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FRENCH WORD OF THE DAY

French Expression of the Day: 06

French people will ask for yours if you live here and if you're a fan of rap, you can finally understand why La League incorporated this expression in their song lyrics.

Published: 5 July 2019 17:13 CEST
French Expression of the Day: 06
Photo: Depositphotos
Why do I need to know 06?
 
If you live in France and have a French mobile phone number, chances are potential lovers, business partners, or friends will ask you for your 06.
 
What does it mean?
 
The expression 06 refers to the fist two digits of a French mobile number. Although +33 is the country code, 06 is specific to mobile phones. So when an acquaintance asks for your 06, he or she wants to have your mobile number.
 
Once you incorporate 06 into your vocabulary, many will have the impression that you do live in France or at least have stayed here for a while.
 
Examples:
 
Donne-moi ton 06 pour qu’on puisse se capter parfois. – ‘Give me your cellphone number so that we can hang out sometime.'
 
Tapez ton 06 pour prendre un rendez vous. – ‘Type your number to book an appointment.'
 
C’est qui ce mec? Il est beau gosse, mais je ne pense pas qu’il veuille mon 06. – ‘Who is that guy? He’s really attractive, but I don’t think that he’ll want my phone number.’
 
Where does it come from?
 
The origin of 06 is unclear but according to some sources it was created by young people living in the banlieues (France’s northeastern suburbs, in particular).
 
The expression has grown so popular in the suburbs that La League created a song after it (see below).
 

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FRENCH WORD OF THE DAY

French word of the Day: Jours ouvrés

You'll need to check the calendar carefully when you see this.

Published: 17 May 2024 12:36 CEST
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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