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FRENCH WORD OF THE DAY

French word of the day: Purée

Few French people actually think about mashed potatoes when using this expression.

Published: 3 December 2019 16:14 CET

French word of the day: Purée

Why do I need to know purée?

It's a swearword you can use in front of basically anyone.

What does it mean?

As a swearword, purée falls among the really harmless insults that you may use as you please.

Purée ! – Mashed potato!

It is kind of like saying 'oh sugar!' if you drop a vase in front of your kids. Even an old, posh French lady could probably hear you exclaim purée without frowning.

When can I use it?

Whenever!

Use purée like you use putain – which French people tend to do constantly (read more about putain here) – just without the fear of offending someone nearby.

Tu as vu l'heure? Purée, on est en retard – Did you see the time? Shoot, we're running late

Purée, il pleut ! – Oh darn, it's raining!

Purée, on a pas fait assez de purée – Oh sod it, we didn't make enough mashed potatoes.

Another French variant is punaise, 'darn' it', or the funny-sounding saperlipopette, which according to an online dictionary is an “ancient term used to express astonishment”.

Any other options?

Don't forget that purée really refers to a delightful side dish that is mashed potatoes. Although the most traditional version is crushed pommes de terres (potatoes) mixed with a generous lump of butter, purée technically means “mash” and you can use in front of all mashed veggies:

Purée aux épinards – mashed spinach

Purée de carotte – mashed carrots

Purée de pois cassés – mashed peas

Or (personal favourite) Purée aux truffes – mashed potatoes with truffle oil.

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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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