Holidays

Holidays in the future

Asking about holidays

To find out about someone's holiday you can ask:

Où vas-tu en vacances? - Where are you going on holiday?

Avec qui? - Who with?

Pour combien de temps? - For how long?

Qu’est-ce que tu vas faire? - What are you going to do?

Talking about holidays

To talk about your holidays you can start off by saying:

Je vais… – I’m going…

Nous allons… – We’re going…

…and then add in where you are going:

• au bord de la mer - to the seaside
• au Parc Disneyland - to Disneyland Paris
• à la montagne - to the mountains
• à la campagne - to the countryside

Going to a city?

Use à:

• à Paris - to Paris
• à Londres - to London

Going to a country?

Use en (for feminine countries), au (for masculine countries) or aux (for plural countries):

• En Espagne - to Spain
• Au Canada - to Canada
• Aux États-Unis - to the USA

As you might have noticed, in order to talk about a future holiday you'll need to use the correct form of the verb aller.

Click here to find out more about the simple future tense

Giving more details

To talk a little more about your holiday you can say:

J’y vais avec…

I'm going (there) with…

ma famille - my family

mes copains - my friends

mes parents - my parents

mon père et ma belle-mère - my dad and stepmother

Pour…

For…

un week-end - a weekend

une semaine - a week

dix jours - ten days

quinze jours - a fortnight (in French you say 'fifteen days')

un mois - a month

Je vais faire…

I'm going to do / go…

du camping - camping

de la natation - swimming

des pique-niques - picnicking

Je vais jouer…

I'm going to play…

au foot - football

au golf - golf

au badminton - badminton

When talking about sports/hobbies, the verb jouer is always followed by au and the verb faire is always followed by du/de, la or des.

Click here to recap on sports and hobbies

Using information on this page, translate the short paragraph below.

You'll find the answer on the following slide.

Holidays in the past

To talk about a holiday you've already taken you will have to use the perfect tense.

Click here to find out more about the perfect tense.

Quiz

Find out how much you know about holidays in French with this short quiz.