It’s time for another French word of the week. In today’s blog, we will be looking at the word affaire.
First of all, have a listen to the pronunciation in the audio clip below:
Moving on to the translation, you might already have noticed that this word seems similar to the English word ‘affair’. But rather than carrying connotations of scandalous activities, the French word affaire usually means affair in the sense of a ‘matter’, incident’ or ‘case’. In its plural form, affaires can also translate to ‘business’ as well as ‘belongings’.
Normally, you’d be able to work out that this is a feminine noun as it follows articles like une or la. But with the first letter ‘a’ being a vowel, you’ll see it as l’affaire rather than ‘la affaire’. This is known as ‘élision’ in French grammar.
Want to learn more? Head over to our Easy Learning French Grammar pages on noun genders, indefinite articles and definite articles.
With lots of different options for translation, it might be a good idea for us to get stuck into some examples:
une affaire d’État a matter of state
Ne dis rien à personne. C’est une affaire de famille. Don’t say anything to anyone else. It’s a family matter.
Je m’intéresse beaucoup aux affaires étrangères. I’m really interested in foreign affairs.
Occupe-toi de tes affaires. Mind your own business.
faire l’affaire to do the job
On avait besoin d’un hôtel au centre-ville, donc celui-ci a fait l’affaire. We needed a hotel in the city centre, so this one did the job.
avoir affaire à to have to face; to have to deal with
« As-tu peur ? » – « Oui, j’ai peur ! Je ne veux pas avoir affaire à la police. » “Are you scared?” – “Yes, I am scared! I don’t want to have to deal with the police.”
Est-ce vous pouvez ranger vos affaires avant de partir ? Can you tidy up your belongings before leaving?
Now we’ll look at some more specific examples of using affaire within the topic of business, commerce and money:
les affaires business
faire affaire (avec) to do business (with)
homme/femme d’affaires businessman/woman
faire une bonne affaire to get a good deal; to get a bargain
C’est une affaire à ce prix-là. It’s a bargain at that price.
We hope that this week’s blog has taught you enough about the word affaire. Now it’s just a matter of practising until you’ve got the hang of things! We’ll be back next week with another opportunity for you to improve your French vocabulary.
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
