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FRENCH WORD OF THE DAY

French Word of the Day: divulgâcher

If you want to speak French with the full approval of the country's language guardians, you'll want to add this word to your vocabulary list.

Published: 10 July 2019 15:20 CEST
French Word of the Day: divulgâcher
Photo: Depositphotos
Why do I need to know divulgâcher?
 
 
Many of the words we cover in our French Word of the Day series are the ones your teachers don't want you to say, often because they're considered slang, swearing or abbreviations. 
 
But if someone from the Academie Francaise is in the vicinity when you break out this word, you'll probably be given an official award for services to the French language right there on the spot. 
 
So, what does it mean?
 
Divulgâcher is a combination of the words divulguer ('to divulge') and gâcher ('to ruin'). 
 
It is a new word created in a bid to stop the French from using the word spoiler, taken from the English noun used to describe something that ruins a story/film etc. 
 
In French, spoiler is used as a verb but the Academie Francaise – the notoriously conservative organisation which deplores nothing more than the French adopting English words – hopes that divulgâcher will replace it. 
 
 
 

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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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