French Word of the Day

to grade the papers

Notre professeur a corrigé les copies.
Our professor graded the papers.

BACK-TO-SCHOOL VERB PRACTICE
Teachers, tell your students about our 4 new verb practice exercises — 100 questions total! — that we’ve added to our Voilà! members area. The online practice sessions make it easy to gain proficiency in -er, -ir, -re and the most common irregular verbs. For a sneak peek of Voilà!, click here.
NOT A MEMBER YET? SUBSCRIBE TODAY!

THIS WEEK
With the return of so many students to classrooms at the end of this month and early next, it’s a perfect time to get grounded in some of the basic vocabulary of the classroom. If you’re studying French for the first time, get ahead of the curve with these words and phrases — and maybe even impress le prof!

THE LATEST QUIZ IS READY FOR OUR VOILÀ! SUBSCRIBERS
Members of our Voilà service can go straight to this week’s quiz by clicking here.

OOPS!
Yesterday’s e-mail incorrectly identified the gender of the word clignotant. Please note that it is masculine.

n.m.pl., homework

Rendez vos devoirs avant de partir, s’il vous plaît.
Turn in your homework before leaving, please.

THIS WEEK
With the return of so many students to classrooms at the end of this month and early next, it’s a perfect time to get grounded in some of the basic vocabulary of the classroom. If you’re studying French for the first time, get ahead of the curve with these words and phrases — and maybe even impress le prof!

BACK-TO-SCHOOL VERB PRACTICE!
Teachers, tell your students about our 4 new verb practice exercises — 100 questions total! — that we’ve added to our Voilà! members area. The online practice sessions make it easy to gain proficiency in -er, -ir, -re and the most common irregular verbs. For a sneak peek of Voilà!, click here.
NOT A MEMBER YET? SUBSCRIBE TODAY!

THE LATEST QUIZ IS READY FOR OUR VOILÀ! SUBSCRIBERS
Members of our Voilà service can go straight to this week’s quiz by clicking here.

to study

Marie étudie français tous les jours.
Marie studies French every day.

n.m.pl., math

Pierre et Paul étudient les maths.
Pierre and Paul study math.

TODAY
Note how the French use the plural les maths instead of a singular form of the word as we do in English. It’s just one of several examples of singular and plural differences between the two languages.

to compete against each other

Les écoles se font concurrence dans les matchs de football.
Schools play against each other in football (soccer) games.

MORE ABOUT FAIRE
Faire, which literally means to do or to make, is among the most common of French verbs. It is used in many expressions. To learn how to conjugate it, have a look at our entry on faire in our Quick Verb Guide.

DID YOU KNOW?
In French, le football means soccer. If you want to talk about the American sport of football, you should say le football américain.

TODAY
We’re learning some of the basic vocabulary of the classroom. If you’re studying French for the first time, get ahead of the curve with these words and phrases — and maybe even impress le prof!

DISCOVER MORE FRENCH CLASSROOM VOCABULARY WORDS
Once you’ve mastered how to say to compete in French, learn these other classroom vocabulary words.

• Dorm, College
• Homework
• Math
• Paper, Piece of
• Professor/Teacher
• Student
• To Grade Papers
• To Major In
• To Study
• To Take a Class

READY FOR CLASS?
Take our French Classroom Vocabulary Quiz to test your skills.

to major in

Janet se spécialise en français. Et moi, je me spécialise en anglais.
Janet’s majoring in French. And I’m majoring in English.

THIS WEEK
With the return of so many students to classrooms at the end of this month and early next, it’s a perfect time to get grounded in some of the basic vocabulary of the classroom. If you’re studying French for the first time, get ahead of the curve with these words and phrases — and maybe even impress le prof!

BACK-TO-SCHOOL VERB PRACTICE!
Teachers, tell your students about our 4 new verb practice exercises — 100 questions total! — that we’ve added to our Voilà! members area. The online practice sessions make it easy to gain proficiency in -er, -ir, -re and the most common irregular verbs. For a sneak peek of Voilà!, click here.
READY TO JOIN US? SUBSCRIBE TODAY!

THE LATEST QUIZ IS READY FOR OUR VOILÀ! SUBSCRIBERS
Members of our Voilà service can go straight to this week’s quiz by clicking here.

to take a class

Je veux suivre un cours en astronomie.
I want to take a class in astronomy.

TODAY
Our word is part of the basic vocabulary of the classroom. If you’re studying French for the first time, get ahead of the curve with words like these — and maybe even impress le prof!

QUIZ LINK
Test yourself on today’s word and others like it here.

a student

Jean est étudiant. Mireille est étudiante aussi.
Jean is a student; Mireille is also a student.

teacher, professor

Madame DuChamps est professeur de français.
Mrs. DuChamps is a French teacher.

TIP: The gender of the word professeur is masculine whether it refers to a man or woman.

a misspelling

Eifel est une faute d’orthographe. L’orthographe correcte est bien sûr Eiffel.
Eifel is a misspelling. The correct spelling is, of course, Eiffel.

MORE FRENCH VOCABULARY WORDS
After you’ve learned to say misspelling in French, follow the links below to discover more French vocabulary words about the classroom:

• Dorm, College
• Homework
• Math
• Paper, Piece of
• Professor/Teacher
• Student
• To Compete Against Each Other
• To Grade Papers
• To Major In
• To Study
• To Take a Class

a piece of paper

Pourrais-tu me donner une feuille de papier, s’il te plaît?
Could you give me a piece of paper, please?

RELATED WORDS

• Une feuille literally means a leaf, as covered in this archive example.
• The verb feuilleter means to flip or leaf through a book.

a college dorm or residence hall

Habites-tu une résidence universitaire?
Do you live in a college dorm?

REMARQUEZ!
Habiter, which means to live in, is one of the first verbs most students of French learn. Although it can take a preposition (j’habite dans un appartement), French speakers commonly omit the preposition as in today’s example.

THIS WEEK
With the return of so many students to classrooms at the end of this month and early next, it’s a perfect time to get grounded in some of the basic vocabulary of the classroom. If you’re studying French for the first time, get ahead of the curve with these words and phrases — and maybe even impress le prof!

BACK-TO-SCHOOL VERB PRACTICE!
Teachers, tell your students about our 4 new verb practice exercises — 100 questions total! — that we’ve added to our Voilà! members area. The online practice sessions make it easy to gain proficiency in -er, -ir, -re and the most common irregular verbs. For a sneak peek of Voilà!, click here.
NOT A MEMBER YET? SUBSCRIBE TODAY!

THE LATEST QUIZ IS READY FOR OUR VOILÀ! SUBSCRIBERS
Members of our Voilà service can go straight to this week’s quiz by clicking here.