French Work and School Vocabulary: 100 Everyday Words

Work and school take up most of an adult's week, so they come up early in any conversation. Someone asks Qu'est-ce que vous faites dans la vie ? ("What do you do?") within the first two minutes. You need these words to say what you study, what you do and where you go every morning.

This page groups more than 100 of them the way your week is actually organised: the school, the subjects, the things in your bag, the exams, then the job, the office and the people in it. It also covers the one grammar rule every "I'm a teacher" sentence depends on, and the false friends that make English speakers say the wrong thing with total confidence.

Learn each noun with its article: le stylo, la réunion, l'examen (m). The gender changes the words around it, and a listener notices it before anything else.

L'école — places and people

Élève and étudiant are not interchangeable. A twelve-year-old is an élève. Calling them an étudiant sounds as odd as calling a university student a "pupil".

Les matières — school subjects

Les fournitures — what's in your bag

Les études — lessons, homework and exams

The false friend that costs people the most sleep: passer un examen. It means to take an exam, not to pass it. Je passe mon examen demain = "I'm sitting my exam tomorrow." To pass, you say réussir (J'ai réussi mon examen). To fail, rater in speech, or échouer à in writing. Tell a French friend j'ai passé l'examen and they will ask how it went.

Le travail — work and jobs

Au bureau — the office and the tools

Les gens — the people you work with

Outside the timetable

The rest of the cluster: the words a school or work week spills into.

The rule every job sentence runs on: no article after être

In English you are a teacher. In French, after être + a profession, you drop the article:

Use c'est un / une instead when you introduce or point at someone: C'est un prof génial ("He's a great teacher"). The article comes back as soon as an adjective or a c'est arrives. Say je suis un prof and a French listener hears English, even if every sound is perfect.

The feminine is worth saying out loud too, because it often changes the sound and not only the spelling. Étudiant ends on a nasal [e·ty·djɑ̃]; étudiante adds a [t] [e·ty·djɑ̃t]. Infirmier [ɛ̃·fiʁ·mje] becomes infirmière [ɛ̃·fiʁ·mjɛʁ]. Get the last sound wrong and you have changed the person's gender mid-sentence.

Five sentences to say out loud

• Qu'est-ce que vous faites dans la vie ? — the standard "what do you do?". Qu'est-ce que runs together as [kɛs·kə].
• Je travaille dans une boîte de conseil. — dans une links: [dɑ̃·zyn].
• Je suis étudiante en droit. — "I'm studying law." En + the subject, no article.
• J'ai une réunion à dix heures. — dix heures links on a [z]: [di·zœʁ].
• Je passe un examen demain. — remember: taking it, not passing it. Un examen links: [œ̃·nɛɡ·za·mɛ̃].

Say the eight that break

Work and school words look familiar because so many of them are close to English. That is exactly why English speakers say them the English way:

1. le travail [tʁa·vaj] — ends on a [j] glide, not an l. "Tra-vile" is the classic mistake.
2. la réunion [ʁe·y·njɔ̃] — three syllables, French u in the middle, nasal at the end. Not "reunion".
3. l'examen [ɛɡ·za·mɛ̃] — x is [ɡz], and the ending is the nasal [ɛ̃], not "-men".
4. le cahier [ka·je] — two syllables, silent h, silent r.
5. le / la collègue [kɔ·lɛɡ] — stress is even, and the final gue is just [ɡ].
6. l'ordinateur [ɔʁ·di·na·tœʁ] — four even syllables and two French _r_s.
7. le professeur [pʁɔ·fɛ·sœʁ] — -eur is the rounded [œ], not the English "-er".
8. l'équipe [e·kip] — qu is [k], and the i is short and tight, not "ee-keep".

→ For réunion, musique and étudiant: French U vs OU: 20 Minimal Pairs, Scored

→ For examen, emploi and entretien: French Nasal Vowels AN EN ON IN

→ For travail, professeur and ordinateur: The French R for English Speakers

→ For dix heures and un examen: Enchaînement: Why Your French Sounds Choppy

→ For more pairs like these: 50 French Minimal Pairs to Train Your Mouth

Say it, then check it

Work and school are where your French gets judged fastest: in a job interview, in a meeting, or on the first day of a course. They are also where a near-English word lets you down. Réunion said the English way, travail with an l, or je suis un prof all tell the listener you translated.

Say the eight above into Simply French and get each one scored before your next Qu'est-ce que vous faites dans la vie ?

Related

• How to Talk About Your Job in French (A1-16)
• Talk About Your Daily Routine in French (A1-22)
• How to Talk About Hobbies in French (A1-21)
• Places in Town in French: 80 Words for Getting Around
• French Adjectives List: 90 Describing Words
• Family Members in French: The Complete Vocabulary List
• The 15 Hardest French Words to Pronounce