The measure of a chef lies in the precise and careful measuring of ingredients to achieve consistent quality in every cooking endeavor. Rest assured: every cook can obtain good results, too, with the help of a few simple weighing and measuring devices readily available around the kitchen. Let’s find out what this equipment is called in French and how the system works.

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As you may have noticed in Yabla's cooking videos, all the recipes use the French metric system as opposed to the imperial system. So, everything is given to you in grammes, kilogrammes (grams, kilograms) and mililitres, litres (milliliters, liters) instead of cups, pints, and ounces. In the video below, the chocolate log recipe calls for many ingredients, all of them measured in grammes (grams):

Ensuite, vous ajoutez cinquante grammes de beurre en morceaux

Then, you add fifty grams of butter cut in pieces

Captions 34-35, Il était une fois la pâtisserie Bûche de Noël

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That same recipe uses mililitres (mililiters) for liquids:

Vous ajoutez deux cent cinquante millilitres de crème chaude

You add two hundred fifty milliliters of hot cream

Caption 31, Il était une fois la pâtisserie Bûche de Noël

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If you are not familiar with the metric system, you can choose to convert measurements, which can be a complicated process, or you can simply use une balance (a kitchen scale) set to grammes. In the video below, the baker uses une balance électronique (an electronic scale):

Le boulanger a tout d'abord mesuré les ingrédients sur une balance électronique.

First of all, the baker measured the ingredients on an electronic scale.

Captions 5-6, Apprends les métiers Boulanger

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Alternatively, you can use a variety of devices such as un verre doseur (a measuring cup):

Tu rajoutes de la farine sans verre doseur, pas besoin

You add some flour without a measuring cup, no need

Captions 26-27, Sophie et Patrice Les crêpes

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Or, if precision is not crucial, you can resort to a drinking verre (glass), which is roughly equivalent to une tasse à mesurer (one measuring cup). (In France, drinking glasses generally come in smaller sizes than American ones.) In the video below, JB uses un verre d’eau (a glass of water) for his tarte aux mirabelles (mirabelle plum tart):

Et ensuite ajouter l'équivalent d'un verre d'eau

And then add the equivalent of a glass of water

Caption 17, JB La tarte aux mirabelles

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To measure smaller quantities, you can use une cuiller à mesurer (a measuring spoon). “A teaspoon” is une cuiller à café (“a coffee spoon") or une petite cuiller ("a small spoon"). Une cuiller à café holds cinq millilitres (five milliliters). In the video below, the cook adds a little flavor to his crêpes with une petite cuiller de rhum (a teaspoon of rum):

Comme on est entre adultes, une petite cuiller de rhum.

Since we're among adults, a teaspoon of rum.

Caption 77, LCM Recette: Crêpes

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The same recipe calls for deux cuillers à soupe (two tablespoons, literally "soup spoons") of melted butter:

Et deux cuillers à soupe de beurre demi-sel fondu.

And two tablespoons of melted, lightly salted butter.

Caption 49, LCM Recette: Crêpes

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Note that cuiller (spoon) has two spellings that are equally common: une cuiller or une cuillère. The pronunciation and gender remain the same.

You can also say une cuillerée (a spoonful) for indicating quantities, as in this natural remedy for sore throats:

Presser un citron bio. Ajouter deux cuillerées à café de miel pour les maux de gorge.

Squeeze an organic lemon. Add two teaspoons of honey for a sore throat.

Now that you know how to measure ingredients, you need to be able to turn on votre four (your oven) at the correct temperature. The oven can be set at various temperatures: doux, moyen, chaud (cool, medium, hot). In the video below, Sophie bakes her madeleines in un four chaud (a hot oven), approximately equivalent to 230-250 Celsius:

Et ensuite je mets à four chaud

And then I put it in a hot oven

Caption 63, Sophie et Patrice Les madeleines

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Indeed, France uses the metric system, which includes Celsius, while the US and a few other countries use Fahrenheit. To give you an idea, the most common baking temperature is 180 degrés Celsius, which is almost equivalent to 400 degrees Fahrenheit:

Et vous pouvez préchauffer votre four à cent quatre-vingts degrés.

And you can preheat your oven to one hundred eighty degrees [Celsius].

Caption 56, Il était une fois la pâtisserie Bûche de Noël

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In addition to oven temperatures set in Celsius, some gas ovens have un thermostat (a thermostat) ranging from 1 to 6. As indicated in the video below, thermostat cinq (thermostat five) is equivalent to 160 degrees Celsius:

On les placera au four à cent soixante degrés ou thermostat cinq, pendant quinze minutes.

We'll place them in the oven at one hundred sixty degrees [Celsius] or thermostat five, for fifteen minutes.

Captions 40-41, Aurélien et Automne Oreo fait maison - Part 2

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Now you that you can calculate quantities in French recipes, it’s time to measure your success in the kitchen and… in French!

Happy measuring!

Unlike in English, all nouns are either masculine or feminine in French, without exception, whether they refer to a person, an animal, or an inanimate object. So, every time you learn a new word, you will also need to memorize its gender, which is one of the difficulties of the French language. 

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As Lionel remarks in his lesson, English speakers don’t have to worry about the gender of nouns:

Voilà. Vous êtes chanceux en anglais: vous avez pas tous ces problèmes de sexe et de langue...

There you have it. You are lucky in English: you don't have all these gender and language problems...

Caption 24, Lionel L - Les genres

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Perhaps we can blame the Romans for this predicament, as most Romance languages (derived from Latin) assign a gender to nouns. For example, in Spanish, masculine nouns end in o, as in chico (boy), and feminine nouns end in a, as in chica (girl). In French, you can’t always guess the gender of a noun by its ending. Instead, it’s better to check the article that comes before it. 

Masculine nouns are preceded by the masculine indefinite article un (a) or the definite article le (the). For example, we say un garçon (a boy) or le garçon (the boy), and therefore garçon is masculine:

Le masculin s'utilise par exemple pour le mot "garçon". C'est masculin: "Le garçon".

The masculine is used, for example, for the word "garçon." It's masculine: "Le garçon" [the boy].

Caption 5, Yabla à Nancy - Le masculin et le féminin

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Feminine nouns are introduced by the indefinite article une (a) or the definite article la (the). The noun fille (girl) is feminine, so we say une fille (a girl) or la fille (the girl):

Le féminin s'utilise pour le mot "fille", par exemple, "la fille."

The feminine is used for the word "fille," for example, "la fille" [the girl].

Caption 7, Yabla à Nancy - Le masculin et le féminin

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So far so good. It seems quite logical to ascribe a feminine gender to une fille (a girl) and a masculine gender to un garçon (a boy).

However, when it comes to inanimate objects, you'd think it would make more sense to assign them a neuter gender, or “it”. Unfortunately, there is no such thing in French. So, an object or concept is arbitrarily either masculine or feminine. There is often no rhyme or reason for this, as Lionel jokingly points out:

Pourquoi est-ce que la chaise est une femme? Je sais pas.

Why is the chair a woman? I don't know.

Caption 6, Lionel L - Les genres

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Since there’s little logic in the gender-assigning process, it’s up to you to memorize the gender of each noun and match it with the correct article: le (the) or un (a) for masculine and la (the) or une (a) for feminine. Or you could talk about everything in multiples, as the plural has its definite advantages. Why? Because you don’t need to worry about feminine and masculine articles! Les ("the," plural) and des (some) work for both masculine and feminine plural nouns:

Au pluriel, on utilise le mot "les". Ça marche pour le masculin et pour le féminin.

In the plural, we use the word "les." That works for the masculine and for the feminine.

Caption 16, Yabla à Nancy - Le masculin et le féminin

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So:

Une maison (a house) becomes des maisons (houses).

La maison (the house) becomes les maisons (the houses).

Un garçon (a boy) becomes des garçons (boys).

Le garçon (the boy) becomes les garçons (the boys).

In addition to les (the) and des (some) pairing with both masculine and feminine plural nouns, the definite singular article l’ (another form of “the”) can also go with either gender, as in l’arbre ("the tree," masculine) or l’idée ("the idea," feminine). 

Note that l' is only used with a noun starting with a vowel or silent h. In other words, le and la turn into l’ in front of a vowel or silent h. This phenomenon is called euphony, which is when a word is modified for a purely phonetic purpose, without changing its meaning.

Thus, we can’t say le arbre in French. As Patricia explains, we have to say l’arbre:

Je ne dis pas: "Voici le arbre". Je dis: "Voici l'arbre".

I don't say: "Voici le arbre" [here's the tree]. I say: "Voici l'arbre" [here's the tree].

Captions 34-37, Le saviez-vous? - L'élision - Part 1

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And the same rule applies to feminine nouns. Instead of la oreille (the ear), we say:

L'oreille.

"L'oreille" [the ear].

Caption 20, Le saviez-vous? - L'élision - Part 1

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To summarize, here's a table outlining the gender of nouns and articles in French:

Once you’ve memorized the gender of a noun, it’s a matter of using the correct article mentioned in the table. 

Fortunately, if you forget the gender of a word, you can always consult a dictionary. However, you should know that nouns usually aren't listed with un/une or le/la in front. Instead, gender will often appear in the form of an abbreviation: nm (nom masculin, masculine noun) and nf (nom féminin, feminine noun). You'll also see npl (nom pluriel, plural noun). 

So far, we’ve covered the basics of the gender of nouns and articles, but there is a lot more to explore. Dans une prochaine leçon (in a future lesson), we’ll discuss nouns referring to people and animals.

Until then, happy reading!

In this lesson, we'll take a look at some of the different ways of welcoming people in French, all involving the word bienvenue (welcome).

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In English, you usually welcome people to a particular place: “welcome to my house,” “welcome to New York,” and so on. In French, however, any number of prepositions can follow bienvenue, depending on their object:

Bonjour et bienvenue sur Yabla.

Hello and welcome to Yabla.

Caption 1, Yabla à Nancy - Le masculin et le féminin

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Bienvenue dans la plus chic des stations alpines, Gstaad.

Welcome to the most fashionable of the Alpine ski resorts, Gstaad.

Caption 3, Le Journal - Gstaad

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Bienvenue au théâtre, mes amis!

Welcome to the theater, my friends!

Caption 18, Il était une fois: l’Homme - 6. Le siècle de Périclès - Part 2

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The choice of preposition specifies the kind of place where you are being welcomed. In the first example, Yabla is a website, and if you are on a website, you are sur un site web. So here you are literally being welcomed “onto” the website. In the second example, you are being welcomed “into” a ski resort, dans une station alpine. And in the third example, you are being welcomed “to” the theater: au théâtre.

Another way to welcome someone in French is with the expression être le bienvenu / la bienvenue / les bienvenus / les bienvenues (to be welcome):

Que les visiteurs soient les bienvenus sous mon toit.

May visitors be welcome under my roof.

Caption 9, Il était une fois: l’Homme - 6. Le siècle de Périclès - Part 3

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Ben, vous êtes les bienvenus à découvrir de visu...

So, everyone is welcome to come in and see with their own eyes...

Caption 38, Galerie "Art Up Déco" - La galerie d'art

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Literally translated, the expression vous êtes les bienvenus means something like, “you are the welcome ones.” 

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Note that bienvenue used as a greeting (either alone or at the beginning of a sentence) is a feminine noun, short for je vous souhaite la bienvenue (literally, “I wish you welcome”). Therefore, its spelling doesn’t change. On the other hand, the bienvenu/e/s after être le/la/les is an adjective used as a noun that must agree with its subject. So you would write, Vous êtes les bienvenus/bienvenues en France, but not, Bienvenus/Bienvenues en France! The correct form would be: Bienvenue en France! 

You can also put the above expression in the imperative form:

Soyez les bienvenus chez moi.

Welcome to my home.

It is also very common to see bienvenu/bienvenue used to express a wish, as in this sentence:

Vos suggestions seraient les bienvenues. 

Your suggestions would be welcome.

And if you’re in Quebec, you’ll hear bienvenue used by itself to mean “you’re welcome.” So when you say merci (thank you) to a French person, he or she will respond with de rien or je vous en prie. But a French Canadian will answer, Bienvenue!

As you can see, you have a lot of options with this one elementary word. But no matter how you use it, you’ll definitely make people feel welcome!