After les grandes vacances (the long summer holidays) comes la rentrée (literally, "the return") in France. It is a special time of year when students go back to school and workers go back to work in September. Indeed, the term extends to any sector of the economy resuming its normal activity after the long summer break. There is even la rentrée littéraire (the literary return) when new books come out! Because la rentrée covers such a variety of situations, the word does not translate easily, and it is a concept best grasped through examples in various contexts. 

Still, when talking about la rentrée, the French usually refer to la rentrée scolaire (back-to-school time), a topic that is on Sophie and Patrice’s minds in this video:

Donc, c'est la rentrée scolaire. -Ouais.

So, it's back-to-school time. -Yeah.

Caption 1, Sophie et Patrice La rentrée

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La rentrée also refers to “the start of the school year,” which can be an expensive time of year for parents…

Ah la rentrée, c'est toujours des dépenses.

Ah the start of the school year: it's always expenses.

Captions 2-3, Nader Fakhry L'école pour tous

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Alternatively, you could call la rentrée “the new school year”:

Au lycée Louis Blériot, Karen Montet-Toutain est la grande absente de cette rentrée.

At Louis Blériot High School, Karen Montet-Toutain is the great absentee of this new school year.

Caption 30, Le Journal La violence à l'école

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Alas, la rentrée spells the end of summer vacations not just for students, but also for everyone else. In this context, it's better translated as “the return from the summer holidays”:

C'est la rentrée

It's the return from the summer holidays

Caption 2, Sophie et Patrice La rentrée

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La rentrée is also the time when workers go “back to work” and maybe brag about their vacations, just like school kids. In the following video, Sara jokingly tells us that it is la rentrée des superstars (back to work for the superstars), presumably with their glowing tans:

C'est la rentrée des superstars.

It's back to work for the superstars.

Caption 8, Sara et Lionel Le bronzage

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In any case, la rentrée is a big deal in France. But for some people, like Alexandre, the prospect of going back to work is depressing:

Alors, je sais pas pour toi, mais moi, la rentrée... Ouais, ça m'a déprimé.

So, I don't know about you, but me, going back to work... Yeah, it's depressed me.

Captions 1-3, Sophie et Alexandre Et la rentrée ?

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On the other hand, Sophie has a more positive outlook on la rentrée. She sees “returning to work” as a chance to start afresh, a kind of revolution even: 

Mais la rentrée, c'est une révolution.

But returning to work is a revolution.

Caption 47, Sophie et Alexandre Et la rentrée ?

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In some cases, this very concise word needs to be turned into a full clause to convey the idea! 

Mais là, à la rentrée, faudra qu'on s'organise bien

But now, when we're back at work, we'll have to get organized

Caption 54, Elisa et Mashal Photos

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As people get organized for la rentrée, it is not uncommon to wish someone une bonne rentrée, “a good start to the work/school year." This greeting won't be necessary for Sophie, as she is already off to a great start:

Bon apparemment tu passes une très bonne rentrée

Well, apparently you're having a very good start to the work year

Caption 65, Sophie et Alexandre Et la rentrée ?

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To sum up, la rentrée conveys the idea of going back to school or work and also marks the start of a new school or work year. However, don’t forget that the word rentrée can be used in other ways besides what we just mentioned. For example, you can talk about une rentrée d’argent (money coming in):

Une rentrée d’argent imprévue serait la bienvenue après les grandes vacances.

A windfall would be welcome after the long summer holidays.

And finally, remember that rentrée (returned) is also the feminine singular past participle of rentrer (to return):

Non, elle est rentrée sans chanter.

No, she came in without singing [she didn't come in singing].

Caption 59, Le saviez-vous? Les différentes négations - Part 3

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Wishing our Yabla students une bonne rentrée! For more information on the cultural event of la rentrée, check out this article. Thank you for reading!

In our previous lesson on nouns referring to humans, we learned that many nouns have dual genders that often end in -e in the feminine, which is especially useful for the feminization of job titles. In this lesson, we’ll focus on the many ways to feminize a job title and discuss what happens when there is no feminine equivalent. 

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Most profession names are masculine in French, regardless of whether they refer to men or women:

On a donc un kit de montage complet opérationnel à la portée d'un bon bricoleur ou d'un plombier

So we have a completely operational mounting kit within the capability of a good handyman or a plumber

Captions 30-31, Salon Eco Habitat: Primacalc, système anti-calcaire

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When no feminine title is available, we default to masculine. So, when referring to a woman pilot, for instance, we would simply say un pilote or une femme pilote (a woman pilot). (You may come across the feminine title une pilote, but it's relatively rare.)

Deux femmes pilotes parlent de leurs parcours : sexisme et regard des passagers.

Two female pilots talk about their journeys: sexism and passengers’ stares.

We also resort to the masculine when referring to a profession in general, as in les enseignants (teachers), or when we don’t know the gender of the person in question:

Parce que je dispose d'excellents liens avec les enseignants de mon master,

Because I have excellent connections with my master's degree instructors

Caption 66, QuestionEntretien: Pourquoi vous et pas un autre ? - Part 3

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For all that, many job titles do have a feminine equivalent, which often ends in -e, as in une députée (a female deputy):

Madame George Pau-Langevin, la députée de la quinzième circonscription

Ms. George Pau-Langevin, the deputy for the fifteenth constituency

Caption 92, Actu Vingtième: Le bleu dans les yeux, recyclerie de Belleville

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Note that you can only add an extra -e to an accented -é (-ée). Nouns that already end in -e (no accent) don’t change in the feminine form, as in un/une dentiste (a male/female dentist), the profession chosen by the girl’s schoolmate in the following video from Côte d'Ivoire:

Je veux être une dentiste.

I want to be a dentist.

Caption 96, Nader Fakhry: L'école pour tous

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(Bear in mind that usually, you would omit the article un/une when the job title comes directly after the verb être, but this may vary from one French-speaking country to another.)

In many cases, though, feminizing a job title is not as simple as adding an -e and requires making changes to the noun. 

Sometimes switching to feminine will cause a change in pronunciation for words ending with a consonant, as in un enseignant/une enseignante (teacher). The t in enseignante (female teacher) is sounded, but the t in enseignant (male teacher) is not:

Je suis enseignante de français langue étrangère, à l'Université Nancy Deux

I am an instructor of French as a foreign language at the University of Nancy Two

Caption 2, Yabla à Nancy: Université Nancy 2

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Other times, you will need to add a grave accent (è) and an extra -e to nouns ending in -er, as in infirmier/infirmière (male/female nurse). The suffix -er becomes -ère:

Je voulais être médecin. -C'est vrai? -Ouais, et je suis infirmière.

I wanted to be a doctor. -Is that true? -Yeah, and I am a nurse.

Caption 55, Micro-Trottoirs: Rêves d’enfants

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Nouns ending in -en often change to -enne in the feminine, as in chirurgien/chirurgienne (male/female surgeon). In the following example, we have the masculine version, un chirurgien, with a silent -n: 

Françoise Artigues accuse son chirurgien, le docteur Cujasse

Françoise Artigues is accusing her surgeon, Doctor Cujasse

Caption 1, Le Jour où tout a basculé -  À l'audience: Mon chirurgien était ivre - Part 1

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Nouns ending with the suffix -eur in the masculine form are a little bit more complicated, as they can take on different endings in the feminine. 

Un professeur (a male professor) simply becomes une professeur in the feminine or, less often, une professeure: 

Et j'ai pris sa suite avec la même professeur [or professeure] en fait.

And I followed in her footsteps with the same teacher, actually.

Caption 42, LCM Concert: La Folia à l'abbaye Saint-Victor

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Un auteur (a male author) can be feminized in two different ways. You can call a female author une auteure, a term borrowed from Canada, or you can say une autrice, the suffix -trice being more popular in France:

Enfin, en 2012, l’Académie française propose à son tour l’adoption du mot « auteure ». 

Finally in 2012, the Académie Française in turn proposes the adoption of the word “auteure” (female author).

Indeed, in Canada, they use the -eure suffix, as in traducteure (female translator), more frequently than in France, where they say traductrice instead:

Euh, ça m'a permis beaucoup de voyager et d'être parfois même la traducteure pour mon père ou ma mère

Uh, it's allowed me to travel a lot and to sometimes even be the translator for my dad or my mom

Captions 21-22, Annie Chartrand: Grandir bilingue

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The French usually prefer to use the suffix -trice, as in un acteur/une actrice. In the example below, Melissa Mars introduces herself as une actrice (an actress), among other things:

Bonjour! Je suis Melissa Mars. Je suis actrice, chanteuse, française ou martienne.

Hello! I am Melissa Mars. I'm an actress, singer, French or Martian.

Caption 1, Melissa Mars: Melissa et son premier album

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She also introduces herself as a singer, une chanteuse. Here we have yet another feminine form of -eur: -euse. So une chanteuse is un chanteur in the masculine, and une serveuse (a waitress) is un serveur (a waiter):

La serveuse t'aime bien Nico.

The waitress likes you, Nico.

Caption 16, Extr@ Ep. 6 - Le jour du loto - Part 5

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You might also see the suffix -esse, as in docteur/doctoresse (male/female doctor) and maître/maîtresse (school master/schoolmistress), but it's pretty dated.

The Académie Française, the French authority on language, has introduced many new feminine job titles, but it’s up to people to adopt them. Sometimes, women themselves don’t systematically adopt newly feminized titles. In the following video, the female judge introduces herself as le juge Beaulieu (Judge Beaulieu) even though she could have introduced herself as la juge:

Bonjour, je suis le juge Beaulieu.

Hello, I am Judge Beaulieu.

Caption 31, Le Jour où tout a basculé: À l'audience - Arnaque en couple ? - Part 1

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As you can see, the feminization of job titles is a work in progress, fraught with ambiguity and, sometimes, controversy. Just be sure to follow the correct grammatical rules applying to both masculine and feminine titles, as they are not negotiable in most cases.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for our next lesson on the gender of nouns referring to animals.