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CHRISTMAS

Vive le vent: The French phrases you need at Christmas time

If you're in France for the festive season then there are few words, phrases and expressions that will come in handy. Joyeux Noël is a decent start, but here are some thoughts on where to go from there.

Vive le vent: The French phrases you need at Christmas time
Photo by Mark Makela / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

Getting through the holidays in a country far from home can be tricky – especially if you’re not yet fluent in the language. Here’s a quick guide to handy French phrases you can use in every festive situation.

Nedelag Laouen, Bon Natale, Bon Nouvè, E güeti Wïnâchte, and Zorionak 

So you’ve figured out how to say Joyeux Noël? Great, but to really impress, try saying it it in some of France’s regional dialects. The above examples are Breton, Corsican, Provencal, Alsatian and Basque.

If you want to wish someone a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year you can also say Bonnes fêtes de fin d’année or just Bonne fêtes for Happy Christmas.

Cantiques and Chants profanes

These are the two kinds of chansons you’ll be hearing everywhere everywhere over the festive season, but what’s the difference? Well, a cantique is a religious carol, sung in churches, whereas les chants profanes are more modern and have less to do with the traditional Christian Nativity story.

Joyeux Nono

Roughly equivalent to wishing someone a ‘merry Crimbo’ in the English-speaking world, this slang greeting might help you feel more French.

Vive le vent – Long live the wind

After battling through France’s less-than-pleasant winter weather, you may feel that cursing the wind is more appropriate than singing its praises. But these are the lyrics to the chorus of a classic French holiday song, sung to the tune of Jingle Bells, so get practising.

Qu’est-ce que le père Noël t’a apporté? – What did Father Christmas bring you?

This phrase could prove useful if you’ll be spending time around children this festive season. Lack of French skills will not be accepted as an excuse for forgetting to keep up the Father Christmas myth.

Noël au balcon, Pâques au tison – Christmas on the balcony, Easter around the fire

This is a traditional saying that means that a warm Christmas will bring a cold spring. Reeling off a few old proverbs like this is a good way to fill any awkward silences at big family meals and move conversation back to the safer territory of the weather, although we’re not sure how accurate this saying is as a forecasting device in the days of climate change. 

Noël sous la neige – White Christmas

Will you actually have a chance to use this phrase? Unless you’re spending Christmas in the Alps, it’s more likely that you’ll be having a mild, cloudy and wet Christmas this year, according to Météo France

In French we simply talk about a ‘snowy’ Christmas rather than a white Christmas – describing something as blanc/blanche usually means that the thing is cancelled or didn’t happen – eg 2021 was ‘une saison blanche‘ for the ski industry because of pandemic restrictions.

Le Réveillon

This is the name for both the main Christmas meal, which traditionally takes place late on December 24th , and for the dinner on New Year’s Eve.

It comes from the verb ‘veiller’ – ‘to stay awake’ or ‘to keep vigil’ – and come from the old practice of going to Midnight Mass and then coming back to eat the traditional seafood banquet. These days, many families prefer to eat at a more normal time, but the name has stuck.

In Brittany, legend says that the dead come back to the houses they once lived in and join the current occupants at the table at midnight, just for the amount of time it takes for the clock to strike twelve…

Finir les restes – To eat the leftovers

What you’ll almost certainly be doing the day after Le Reveillon.

Je me régale, c’est vraiment génial/sensationnel//intéressant – I love it, it’s really great/stunning/interesting

Whether you genuinely want to express your gratitude for a thoughtful gift, or need to fake it when you receive a jumper of questionable taste from in-laws, these words should do the trick. Even better, using the reflexive verb ‘se régaler’ sounds much more sophisticated than boring old ‘j’aime’.

La Grande Vadrouille – The Great Stroll

You’re likely to hear these words a lot over the festive season because it’s the title of a comedy film often shown on French TV over Christmas. First released in 1966 and set during the time of Nazi occupation in France, it tells the story of two Frenchmen who help the crew of an RAF bomber escape through France after their plane is shot down.

Santé/À la tienne/Tchin-tchin – Cheers

At Christmas, you’re likely to be indulging in French wines more than ever, so make sure you’ve brushed up on the various ways of saying ‘cheers’. And on the subject of toasting traditions in France, always maintain eye contact and make sure you don’t cross your glass with anyone else’s – if you do, it means you’ll suffer from seven years of bad sex or bad luck, depending who you ask.

On chante tant Noël qu’il vient – We sing about Christmas so much that it has arrived

Here’s a French proverb which will help you sound wise, even if you’re actually still struggling with the language. Casually insert it into the conversation whenever someone mentions how early Christmas adverts or decorations came out this year, and you’re sure to get heads nodding in agreement.

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ELECTIONS

10 essential French phrases to help you understand France’s snap election

Here are some of the words and phrases that you're likely to hear during the campaign for upcoming parliamentary elections in France.

10 essential French phrases to help you understand France's snap election

France heads to the polls at the end of the month, after President Emmanuel Macron called a snap election following a humiliating loss in the recent European vote.

If you’re either following French media or talking talking with your French friends, colleagues or neighbours then here are a few handy phrases to understand.

READ ALSO What would a victory for Le Pen’s party mean for France?

Législatives – these elections are parliamentary elections, where the voters are picking their local representative in the Assemblée nationale and therefore determining the make-up of the French parliament. They are known in French as les élections législatives or more commonly simply les législatives (pronounced roughly as lej-is-la-teev).

They are distinct from un élection présidentielle, which elects the president.

Scrutin – Scrutin, pronounced scroo-tan, is a word used to describe the vote. Le jour du scrutin = the day of the vote. 

Sondage – Sondage, pronounced son-darjh, is an opinion poll. 

They are frequently used in French media coverage of elections and provide a guide as to which issues are important for voters and which candidates are the most popular. 

As is always the case, however, they should be taken with a pinch of salt. Experts note that a number of variables can influence the result of a poll, including timing, phrasing, whether it is conducted online or in-person and the make-up of the sample. 

READ ALSO Who can vote in France’s snap parliamentary elections?

Aux urnes – Classic history rears its head every time there’s an election in France, with this snappy, headline-friendly term that dates back to antiquity.

Aux urnes – pronounced ohz urns – is the act of voting itself, and references the ancient Greek manner of voting, in which light or dark-coloured pebbles were placed into an urn to indicate a voter’s intentions. It basically means ‘to the ballot box’, but because its phrasing echoes the French national anthem’s famous line of Aux armes citoyens it’s used as a rallying call for people to vote.

Taux de participation – Taux de participation, pronounced toe de parti sipass-ion, literally means ‘rate of participation’. 

In an electoral context, this is used to describe the voter turnout – the percentage of the voting age population who cast their vote during an election. 

READ ALSO A voté: How to register and cast your vote in France

Voter turnout tends to be significantly lower in legislative, municipal and EU parliament elections in France – June’s European elections, the result of which in France prompted Macron to call the snap parliamentary poll, saw a turnout of 51.49 percent, one-and-a-half points higher than in 2019.

The opposite of a taux de participation is a taux d’abstentiontoe dab-stenss-ion – abstention rate. 

Premier tour/ deuxieme tour – As in presidential elections in French parliamentary elections, there are two rounds of voting. These rounds are referred to as tours, pronounced tore

In the first round (June 30th) the electorate can cast their vote for any of the official candidates.  

If any of these candidates win an absolute majority in the first round of the election (more than 50 percent of the vote) then there is no need for a second round. If no-one gets 50 percent, the top-scoring candidates from this first round then face off in a second round (July 7th), with the highest scoring candidate winning.

In presidential elections only the two highest scorers from round one go through to round two. However in parliamentary elections anyone who got more than 12.5 percent of the vote goes through to the second round – so second rounds can be a three or even four-person run-off.

Dissolution – Britons in France, cast your mind back to history lessons in school, and Henry VIII’s ‘dissolution of the monasteries’, and you’ll be on the right sort of lines. In 21st-century French political terms ‘dissolution’ – pronounced diss-o-loose-eon – means winding up, or termination of the current parliament to prepare for the election.

READ ALSO Macron dissolves parliament and calls elections after big EU vote defeat

Front republicain – The concept of a ‘Front republicain’ – pronounced front re-publee-cahn – is far from new. It’s the idea that, when necessary, France’s mainstream parties put aside their differences in order to combat extremists, particularly those among the far-right movement.

It has been seen in the second round of the presidential elections of 2017 and 2022, when the final candidates were far-right leader Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron – and in that context plenty of people who detest Macron and all that he stands for cast their vote for him because they considered the alternative, a far-right president of France, was much worse.

For these parliamentary elections, the Front Républicain is more to do with political parties and essentially involves parties making agreements not to run candidates against each other in certain constituencies, to avoid splitting the vote and allowing in  a Rassemblement National candidate.

It’s sometimes also known as a Front populaire.

READ ALSO What happens next as France heads for snap elections?

Pari fou – This is not a standard election phrase, admittedly. Pari fou – pronounced, pretty much as it’s written, parry foo – means crazy bet. 

It has been used to describe Macron’s decision to go to the polls – and it has the advantage of being short and snappy, so newspaper subs love it because it makes for a punchy headline.

Barrage – Another non-standard French electioneering term. A barrage – pronounced bah-rarjh – is a dam.

In today’s politics, it is being used to describe efforts to block the electoral path to power for the far-right parties. As in the headline: Emmanuel Macron appelle les électeurs à se rendre aux urnes pour faire barrage à l’extrême droiteEmmanuel Macron calls on voters to go to the polls to block the far right.

READ ALSO Macron asks backing from all ‘able to say no to extremes’ in snap vote

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