Bonjour to our regular readers and to anyone new joining us this week! For this edition of our blog, we’re looking at the word accueil.
It’s not the easiest French word to pronounce, so we’d recommend starting off by listening to the audio clip below:
Now that you know what it sounds like, we’re ready to move on to what it means. There are several English translations for accueil, but you’ll notice that they all have a similar theme – it can mean ‘welcome’, ‘reception’ or, in digital contexts, a ‘homepage’. As a masculine noun, you might see it alongside the article un, as well as contractions like l’ or d’ because accueil starts with a vowel.
Just before we launch into some examples, it’s worth noting the difference here between accueil and bienvenue, which is a word that a lot of learners pick up early:
- You’d use bienvenue in the context of greeting someone, like saying ‘Welcome to our home!’ in English. It can also be an adjective to describe someone or something as ‘being welcome’.
- While similar in meaning, you can only use accueil as a noun, which wouldn’t it work in a phrase like ‘Welcome to Dijon!’.
Things should start to make more sense when we look at some examples in context:
centre (m) d’accueil / bureau (m) d’accueil reception centre / welcome office
Rendez-vous à l’accueil s’il vous plait. Please meet at the reception desk.
Son premier roman a reçu un accueil enthousiaste. Her first novel received an enthusiastic reception.
faire bon ou mauvais accueil à quelqu’un to give someone a warm or cold reception
Votre frère m’a fait mauvais accueil quand je suis arrivé. Your brother gave me a frosty reception when I arrived.
Cet été, je vais travailler en Maroc. J’habiterai avec une famille d’accueil. This summer, I am going to work in Morocco. I will be living with a host family.
Nous avons grandi en famille d’accueil. We grew up in a foster family.
Tout le monde doit assister à la cérémonie d’accueil demain soir. Everyone must attend the welcome ceremony tomorrow evening.
Peut-on personnaliser la page d’accueil ? Can you personalise the homepage?
It’s also worth knowing about this noun’s related verb and adjective, which are accueillir and accueillant respectively. You can see how the word accueil sits within each word, making it quite easy to deduce their meanings once you understand the noun:
accueillir to welcome; to take (someone) in; to receive; to accommodate
accueillant(e) friendly; warm; welcoming
We hope that our weekly blogs are giving you the confidence to try out your new French vocabulary. We’d love to welcome you back here again next week for another word!
Written by Holly Tarbet, freelance copywriter and editor.
All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.
