As I’ve mentioned before, ma tante Rose (my Aunt Rose) likes to send funny jokes and pictures from the internet. Her latest courriel¹‘courriel’ is Quebecois for ‘email’. As my fellow blogger John B. shared with us last year, the French use ‘mail’. (email) contained an attachment that sent me off on a little bit of an internet adventure. Unfortunately it meant a lot of extra digging. Fortunately it led to some fun discoveries that I’ll share with you over the coming weeks.

A²Remember that accents are not required on capital letters. If this were a lower-case A, it would be ‘à l’école’. l’école / At school

I’ve written about school in France before. My aunt’s recent message got me thinking about the role of teachers in school.

There are a number of different words in French for teacher depending on the role and level at which ones is teaching. According to the definitions in my copy of Le Petit Larousse, the words are somewhat interchangeable, but by common usage you tend to encounter them in specific situations.

The most generic of terms is perhaps enseignant / enseignante (teacher, from the verb enseigner/to teach).

A³Remember that accents are not required on capital letters. If this were a lower-case A, it would be ‘à l’école’. la maternelle (In nursery schools) or dans les écoles élémentaires (ou primaires) (in elementary/primary schools) you’re most likely to hear maître ou maîtresse (masculine and feminine forms for teacher of small children). You may also hear teachers at this level referred to as instituteur or institutrice.

Older kids au collège, au lycée, ou à la fac⁴The French love to shorten things. ‘Fac’ is short for ‘faculté’. With the ensemble of a larger ‘université’, ‘la faculté’ is a specific part dedicated to s specific topic. The equivalent (in most English speaking countries at least) would be a college within a larger university. (in middle school, high school, or college) will be taught by a professeur.

Examples:

Sophie aime bien sa maîtresse. / Sophie really likes her teacher. [From the use of ‘maitresse’ we can assume that Sophie is une jeune éleve/a young student.]

Jean-Luc est professeur de Français. Il enseigne au lycée Albert Camus. / Jean-Luc is a French teacher. He teaches at the Albert Camus High School.

Ma prof⁵Note that the noun ‘professeur’ is masculine, but it is acceptable to ‘feminize’ it by, for example as in this case, adding a feminine pronoun. d’Histoire-Géo s’appelait Mme. Girard. / My History/Geography teacher’s name was Mrs. Girard.

You can read about the levels of French education here and some useful vocabulary for school supplies in this post from 2014.

Next week: What was it like to be a teacher in a French speaking country at the turn of the century?

• 1
  ‘courriel’ is Quebecois for ‘email’. As my fellow blogger John B. shared with us last year, the French use ‘mail’.
• 2
  Remember that accents are not required on capital letters. If this were a lower-case A, it would be ‘à l’école’.
• 3
  Remember that accents are not required on capital letters. If this were a lower-case A, it would be ‘à l’école’.
• 4
  The French love to shorten things. ‘Fac’ is short for ‘faculté’. With the ensemble of a larger ‘université’, ‘la faculté’ is a specific part dedicated to s specific topic. The equivalent (in most English speaking countries at least) would be a college within a larger university.
• 5
  Note that the noun ‘professeur’ is masculine, but it is acceptable to ‘feminize’ it by, for example as in this case, adding a feminine pronoun.