Now that the end-of-the-year feasts known as réveillons are over, French people are glad to return to simpler, healthier food like soups, which are especially popular during winter and often the main part of the evening meal. Let's find out what ingredients typically go into a French soup and explore some soup-related vocabulary in the process.
Many French people prefer a more sustainable diet of légumes verts (green vegetables) after les fêtes (the holidays):
Après les fêtes, c'est légumes, et puis un peu d'eau plutôt que de l'alcool, voilà.
After the holidays, it's vegetables, and then a little water rather than alcohol, that's it.
Caption 7, TV Vendée Fêtes de fin d’année : manger léger et équilibré
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These légumes verts (green vegetables), not to be confused with “legumes” in English, will be the main ingredients of a soup:
On essaye de manger un peu plus de légumes verts, bon des soupes et voilà.
We try to eat a few more green vegetables, well, soups, and that's it.
Caption 4, TV Vendée Fêtes de fin d’année : manger léger et équilibré
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The base for a soup also includes un bouillon (bouillon or broth). Le bouillon de volaille (chicken broth) also makes a good base for a sauce:
On déglace avec le bouillon de volaille.
You deglaze with the chicken bouillon.
Caption 41, Alsace 20 Grain de Sel: Au Caveau de l'étable à Niederbronn-les-Bains
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French people often make their soup from scratch by cutting up some vegetables, just as Jeremy and Marie do in the video below. However, you will notice that they call their soup un potage. Most people don’t make a distinction between une soupe and un potage, but there are some differences. Un potage sounds slightly more sophisticated, and its consistency is lighter than a soup as it is usually a blended mixture:
La dernière fois, vous vous souvenez, nous avons coupé les légumes afin de faire un potage
Last time, you remember, we cut the vegetables in order to make a soup
Captions 3-5, Marie & Jeremy Potage - Part 2
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So, what kind of légumes are popular in une soupe or un potage? The French are especially fond of poireaux (leeks), oignons (onions), and carottes (carrots). (Note the difference in spelling here: une carotte has one R and two Ts in French, the opposite of the English "carrot.")
Et tout ce qui est poireaux, euh... on va faire poireaux, carottes, euh... voilà la soupe.
And everything that is leeks, uh... we're going to make leeks, carrots, uh... that's it, the soup.
Caption 13, TV Vendée Fêtes de fin d’année : manger léger et équilibré
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French soup names usually follow the formula: soupe + à + definite article + main ingredient. For example, we have soupe à l’oignon (onion soup) and soupe à la citrouille (pumpkin soup).
L'hiver, les gens préfèrent rester chez eux... On mange surtout de la soupe. Par exemple, de la soupe à l'oignon, de la soupe à la citrouille...
In the winter, people prefer to stay at home... We mostly eat soup. For example, onion soup, pumpkin soup...
Caption 1, 3-4 Fanny parle des saisons La Bouffe
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But sometimes you'll see the preposition de after soupe, when the soup mostly consists of one main ingredient. For example, we're more likely to say soupe de poisson (fish soup) if fish is the star ingredient, but soupe au poisson is also correct. Either way, be sure to pronounce the double S in poisson correctly, unlike Sam in this video:
Deuxième plat: soupe de la poison [sic]. Soupe de poison ? Poisson, poisson, soupe de poisson.
Second dish: poison soup. Poison soup? Fish, fish, fish soup.
Captions 1-4, Extr@ Ep. 4 - Sam trouve du travail - Part 6
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Speaking of soupe de poisson, have you ever tried a bouillabaisse, a hearty tomato-based fish soup from southern France? In the video below, one of the speakers comes from Marseille, where bouillabaisse originated:
De notre côté c'est pas les crêpes, c'est plutôt la bouillabaisse.
For us, it's not crêpes, it's more bouillabaisse.
Caption 21, Fanny et Corrine Leurs origines
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If you prefer a smoother texture to your seafood soup, you may want to try une bisque au homard (lobster bisque):
Les bisques de homard sont souvent au menu dans les grands restaurants à quatre étoiles.
Lobster bisques are often on the menu in four-star restaurants.
For an even richer, smoother texture, you may like un velouté (literally, "velvety"), a creamy vegetable soup thickened with butter, cream, or egg yolk:
Vous pouvez commander un velouté aux champignons au restaurant.
You can order a cream of mushroom soup at the restaurant.
Finally, we have a thinner, clear mixture, but with a more intense, concentrated flavor, called un consommé:
Un consommé est un fond ou bouillon qui a été clarifié avec un blanc d’œuf.
A consommé is stock or bouillon that has been clarified with egg white.
Whether you prefer a humble soupe or potage or a more sophisticated bisque or consommé, you'll have plenty of options in France! You can find even more on this page. And be sure to check out Yabla’s delicious food-related videos.
French people enjoy getting together with family or friends to celebrate Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve with a festive dinner called le réveillon. This is a time of year that involves a lot of eating and feasting! What is the French traditional holiday fare? Let's find out what these réveillons entail, and what French people do to recover from these eating marathons afterwards.
Le réveillon (from the word réveil, "waking") is a dinner party that takes place twice a year, on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. Usually prepared at home, such meals require much thought and preparation, which is why most people choose to stick to traditional fare:
Pour réussir son réveillon il y a ceux qui misent sur la tradition...
To make one's Christmas Eve dinner a success, there are those who rely on tradition...
Captions 1-2, Réveillon de Noël Que mange-t-on lors de ce repas?
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In addition to the noun réveillon, there is even a special verb, réveillonner (to have a Christmas or New Year's Eve party). Even the lonely sailors in the video below like to réveillonner:
La solitude n'a pas empêché les marins de réveillonner.
Solitude hasn't kept the sailors from having a Christmas party.
Caption 8, Le Journal Les navigateurs du Vendée Globe - Part 3
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A réveillon usually starts with the traditional appetizer of huîtres (oysters, served raw with a squeeze of lemon):
Voilà avec une bûche [de Noël] à la fin, et en entrée des huîtres.
That's it, with a [Yule] log at the end, and oysters as appetizers.
Captions 4-5, Réveillon de Noël Que mange-t-on lors de ce repas?
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(Notice that une entrée is an appetizer in French, not a main course.)
Les huîtres may be followed by such traditional fare as foie gras (goose liver pâté) and/or crustacés ("crustaceans," as in a seafood platter):
Les grands classiques de cette fête, foie gras et crustacés
The great classics of this holiday, foie gras and crustaceans
Caption 2, TLT Toulouse Noël: Les fêtes approchent!
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Then comes the main course (le plat principal). The familiar dinde aux marrons (turkey with chestnut stuffing) is an all-time favorite, although some people might find it boring and crave a change:
La dinde aux marrons, ça me fatigue parce que tout le monde fait de la dinde de marron.
Turkey with chestnut stuffing, I am tired of it because everyone cooks turkey with chestnut stuffing.
Caption 4, TLT Toulouse Noël: Les fêtes approchent!
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Chapon farci (stuffed capon) is another classic main course in a réveillon:
On va avoir du chapon farci
We're going to have stuffed capon
Caption 3, Réveillon de Noël Que mange-t-on lors de ce repas?
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However, some people like to depart from tradition and add a modern twist:
On peut sortir des sentiers battus tout en conservant des produits traditionnels : chapon tikka masala, foie gras au samoussa ou vice versa.
We can get off the beaten track while keeping traditional products: capon tikka masala, foie gras samosa, or vice versa.
Captions 8-9, TLT Toulouse Noël: Les fêtes approchent!
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Those who feel a little ambitious might try un bœuf en croûte (crusted roast beef, or beef Wellington):
Ensuite en plat, un bœuf en croûte au foie gras
Then for the main dish, a crusted roast beef with foie gras
Caption 8, Réveillon de Noël Que mange-t-on lors de ce repas?
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Alternatively, one can always fall back on yet another holiday classic, boudin blanc (white sausage), which this butcher likes to showcase at his shop:
...les ingrédients classiques comme le boudin blanc sont mis à l'honneur.
...classic ingredients like white sausage are showcased.
Caption 19, Réveillon de Noël Que mange-t-on lors de ce repas?
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Finally, for dessert, there is the all-time favorite, la bûche de Noël (Yule log):
Voilà avec une bûche [de Noël] à la fin...
That's it, with a [Yule] log at the end...
Caption 4, Réveillon de Noël Que mange-t-on lors de ce repas?
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In addition to the delicious dishes mentioned earlier, French celebratory meals always include one or two cooked vegetables, a green salad, and a cheese platter. If this abundance of food seems too much for you, you are not alone… In the video below, Sophie and Patrice are starting to feel like une grosse dinde (a fat turkey) themselves! As they say, you are what you eat:
On est ce qu'on mange. Là je suis donc un gâteau, du vin... une grosse bûche... -Une grosse... grosse bûche... une dinde énorme... trois tonnes de saumon...
We are what we eat. So here I'm a cake, some wine... A fat Yule log... -A fat... fat Yule log... a huge turkey... three tons of salmon...
Captions 23-27, Sophie et Patrice Après le réveillon
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Moi, je suis du foie gras. Un gros foie gras. Quelle horreur. J'en mangerai plus.
Me, I'm foie gras. A big foie gras. How awful. I won't eat any more of it.
Captions 28-31, Sophie et Patrice Après le réveillon
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After so much indulgence, French people tend to crave lighter, healthier food like une bonne soupe (a nice soup). People also like to pace themselves and try to eat healthy in between réveillons:
On essaye de manger un peu plus de légumes verts... bon des soupes et voilà.
We try to eat a few more green vegetables... well, soups, and that's it.
Caption 4, TV Vendée Fêtes de fin d’année : manger léger et équilibré
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If the mention of these delicious dishes whetted your appetite, feel free to browse through Yabla's Christmas and cooking videos. Stay tuned for a new culinary experience in a future lesson!
Bon appétit!
In our previous lesson, we learned that rester is a false cognate meaning "to stay/to remain." In this lesson, we will continue to explore the various uses of rester and focus on the impersonal verb il reste (there remains). We will also look at the meaning of le reste (the rest) as a noun.
The phrase il reste is a bit tricky as it does not necessarily mean "he/it stays." Indeed, the construction il reste is what we call an impersonal verb, as the subject of the sentence (il) doesn’t stand for anything or anyone in particular. Hence the translation of il reste is open to interpretation and will vary. The impersonal pronoun il can be equivalent to "there" in English. In the example below, the construction il reste + noun means "there’s also" in the context of the video:
Et ensuite il reste un dessert en supplément à deux euros soixante
And afterward there's also a dessert for an additional two euros sixty
Caption 10, Alsace 20 - Grain de Sel: Au Caveau de l'étable à Niederbronn-les-Bains
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In another example, we have the expression ce qu’il en reste, which simply means "what’s left of it." Il is omitted in the translation as it only has a grammatical function in French and is therefore not needed in English:
Ce qu'il en reste.
What remains of it.
Caption 14, Arles - Un Petit Tour d'Arles
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Il reste (there remains) often comes in a negative form, such as il ne reste que... This is a very useful expression to convey that "only x remains":
Maintenant il ne reste que le cadre.
Now only the frame remains.
Another variation of il ne reste que is il ne reste plus que, which means "there remains only":
Du fait de nombreuses fusions,
Because of many mergers,
il ne reste plus qu'une société anonyme de cartes de crédit
there remains only one limited liability credit card company
Caption 15, Patricia - Pas de crédit dans le monde des clones
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Il ne reste plus que can also translate as "all that’s left":
Aujourd'hui, derrière, malheureusement,
Today, behind it, unfortunately,
il ne reste plus qu'un parking.
all that's left is a parking lot.
Caption 25, Voyage en France - Fontainebleau
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And there is yet another way to interpret il ne reste plus que. It can also mean "there is only x left":
Il ne reste plus que cette porte
There is only this door left
Caption 22, Voyage en France - Fontainebleau
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We also have the negative expression il ne reste plus rien, which means "there’s nothing left":
Donne-moi tout, même quand il [ne] reste plus rien
Give it all to me, even when there's nothing left
Caption 1, Corneille - Comme un fils
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What’s more, you can even throw a personal pronoun such as me in the mix. In the example below, we have il ne me reste plus qu’à, which is a complex turn of phrase best translated as "all that remains for me":
Il [ne] me reste plus qu'à vous souhaiter un très bon appétit
All that remains for me to do is wish you a very good appetite
Caption 114, 4 Mains pour 1 Piano - Médaillon de Homard - Part 3
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Indeed, French speakers often insert a personal pronoun in between il reste, as in il nous reste (we still have). The personal pronoun nous becomes the subject pronoun "we":
Il nous reste encore quelques minutes de cuisson pour le homard.
We still have a few minutes of cooking time left for the lobster.
Caption 15, 4 Mains pour 1 Piano - Médaillon de Homard - Part 2
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In another video, il ne nous reste plus que translates as "we only have x remaining":
Et là, il [ne] nous reste plus que deux colonnes de marbre
And here we only have two marble columns remaining
Caption 16, Arles - Un Petit Tour d'Arles
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The expression il ne vous reste plus grand-chose (you don’t have much left) works in a similar way. Once again, the personal pronoun (vous) becomes the subject in English:
Et ça a bien marché puisqu'il [ne] vous reste plus grand-chose.
And business has been good since you don't have that much left.
Caption 52, Arles - Le marché d'Arles
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There are many other ways of using il reste, which you can explore here. All this may seem a bit complicated, but fortunately, when reste is used as a noun, it's much simpler! Le reste is a direct cognate that simply means "the rest":
Tout le reste du temps, je dors là où je suis assise
The rest of the time, I sleep right where I'm sitting
Caption 15, Le Journal - Les navigateurs du Vendée Globe
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However, the plural les restes takes on a new meaning. Now we're talking about "leftovers" or "leftover food":
Bon, souvent parce qu'il y a des restes,
Well, often because there are leftovers,
donc il faut éliminer les restes.
so it's necessary to eliminate the leftovers.
Caption 9, TV Vendée - Fêtes de fin d’année : manger léger et équilibré
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Finally, to be clear, "to rest" in English is NOT rester but se reposer or reposer:
Tu peux admirer le paysage et te reposer.
You can admire the scenery and rest.
Caption 45, Le saviez-vous? - Comment voyager?
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Maintenant, on va la laisser reposer
Now we are going to let it rest
Caption 32, Alsace 20 - Grain de Sel: le Lycée hôtelier Alexandre Dumas
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Now that you have worked so hard, il ne vous reste plus qu’à vous reposer (there is nothing left for you to do but rest)!
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!).
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