As the saying goes, French is the language of love. So, let’s take this opportunity to delve into peoples’ hearts and minds and discuss expressions featuring the theme of love, ever so present in conversations, literature, and songs.
Grand Corps Malade sings about le grand amour (true love) in his song "Les Voyages en Train":
Le grand amour change forcément ton comportement
True love inevitably changes your behavior
Caption 13, Grand Corps Malade Les Voyages en train
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The masculine noun amour also exists in the plural form, as in the expression la saison des amours, which means "the season of love" when referring to humans:
Ah oui, oui, oui, c'est la saison des amours là.
Ah yes, yes, yes, it's the season of love now.
Caption 44, Lionel à Lindre-Basse - Part 5
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And "the mating season" when referring to animals:
Et là, c'est la saison des amours là?
And now, it's the mating season now?
Caption 43, Lionel à Lindre-Basse - Part 5
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The term conjoint (mate) applies to both the animal and the human kingdom:
Elles trouvent le temps long parce que le conjoint, il tarde à venir là.
They feel that time is moving slowly because their mate is taking his time to arrive now.
Caption 45, Lionel à Lindre-Basse - Part 5
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You'll often come across conjoint (partner/spouse) when filling out an administrative form:
L'utilisation du nom du conjoint nécessite certaines démarches.
Adopting a partner’s name requires certain steps.
Alternatively, you will also come across the word époux/épouse (spouse) which works in the same way as "spouse" in English—as a slightly more formal alternative to le mari (husband) and la femme (wife):
Voilà. Je désire prendre votre fille pour épouse.
Here's the deal. I want to take your daughter as my wife.
Caption 19, Il était une fois: l’Homme 6. Le siècle de Périclès - Part 3
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Vous acceptâtes de me prendre pour époux
You accepted to take me for a husband
Captions 26-27, Oldelaf interprète "Bérénice"
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Speaking of époux, young girls in fairy tales often dream of épouser (marrying) le Prince Charmant (Prince Charming):
Seule dans sa chambre elle rêve encore au Prince Charmant
Alone in her room she still dreams of Prince Charming
Caption 8, Wallen Donna
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These days, people might look for their Prince Charming on un site de rencontre (a dating site):
Je m'inscris sur un site de rencontre pour retraités.
I'm subscribing to a dating site for retirees.
Caption 12, Le Jour où tout a basculé Mes grands-parents sont infidèles - Part 1
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Of course, faire une rencontre (meeting someone) or rencontrer l’amour (finding love) can happen in any setting, even unusual ones, as Nico can attest in this video:
Nico rencontre l'amour à un feu rouge.
Nico finds love at a red light.
Caption 34, Extr@ Ep. 5 - Une étoile est née - Part 8
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With a little luck, Nico may have found une âme sœur (a soulmate):
Petites fées du cœur accueillent les âmes sœurs
Little love fairies welcome the soulmates
Captions 25-26, Melissa Mars Music Videos Army of Love
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In any case, Nico and his neighbors Sacha and Annie have a complicated love life. They are all amoureux (in love), but with the wrong people!
Elles ont un voisin, Nico, qui est amoureux de Sacha, et Annie est amoureuse de Nico.
They have a neighbor, Nico, who is in love with Sacha, and Annie is in love with Nico.
Captions 3-5, Extr@ Ep. 1 - L'arrivée de Sam - Part 1
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Nico wants Sacha to be sa petite amie (his girlfriend), while Annie wants Nico to be son petit ami (her boyfriend). They could simplify their lives by being amis (just friends), but that's not how love works! The adjective petit (little) is just an endearing term of affection that bears no relation to size at all. It simply implies a more exclusive relationship:
Ça va être ta petite amie qui doit être jalouse.
It's your girlfriend who must be jealous.
Caption 20, Le Jour où tout a basculé J'ai piégé mon fan - Part 4
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Instead of using the term petit ami/petite amie, they could have said une petite copine (a girlfriend) or un petit copain (a boyfriend).
Traditionally, the next step is to progress from petits amis to mari et femme (husband and wife), and perhaps to sing together, like the couple in the video below:
Tout comme sa femme, le mari chante bien.
Just like his wife, the husband sings well.
Caption 56, Le saviez-vous? "Non plus", forme négative de "aussi" - Part 1
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But before jumping into marriage, the pair may first se fiancer (become engaged). Hence the term un fiancé/une fiancée, which English borrowed from French:
Comme par exemple... ta fiancée? T'en as une? C'est ça?
Like, for example... your fiancée? You have one? Is that right?
Caption 46, Le Jour où tout a basculé À la recherche de mon père - Part 4
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Fiancés might celebrate their fiançailles (engagement) with an engagement party, though perhaps not as grandiosely as Anne of Austria and Louis the Thirteenth, who had the famous Place des Vosges in Paris built for the occasion:
...à l'occasion des fiançailles de Louis Treize et d'Anne d'Autriche.
...on the occasion of the engagement of Louis the Thirteenth and Anne of Austria.
Caption 16, De nouvelles découvertes avec Marion La place des Vosges
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Les fiançailles usually lead to another celebration, the wedding (le mariage or la noce):
...à l'occasion de son mariage entre mille huit cent quatre-vingt-douze et mille neuf cent deux.
on the occasion of his wedding, between eighteen ninety-two and nineteen hundred two.
Caption 36, Le Mans TV Mon Village - Malicorne - Part 5
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La noce se fera en automne.
The wedding will take place in the fall.
Two things worth noting about the word un mariage (marriage). It’s spelled with only one r, and it can mean either “wedding” (the ceremony) or “marriage" (the relationship). La noce, however, only means "wedding."
While marriage is usually a union based on love, in some cases, a marriage might be un mariage blanc, which literally means “white/blank marriage,” as Patricia explains in her video:
Un mariage blanc, c'est un mariage arrangé, ou pas consommé.
A white marriage is an arranged marriage, or not consummated.
Captions 56-57, Le saviez-vous? La couleur blanche et ses expressions - Part 2
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Usually though, a marriage is a happy occasion on which la mariée (the bride) and le mari (the groom) exchange vows:
La mariée et le marié sont aussi au rendez-vous
The bride and the groom are also at the rendez-vous
Caption 16, Amadou et Mariam Beaux dimanches
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Many newlyweds (nouveaux mariés) go on une lune de miel (honeymoon):
Celle-là, c'était l'année de notre rencontre. Et notre lune de miel.
That one was the year we met. And our honeymoon.
Captions 35-36, Le Jour où tout a basculé À la recherche de mon passé - Part 3
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Of course, le mariage is not everyone’s cup of tea. Some people may decide to vivre en couple (to live together as a couple) instead. The word couple can refer to the number of people in the relationship, as in English, or to the relationship itself:
Notre couple allait mal.
Our relationship was going badly.
Caption 57, Le Jour où tout a basculé À la recherche de mon passé - Part 8
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Finally, those who remain unattached are called célibataires (single), like the lady mentioned in this video:
Et elle est toujours célibataire.
And she's still single.
Caption 90, Le Jour où tout a basculé À la recherche de mon passé - Part 5
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On November 25th, la Sainte-Catherine (Saint Catherine’s Day), single, unmarried young girls celebrate their catherinette by saying a special prayer for a suitor, before they reach the age of twenty-five.
As much as le grand amour (true love) may seem like the perfect recipe for happiness, one cannot vivre d’amour et d’eau fraiche (live on love alone). On the other hand, as the Beatles' song goes, all you need is love!
This lesson is brought to you by the letter Z. Why the letter Z? Because few French nouns contain the letter Z. On the other hand, most verbs do, which is a handy thing to know when playing French Scrabble, as the letter Z is a high-scoring letter.
Almost all verbs in the second-person plural vous (you) end in -ez, as in vous savez (you know). What’s more, this is the case in pretty much all moods and tenses.
In the present tense:
Et toujours, vous savez, la langue est toujours liée à la culture.
And always, you know, a language is always tied to its culture.
Caption 42, Allons en France Pourquoi apprendre le français?
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In the imperfect tense:
Le saviez-vous?
Did you know?
Caption 1, Le saviez-vous? L'art culinaire français
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In the future tense:
Maintenant vous saurez que à chaque fois que vous entendez un verbe qui se termine par le son "é", c'est un verbe du premier groupe
Now you will know that each time you hear a verb that ends with the sound "é," it's a first-group verb
Captions 42-45, Le saviez-vous? Les verbes du 1er groupe
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In the conditional mood:
Sauriez-vous jouer au Scrabble en français?
Could you play French Scrabble?
While most verbs conjugated with vous (you) end in -ez, there are not as many nouns ending in Z. But a few of them are very commonly used, such as chez (at/to the home of), le riz (rice), le nez (nose), le raz-de-marée (tidal wave), and le rez-de-chaussée (ground floor):
Bienvenue chez moi
Welcome to my home
Caption 7, Stromae Bienvenue chez moi
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Elles mangent du riz.
They are eating rice.
Caption 28, Farid et Hiziya Boire et manger
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ce Milanais qui vous peignait une courgette en guise de nez
this Milanese man who painted you a zucchini as a nose
Captions 23-24, d'Art d'Art "Les quatre saisons" - Arcimboldo
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Mieux encore, les racines des palétuviers amortissent les effets des raz-de-marée et des fameux tsunamis.
Better still, the mangrove roots absorb the impact of tidal waves and notorious tsunamis.
Captions 19-20, Il était une fois: Notre Terre 9. Les écosystèmes - Part 7
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J'habite au rez-de-chaussée, donc je n'ai pas besoin de monter les escaliers.
I live on the ground floor, so I don't need to go up the stairs.
Caption 6, Joanna Son appartement
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As you can hear in the examples above, Z at the end of a word is almost always silent in French. So then why do we pronounce the Z in gaz (gas), for example? That’s because it's usually pronounced in words of foreign origin:
Factures: téléphone, gaz, électricité.
Bills: telephone, gas, electricity.
Caption 30, Extr@ Ep. 1 - L'arrivée de Sam - Part 1
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Le français a une bande passante qui fait mille, deux mille hertz
French has a bandwidth that measures one thousand, two thousand hertz
Caption 34, Lionel Langue sous hypnose
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When Z comes at the beginning or in the middle of a word, it is always sounded just as it is in English. Here are a couple of interjections starting with Z:
Allez, zou!
Come on, let's go!
Caption 111, Claire et Philippe La campagne
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Je pourrais dire "zut" aussi.
I could also say "zut" [darn].
Caption 8, Le saviez-vous? Les expressions inspirées de la musique - Part 2
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You'll also find the letter Z in certain numerals, such as quinze (fifteen), seize (sixteen), and zéro (zero):
Et voilà, me voilà parée pour, sortir par, moins zéro, moins quinze degrés.
And there we have it, here I am dressed to go out in below zero, negative fifteen degrees.
Caption 14, Fanny parle des saisons S'habiller en hiver
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Now that you’ve zipped through this lesson, we trust that you will apply this newfound knowledge with le zeste (zest) and le zèle (zeal)!
In our last lesson, we talked about the different words for kissing in French, and how the COVID pandemic has affected the French custom of la bise. Now we'll focus on hugging. Yes, French people hug too! However, there are differences. Unlike in Anglo-Saxon countries, where hugging is what la bise is to French people, hugging is not so prevalent in France. A hug is not used as a greeting, as full-body contact may be considered intrusive. Hugging is more of a private affair, a heartfelt show of affection. So, if you’re not comfortable with la bise, don’t think that you can make a compromise by giving a hug instead!
In fact, the word for “hug” doesn’t have a direct translation in French.
Instead, you’ll find a paraphrase: serrer dans ses bras (to squeeze in one's arms) or prendre dans ses bras (to hold in one’s arms).
J'aurais bien voulu, pour passer le temps
I really would have liked, to pass the time
te serrer dans mes bras amicalement
to squeeze you warmly in my arms
Captions 1-2, Babylon Circus - J'aurais bien voulu
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Un câlin is a more familiar hug, more like a cuddle:
Que le mot soit doux comme un câlin
May the word be sweet like a cuddle
Caption 4, Les Nubians - Que le mot soit perle
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You can also use the verbal phrase faire un câlin (to hug or cuddle). Sophie and Patrice even use it when talking about hugging their Christmas tree!
Moi, j'aime bien faire des câlins aux arbres.
I really like hugging trees.
-Allez viens. On va lui faire un petit câlin.
-Come on, we'll go give it a little hug.
Caption 86, Sophie et Patrice - Après Noël
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And you can give bisous, bises, and câlins in writing too, with no fear of contamination! It's equivalent to "kisses and hugs" at the end of a letter, text message, or email:
Bisous, câlins, Maman.
Kisses and hugs, Mom.
Caption 40, Extr@ Ep. 1 - L'arrivée de Sam
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Finally, there's the more formal une étreinte, which is "an embrace," and its verbal form étreindre (to embrace):
J'aurais voulu que cette étreinte avec mon père dure éternellement.
I would have liked this embrace with my father to last forever.
Caption 25, Le Jour où tout a basculé - À la recherche de mon père
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Le soir, on s'étreint, les deux pieds dans l'eau
In the evening, we embrace, both feet in the water
Caption 21, Duel - Caramel
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The word embrasser is cognate with "embrace," but don't let that confuse you: it means "to kiss," not "to hug." See our last lesson for more on that.
The French might not hug each other as much as Americans do, but they have quite a few different ways of saying "hug"!
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