel An, on New Year’s Day, it’s customary to wish everyone bonne année et bonne santé (Happy New Year and good health), which is what this Good Samaritan did while visiting the homeless:
Merci beaucoup. Bonne année et bonne santé.
Thank you very much. Happy New Year and good health.
Caption 27, Dao Evolution - Noël pour les sans-abris
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Le Nouvel An (New Year’s Day) may be a time to reflect on the old days, like les années cinquante (the fifties), which was a time of decline for the Hôtel Negresco in Nice:
La crise économique de mille neuf cent vingt-neuf
The economic crisis of nineteen twenty-nine
ralentissent le fonctionnement de l'hôtel
slow down the operation of the hotel,
qui se trouve au bord de la faillite dans les années cinquante.
which finds itself on the verge of bankruptcy in the fifties.
Captions 27-30, Le saviez-vous? - L'hôtel Negresco - Part 1
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And if nothing fazes you, you might use the slang phrase:
Je m’en moque comme de l’an quarante.
I couldn’t care less (literally, "l don't care about it like [I don't care about] the year forty").
For more idiomatic expressions, click here.
In conclusion, the choice between an and année is somewhat subjective and contradictory with its many exceptions, so let’s recap.
Expressions that go with année are as follows:
la dernière/première/deuxième année (the last year/first year/second year)
pendant l’année (during the year)
plusieurs années (several years)
quelques années (a few years)
chaque année (each/every year)
toute l’année (all year)
durant/pendant des années (for years)
cette année (this year)
combien d'années (how many years)
quelle année (what year)
Expressions that go with either an or année include:
l’année dernière/l’an dernier (last year)
l’année prochaine/l’an prochain (next year)
Just remember that in general, an is used to refer to a point in time and année to emphasize duration.
Bonne journée et bonne lecture! (Enjoy your day, and happy reading!).
In "Dimanche soir" (Sunday Night), the slam poet Grand Corps Malade declares his love for his wife in beautiful lines such as:
Je l'ai dans la tête comme une mélodie, alors mes envies dansent
I have her in my head like a melody, so my desires dance
Caption 17, Grand Corps Malade - Dimanche soir
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If you didn't see the translation, you might have guessed that envie means "envy." And you would have been right!
Vous ne connaissez que l'envie, la hâte, la rage de les tuer.
You knew only envy, haste, the urge to kill them.
Caption 60, Il était une fois... L’Espace - 3. La planète verte - Part 6
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However, besides désir, envie is also the word for "desire." While un désir is a more general desire, envie connotes yearning, longing, or craving:
Il peut rester une envie intellectuelle.
There can remain a mental craving.
Caption 129, Le Figaro - Elle a banni le sucre pendant un an - Part 1
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If you think about it, this double meaning of envie makes a lot of sense, since envy is bound up with desire: if you envy (envier) someone, you covet what they have.
J'envie les caresses
I envy the caresses
Caption 18, Oldelaf - interprète "Bérénice"
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Quitte à en crever de son histoire déçue, de son passé tant envié
Despite wanting to die from her disappointing history, her so envied past
Caption 12, Yaaz - La place des anges
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But envie isn't always so intense. The extremely common expression avoir envie de doesn't mean "to envy" or "yearn for," but simply "to want," "feel like," or "be in the mood for":
Vous avez pas envie de faire la sieste?
You don't feel like taking a nap?
Caption 29, Actu Vingtième - Le Repas des anciens
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J'ai envie d'une limonade.
I'm in the mood for a lemonade.
There's also the expression donner envie (literally, "to give desire"), which means "to make someone want something":
D'avoir des quantités de choses Qui donnent envie d'autres choses
To have things in large quantities That make you want other things
Captions 4-5, Fréro Delavega - Foule Sentimentale
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In English, we have the phrase "green with envy." But in French, one becomes "green with jealousy": vert(e) de jalousie. You can, however, make someone "pale with envy" (faire pâlir d'envie).
Finally, here's a bizarre quirk of the French language: envie is also the word for "birthmark" and "hangnail." What those have to do with envy and desire is an etymological mystery.
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