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.
Avoir is the general French verb for "to have," but if you’re talking about something that you physically have, tenir might be the better verb to use. The simplest meaning of tenir is "to hold." This is the way the singer Corneille uses it in one of our most popular music videos, Comme un fils (Like a Son):
Tiens ma tête quand elle fait plus de sens.
Hold my head when it no longer makes sense.
Caption 28, Corneille - Comme un fils
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When it’s not referring to something that you’re holding in your hand, tenir can also be used for something that you keep, maintain, or manage, such as a restaurant:
Aller chez Gilles Spannagel qui tient Le Cruchon,
To go visit Gilles Spannagel who owns Le Cruchon [The Little Jug],
qui est le petit restaurant...
which is the little restaurant...
Caption 23, Strasbourg - Les passants
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Or it can refer to something that is attached to something else, like needles on a Christmas tree:
Des épines qui tiennent plus longtemps...
Needles that stay on longer...
Caption 7, TV Tours - Une seconde vie pour vos sapins de Noël?
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Tenir also applies to situations in which you are compelled to do something, in the expressions tenir à and être tenu(e) de:
Je tiens à préciser que la Bretagne a son charme aussi.
I have to mention that Brittany has its charms too.
Caption 13, Fanny et Corrine - Leurs origines
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Mais ils sont tenus d'avoir... un certificat de capacité.
But they are required to have... a certificate of competency.
Caption 48, TV Sud - Fête de la Tortue 2012
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Tenir à can also mean "to be fond of," "to be attached to," or "to care about":
Elle tient à son emploi.
She is fond of her job.
And when you make tenir reflexive (se tenir), it means "to stand," "remain," or "behave." Can you imagine walking into someone’s house and seeing a llama standing in the living room?
C'est bien un lama qui se tient fièrement en plein milieu d'un salon.
That's really a llama proudly standing in the middle of a living room.
Caption 2, Angers 7 - Un lama en plein appartement
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Tiens-toi tranquille, hein sinon!
Hold still, OK, or else!
Caption 5, Il était une fois: les Explorateurs - 10. Amerigo Vespucci
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Les enfants se tiennent bien.
The children are behaving themselves.
You can also use tiens, the singular imperative form of tenir, for the interjection "look" (or more literally, "behold"):
Tiens, ça doit être bon, ça!
Look, this should be good!
Caption 24, Il était une fois: les Explorateurs - 10. Amerigo Vespucci
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The verb détenir is related to tenir and is often translated the same way, though it has the specific connotation of "to possess" or even "detain":
...qui autorise des gens à détenir des animaux, des tortues chez eux.
...which allows some people to keep animals, turtles, at home.
Caption 47, TV Sud - Fête de la Tortue 2012
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Crois-moi, tu détiens là, la base de toute connaissance.
Believe me, you hold there the basis of all knowledge.
Caption 13, Il était une fois: l’Homme - 6. Le siècle de Périclès
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Even if you don’t hold the basis of all knowledge, with this lesson you should hold everything you need to make good use of the verb tenir. You can check out the WordReference page on the verb for even more uses. So soyez sûr de retenir le verbe tenir (be sure to hold onto the verb tenir)!
We know you look to Yabla for language, not math, so apologies in advance to any arithmophobes out there. Yes, we're going to talk some numbers today, but you can count on us to go easy on you.
Remember last time, when we talked about French adjectives that come before the noun they modify? Well, there's another category of adjectives that behave that way: numbers!
Parmi les expériences inoubliables des deux plongeurs...
Among the unforgettable experiences of the two divers...
Caption 20, Le Journal - Sillonner & photographier les océans
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In this video about Pierre and Laurent's beautiful underwater photography, you see an example where the adjective deux (two) comes before the noun plongeurs (divers). It's just like in English: "two divers."
And staying on the numerical track, when an adjective indicates a place in a series, like premier (first), prochain (next), or dernier (last), it should also be placed in front of the noun it qualifies. For example, le premier président (the first president).
If you would rather be on top of the water than underneath it, take a look at this lightning trip around the world in 50 days. Captain Bruno Peyron and his crew break Steve Fossett's record on their impressive catamaran.
Lorsque le jeune Bruno Peyron boucle le premier tour
When the young Bruno Peyron completed his first trip
du monde en équipage et sans escale...
around the world with a crew and without stopping...
Caption 17, Le Journal - Le record du Tour de Monde!
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Notice the adjective premier (first) that precedes the noun tour (trip), because premier indicates a place in a series (the first place).
However, be aware that prochain (next) and dernier (last) do not always precede the noun they modify. In fact, they follow the noun when they indicate a notion of time, as when they are used with a week, month, or year. For example: le mois prochain (next month).
We hear an example in the video about French youth up in arms against the loi Fillon designed to reform French education.
Trois mille à Lyon, ils étaient deux fois plus la semaine dernière.
Three thousand in Lyon, they were twice as many last week.
Caption 7, Le Journal - Manifestations des lycéens
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In this instance, the adjective dernière (last) is placed after the noun semaine (week) because it indicates an expression of time: the protest is simmering down a bit compared to the previous week.
Finally, one last number-related point: a tip on where to place an adjective if, after all you have learned from the Yabla lessons, you still aren't quite sure where the darn thing should go. It's easy math: count and compare the number of syllables in the two words, adjective and noun. Most often, the qualifying adjective is placed in front of the noun if the noun is composed of a greater number of syllables than the adjective. In other words, if the adjective is shorter, it goes in front.
Corrine, a young and charming French woman, shows us an example of this when talking about the merits of her hometown.
On a la chaleur, on a, euh...
We've got warm weather, we have, uh...
peut-être la pollution, mais on...
maybe pollution, but we...
en tout cas, on a de beaux paysages.
in any case, we have beautiful landscapes.
Captions 15-16, Fanny et Corrine - Leurs origines
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Notice how Corrine mentions Marseilles' beaux paysages (beautiful landscapes). The adjective beaux (beautiful) has fewer syllables than the noun paysages (landscapes), so beaux is placed before paysages.
Conversely, the adjective is usually placed after the noun if it has more syllables than does the noun. For example, you would say une voix horrible (a horrible voice); the noun voix (voice) has fewer syllables than the adjective horrible, so the noun comes first.
Le Journal tells the story of Claudia Rusch, a young Francophile who was one of the first to scramble over the falling Berlin Wall to join a friend on that memorable day, November 9th, 1989.
...escalade ce grillage insupportable qui les sépare.
...scales this unbearable fence which separates them.
Caption 23, Le Journal - Le mur de Berlin s'écroule
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Here, because the adjective insupportable (unbearable) has a greater number of syllables than the noun grillage (fence), the adjective goes last.
See? It's as easy as 1, 2, 3!
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