Festive French Vocabulary

Posted by Josh on 13th Dec 2023 in the blog in the learning french category

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It’s that time of the year again. The neige is falling, les châtaignes are roasting, and people are busy singing chants de Noël and decorating their sapins de Noël with babioles and sucres d’orge.

If you don’t recognise some of those words, then maybe you should spend some of your free time this December brushing up on your French. And we can think of worse ways to improve your language skills than by learning these French words associated with the holiday period.

Dates

English French
Christmas Eve la veille de Noël
Christmas Day le jour de Noël
New Year’s Eve le Réveillon de Nouvel an
New Year’s Day le jour de l'An
Advent l'Avent
Midnight Mass la Messe de Minuit
Hanukkah Hanoukka
The Epiphany la Fête des Rois / l'Épiphanie

Food

English French
pheasant le faisan
turkey la dinde
gingerbread man le bonhomme de pain d’épice(s)
candy cane le sucre d’orge
Yule log la bûche de noël
Chestnut la châtaigne / le marron

Environment

English French
Christmas tree le sapin de Noël
Nativity scene la crèche
mistletoe le gui
snow la neige
snowman le bonhomme de neige

Other

English French
Christmas Noël
elf le lutin de Noël
reindeer le renne
sleigh le traîneau
carol le chant de Noël
Christmas card la carte de Noël
Santa Claus le Père Noël

Check out some of our other blog posts!

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Fancy paint names have never been so fashionable nowadays but do paint industries think of us when they ask us to remember which colour is 'Je m'appelle Missy' or 'Bonjour!'? Put it this way, I can only say that my 50 shades of grey searching was not as exciting as the book (unfortunately, wink, wink). 

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