Describing work and job routines in French

• There are different ways of forming the feminine version of job nouns.

• With some jobs, the noun stays the same and the article changes.

• Some nouns have spelling changes in the feminine form.

• This guide contains two listening activities.

Useful vocabulary for talking about different jobs and possible future careers includes:

Many French words are cognates, which look similar to English words and have the same meaning. The following cognates may be useful in your speaking and writing exams.

• un bloggeur / une bloggeuse - blogger
• un footballeur / une footballeuse - footballer
• un gameur / une gameuse - gamer
• un vloggeur / une vloggeuse - vlogger

Remember

An article isn’t needed when talking about jobs in French.

For example:

Ma mère est prof de maths. - My mum is a maths teacher.

Je voudrais être médecin. - I would like to be a doctor.

There are four different ways of forming the feminine version of regular job nouns in French:

1. Change the article (not the noun).

La professeur commence demain. - The (female) teacher starts tomorrow.

2. Add e to the end of the masculine noun.

Elle est avocate et écrivaine. - She’s a lawyer and writer.

3. Change eur to euse or rice on the end of the noun.

Je suis chanteuse et actrice. - I am a (female) singer and actor.

Note that professeur (teacher) is an exception to this rule.

Le professeur - male teacher

La professeur - female teacher

However, it is more common to use le/la prof to mean ‘teacher’ in French.

4. Change en to enne on the end of the noun.

Ma tante est mécanicienne. - My aunt is a mechanic.

Remember

Some French job nouns are irregular in their feminine form, for example:

Some jobs use homme/femme in the role title, for example:

L’homme politique - male politician

La femme politique - female politician

Listen to these people talking about their jobs on a French podcast.

For each person, write down the following information in English:

• their job title

• their opinion of their job

Areas and sectors people work in include:

Different tasks people might do at work include:

For example:

Le matin, j’envoie des emails et je parle aux clients. - In the morning, I send emails and talk to customers.

Dan ma carrière, je veux aider les autres. - In my career, I want to help other people.

All Foundation Tier vocabulary listed in this guide can be found on the vocabulary sheet below.

Listen to three people talking about their work in a radio interview. For each person, choose the correct job from the options given.

Click or tap on the image below for a list of useful vocabulary to use when describing work and job routines.

Useful vocabulary to describe jobs includes:

Did you know?

There are several different words for ‘job’ in French. You might see the terms un travail, un emploi, un boulot or un métier. To talk about a ‘career’, use une carrière.

Useful vocabulary for talking about work places and tasks includes:

All vocabulary listed in this guide can be found on the vocabulary sheet below.

Click or tap on the image below for a list of useful Higher Tier vocabulary to use when describing work and job routines.

Now you have learned about describing describing work and job routines why not look at the Describing accomodation in French guide.