French Expression

Meaning	to skip school/work, to play hooky/truant
Literally	to do bush/country school
Register	normal
Pronunciation		[fehr lay kuhl bwee suh nyehr]
IPA		[fɛʁ le kɔl bwi sɔ njɛʁ]

Usage notes: When you just don’t feel like going to school, you might play hooky in English, but in French, you go l’école buissonnière, or "bush school." Like "to play hooky," the meaning of faire l’école buissonnière can also refer to skipping work.

Par exemple…

 Conseil concis

Buissonnier (feminine buissonnière) comes from un buisson (bush). Logically enough, the expression was originally used literally in reference to a school out in the country.

 Related lessons

• Faire conjugations
• Adjective agreement
• School vocabulary

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Spooky French Vocabulary

Halloween is not a French holiday, though each passing year sees a few more bits and pieces of it imported to France.

Nevertheless, learning the French translations for Halloween vocabulary can be fun, especially for younger students. ‘Appy ‘Alloween! 

 Is it le Halloween or l’Halloween? The "H" is silent either way, and I see / hear it both ways. I guess because it’s a foreign word, the French haven’t come to a consensus on whether the H should be aspiré or muet.

	October	octobre
	October 31	le 31 octobre
	fall, autumn	automne
	All Saints’ Day	la Toussaint
	November 1st	le 1er novembre
	costume	un déguisement
	bat	une chauve-souris
	black cat	un chat noir
	devil	un diable
	ghost	un fantôme
	goblin	un lutin
	Grim Reaper	la Faucheuse
	mask	un masque
	monster	un monstre
	mummy	une momie
	scarecrow	un épouvantail
	skeleton	un squelette
	spider	une araignée
	vampire	un vampire
	werewolf	un loup-garou
	witch	une sorcière
	witch’s hat	un chapeau de sorcière, un chapeau pointu
	zombie	un zombie
	Halloween Decorations	Décorations de Halloween
	broom	un balai
	candle	une bougie
	cemetery	un cimetière
	full moon	une pleine lune
	haunted house	une maison hantée
	horror movie	un film d’horreur
	jack-o’-lantern	une citrouille-lanterne
	leaf	une feuille
	pumpkin	une citrouille, un potiron
	skull	un crâne
	spider web	une toile d’araignée
	tombstone	une tombe, une pierre tombale
	Halloween Verbs	Verbes pour Halloween
	to ask for	demander
	to be afraid (of)	avoir peur (de)
	to carve a pumpkin	sculpter une citrouille/un potiron
	to dress up as ___	se déguiser en ___
	to give	donner
	to haunt	hanter
	to knock on the door	frapper à la porte
	to play a trick (on someone)	jouer un tour (à qqun)
	to ring the doorbell	sonner à la porte
	to scare, frighten (someone)	faire peur (à qqun)
	to yell	crier

 Because it’s not a well-established French activity, there’s no single translation for the exclamatory "Trick or treat!" The most common ones are Friandises ou bêtises ! and Des bonbons ou un sort !, but there are numerous other possibilities.

More French for Halloween

Dictée: Le soir d’Halloween*

Fill-in-the-blanks exercises*

• Mes souvenirs d’Halloween (imperfect conjugations)
• Mon programme d’Halloween (contractions)
• La nuit d’Halloween (vocabulary)

* Note: You must be logged into your Progress with Lawless French account to do these exercises. If you don’t have one, sign up – it’s free!

Halloween-themed grammar quizzes

• Level A1
• Level A2
• Level B1
• Level B2
   
  (Explanation of levels)

Listening practice

• C’est l’Halloween (song)
• Châteaux et sites hantés en France
• Comment fabriquer une piñata d’Halloween
• Halloween à Biarritz
• Il y a un monstre sous mon lit !
• Maison hantée en Alsace
• La Toussaint et le Halloween en France

 French lesson plans

• Dans la citrouille (Lesson, 3rd-8th grade)
• Halloween Flashcard Game (Worksheet, 7th-9th grade)
• L’Halloween vocabulary (Word Puzzle, 9th-12th grade)

 Related lessons

• Calendar
• Dates
• Regular -er verbs

More from LKL

• Italian Halloween vocabulary
• Spanish Halloween vocabulary
• Pumpkin recipes

French vocabulary for other holidays

• Christmas
• Hanukkah
• Mardi Gras
• New Year
• Thanksgiving

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Gérer la peur de parler

Fear of speaking, glossophobia, is one of the most common phobias – even just in one’s native language. Leaving aside a general fear of public speaking and the question of how shy you might be, if you feel nervous when speaking French, it’s probably due to a lack of confidence in your skills: you don’t feel you have the grammar, vocabulary, and/or pronunciation needed in order to express yourself.

The obvious solution is to improve your French, and this site is filled with resources to help you do just that. Beyond lessons and learning, however, there are other ways to increase your confidence and feel more comfortable speaking French.

We all make mistakes

First of all, you should know that most people are forgiving of mistakes in their native language. Think about it – when a non-native speaker addresses you in English, are you really thinking “what a dummy, their sentence is all out of order, and that’s the wrong verb, and the less said about their pronunciation the better”? Or do you try to meet them halfway, ignoring or perhaps mentally correcting mistakes in order to understand what they’re working so hard to say? For most of us, it’s the latter, because we appreciate the effort people make to communicate. In my experience, the French much prefer that you speak to them in broken French, rather than being asked to speak to you in broken English – because they’re often just as anxious about their English! So don’t let fear of how well you speak French stop you.

Prepare yourself

If you’re going to ask for directions or buy a train ticket, think about what you want to say and how to say it beforehand. Try to anticipate what questions you might be asked and what additional information might be needed to achieve your task.

Talk about yourself

Whether you’re interested in current events, food, or travel, read about those topics and make a list of the words and phrases that crop up repeatedly. And if you find that you’re regularly getting pulled into discussions about tennis or movies, try to learn some of that vocabulary too.

Practice every chance you get

Speaking French is like playing the piano or making bread – the more you do it, the more comfortable it feels and the easier it gets. Join the Alliance française, hire a tutor, or place a classified ad to find someone to chat with regularly, even if they’re not fluent or native, but just another nervous French speaker like you. As you practice, you’ll gradually feel more comfortable and confident.

Consider AI

Being able to speak French with AI is an interesting development for language learners. You can practice whenever, wherever, and for however long you like, about anything and everything. Shyness, fear of making mistakes … none of that will hold you back any more!

• AImigo (from Frantastique)
• Langua (from LanguaTalk)

Just do it!

Finally, just try to relax, have fun, and remember why you’re learning French in the first place. It’s all about communication, so get out there and speak!

 Related features

• Conversational French
• Daily practice ideas
• Finding practice partners
• Independent study
• Progress with Lawless French
• Relearning French
• Solo French speaking practice
• Tutor search

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Les questions

Knowing how to ask questions is essential for making plans, shopping, traveling, getting to know people, and any other activity that requires obtaining information.

 "To ask" = demander.

Par exemple…
"He’s asking why." – Il demande pourquoi.

But "to ask a question" = poser une question.
You cannot say demander une question.

There are two different types of questions, and different ways to ask each type in French.

Closed Questions | Yes-No Questions | Simple Questions

Questions fermées | Questions totales

Questions which allow a limited selection of answers – a simple "yes" or "no" – are called closed questions. In English, closed questions always start with "do," "be," or "have," while in French they typically start either with the phrase est-ce que or with inversion.

Est-ce que

The phrase est-ce que (literally, "is it that") is the inversion of c’est que ("this is that"). In reality, est-ce que has no meaning at all – it simply goes in front of a statement to turn it into a question. This is the most common way to ask questions.

Par exemple…

  Note that a space is required in front of the question mark in French.

Inversion

In formal situations, inversion is more common: the subject pronoun and verb are inverted and joined with a hyphen:

Par exemple…

Informal Questions

In an informal situation, when you expect the answer to your question to be yes, you can ask by simply making a statement and raising your pitch at the end, just like in English.

Par exemple…

You can also use a tag question like n’est-ce pas ? for emphasis:

Par exemple…

Negative Questions

On the other hand, when you expect the answer to be no, you have two options:

• Formal: use inversion with a negative adverb
• Informal: make a negative statement and raise your pitch at the end

Par exemple…

To respond to the above, see Answering questions.

Open Questions | WH-Questions | Information Questions

Questions ouvertes | Questions partielles

When you ask for information about who, what, when, etc., you’re asking an open question. In French, just place the question word* in front of est-ce que or inversion.

Par exemple…

* The question word(s) may be any of the following:

• Interrogative adjective (quel) + noun
• Interrogative adverb (combien, comment, où, pourquoi, quand)
• Interrogative pronoun (qui, que)

** When an inverted verb ending in a vowel is followed by a pronoun beginning with a vowel, t- must be placed between them for euphony.

 Related lessons

• Informal questions
• Tag questions
• PwLF questions lessons – super list
• Answering questions
• Est-ce que
• N’est-ce pas
• Ne … pas and other negative adverbs
• No in French
• Yes in French
• Verb conjugations: demander | poser
• La question ne se pose pas
   

 En español

• Preguntas
   

 In italiano

• Domande
   

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Lucky French Expressions

Meaning	gap between front teeth, diastema
Literally	lucky teeth
Register	normal
Pronunciation	IPA	[da(n) du buh neur] [dã dy bɔ nœʁ]
	IPA	[da(n) deu lah sha(n)s] [dã də la ʃãs]

Usage notes: If you have a gap between your front teeth, you’re in luck – at least according to the French. They call the teeth on either side of a gap dents du bonheur or dents de la chance.

While many cultures consider the gap unattractive and something to be fixed, chez les Français.es it’s fashionable and alluring.

• À qui sont ces “dents de la chance” ? (L’Express)
• Souriez, vos dents du bonheur sont à la mode ! (Le Parisien)

Synonyms and related lucky expressions

• avoir de la chance
• avoir du pot
• Bonne chance !
• être chanceux
• être veinard (informal)
• Quelle chance !
• un coup de bol (informal)
• un coup de chance

 Related lessons

• Parts of the body
• Dentist
• De vs du

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