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FRENCH WORD OF THE DAY

French Word of the Day: À priori

This French expression might sound strange when you first hear it because it comes straight from Latin. Here we take a look at what à priori really means.

Published: 4 October 2018 17:26 CEST

French Word of the Day: À priori

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Why have we chosen à priori?

You'll hear this French expression used in everyday conversation and it's one that's likely to sound particularly strange if you don't already know it.

You'll also see it used fairly regularly in French headlines.

What does it mean?

This expression actually has Latin origins and while it is used a lot in French, in English its usage is largely restricted to philosophy and statistics.

Strictly it means 'in theory' but is used in a variety of contexts which can give the expression slightly different meanings.

Depending on the context, it can be used to mean 'in principle', 'if everything goes as planned' and 'unless something changes'.

It can also mean 'at first glance' or 'from a quick look' .

On top of that, it can be used to mean 'prejudice' or 'preconception'.

If you're in doubt about how to pronounce it, this Youtube video below will help.

Examples

A priori, sa proposition paraît satisfaisante. – In principle, his suggestion seems satisfactory.

Ce biberon semble a priori inoffensif, mais en réalité, il ne l'est pas! – At first glance, this baby's bottle seems harmless, but in reality it is not!

Il a trop d'a priori et manque d'objectivité – He has too many preconceptions and lacks objectivity.

(The above examples are from wordreference.com)

Tu dois le rencontrer sans à priori. – You must meet him without set opinions (= with an open mind)

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French word of the Day: Jours ouvrés

Why do I need to know jours ouvrés?

Because you need an accurate time estimate.

What does it mean?

As most French learners will know, jours means days, while in this context ouvrés means ‘working’. Therefore jours ouvrés – roughly pronounced jzoor-ouv-ray – means ‘working days’. You may also see jours ouvrables, which means the same thing.

You’re most likely to come across this in the context of estimates on how long things will take – for example a delivery or the processing of an official task or perhaps the results for a test or exam.

And this is where the calendar comes in – ‘working days’ doesn’t include the weekends, but also excluded are public holidays, of which France has quite a lot. So an estimate for livraison dans les cinq jours ouvrés – might actually take almost two weeks to reach you, if there are weekend days and public holidays in between.

Days on either side of public holidays (known as ‘pont‘ days) are technically working days, but don’t be too surprised if things don’t happen on these days either.

Although ouvrés looks similar to ouvrir (to open) the root of the work is actually ouvrer – an archaic verb meaning to work or to labour.

This word was gradually supplanted by travailler in around the 16th century, but some derivatives of it are still used – most commonly ouvrier (or ouvrière for women) which means a worker – it can be used for all types of salaried workers, but is more commonly used for people who do manual labour or work with their hands.

It’s often used in a political sense too – one of France’s leftist political parties is Lutte ouvrière, which translates as Worker’s struggle.

Use it like this

La livraison est estimée à trois jours ouvrés – Delivery is estimated within three working days

Les résultats seront communiqués sous 48 hours (jours ouvrés) – the results will be sent within 48 hours (on working days)

Not to be confused with

If you want to talk about ‘open days’ – days when institutions including schools, the military or artists workshops open up to the public – in France these are known as portes ouvertes (literally ‘open doors’).

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