While learning a new language can sometimes feel like a full-time job in itself, you might also find yourself on the topic of work in a French conversation. From doing a ski season, to teaching English as foreign language, there might be lots of reasons why you’re living in France for employment rather than a holiday.
This month’s blog will cover various nouns, verbs and phrases related to the world of work in French. Once you’re feeling more familiar with the structures and the vocabulary, hopefully you’ll be able to employ some of these in everyday use! Are you ready to get to work?
To begin looking at this topic of conversation, we’ll start with some key words:
travailler to work
And its related noun:
travail (m) job
Building upon the -er verb travailler and masculine noun travail, these structures are the basis of starting to talk about what you do for work:
Je travaille dans… I work in…
Je travaille pour… I work for…
Je travaille comme… I work as…
Je ne travaille pas en ce moment. I’m not working at the moment.
Mon travail est… My job is…. (here you can describe how you find your job)
J’aime mon travail. I like my job
Je n’aime pas mon travail. I don’t like my job.
But as we move on to the questions which might come up on this topic, interestingly the key words travail and travailler are not as common as you might expect.
In fact, there’s a whole range of additional words and phrases to ask someone about what they do for work:
Tu fais quoi dans la vie ? What do you do for a living? (informal)
Vous faites quoi dans la vie ? What do you do for a living? (formal or plural)
Quel est ton métier ? What’s your job/profession? (informal)
Quel est votre métier ? What’s your job/profession? (formal or plural)
Quel est ton poste dans l’entreprise ? What’s your position/role in the company?
Qu’est-ce que tu fais comme travail ? What do you do as a job ?
If you haven’t yet read our French blog on asking questions, it might help you understand more about the basics before you get into a proper conversation about work.
The more friendly you are with French-speaking people, you might also hear them use more casual or slang terms to talk about jobs:
boulot (m) job
job (m) job
taf (m) job
Au boulot ! Let’s get to work!
J’en ai marre de mon taf. I’m sick of my job.
Now that we have the questions and responses ready, what exactly is it that you do for work? Conversing about your job might be a very long and complex chat for some of us, depending on what we do. So when someone asks the question, you can use the structures below to fill in the blanks with what you work as.
The first structure is about the type of role you do. We’ve given some examples here, but the options for jobs are pretty much unlimited! If you want to find a translation for your own job, head over to our French to English online dictionary.
Je suis… / Je travaille comme…. I am a… / I work as a…
infirmier / infirmière nurse
médecin doctor
peintre painter (in art)
professeur teacher
électricien electrician
avocat lawyer
chanteur / chanteuse singer
fonctionnaire civil servant
chef de projet project manager
analyste analyst
charpentier carpenter
acteur / actrice actor
You might have noticed that some jobs have a very different feminine form to the masculine form. But much like English, this distinction is becoming less common in terms of the way people talk about jobs.
For example, it’s less common now in English for us to refer to a male ‘actor’ and a female ‘actress’, instead calling everyone an ‘actor’. In French, as the language naturally uses genders for its nouns and adjectival agreement, you will notice the differentiation a lot more. But either form will be understood if you can’t remember both at all times.
For the second structure, you can talk more broadly about the area or sector you work in:
Je travaille dans… I work in….
le tourisme tourism
le secteur financier the financial sector
l’industrie pharmaceutique the pharmaceutical industry
la recherche research
la construction construction
In this final structure, you can tell someone about the type and scale of organisation you work in:
Je travaille pour… I work for…
une grande entreprise a big company
une association caritative a charitable organisation
une compagnie d’assurance globale a global insurance company
Of course, not everyone has a typical job. There are plenty of other options for talking about what you do, even when you’re not working:
Je suis retraité(e). I’m retired.
Je travaille à distance. I work remotely.
Je travaille à temps partiel. I work part time.
Je suis demandeur/demandeuse d’emploi. I’m unemployed; I’m a jobseeker.
Je cherche un emploi. I’m looking for a job.
Je travaille à mon compte. I’m self-employed.
Je travaille en free-lance ; Je suis journaliste free-lance. I’m freelance; I’m a freelance journalist.
Je ne suis pas en âge de travailler. I’m not old enough to work.
Je suis stagiaire ; Je fais un stage. I’m an intern / trainee.
Je fais du travail bénévole / fais du bénévolat. I do voluntary work; I volunteer.
Language In Use
Here is a summary of the most useful words, phrases and structures covered in this blog.
Je suis…
Je travaille dans…
Je travaille comme…
Je travaille pour…
métier / travail / boulot
Tu fais quoi dans la vie ?
Quel est ton métier ?
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
