{"id":27703,"date":"2017-08-23T18:26:58","date_gmt":"2017-08-23T16:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=27703"},"modified":"2017-11-06T15:14:28","modified_gmt":"2017-11-06T14:14:28","slug":"buying-billets-or-taking-tickets-confusing-words-in-french","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/buying-billets-or-taking-tickets-confusing-words-in-french\/","title":{"rendered":"Buying Billets Or Taking Tickets? – Confusing Words In French"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are some words in French that I have a hard time understanding when to use. These are the kind of words that lead to les fautes<\/strong> (mistakes) from thinking in English<\/a>. Learning how to use les mots<\/strong> (words) that don’t exist in English is one of the hardest parts about learning le vocabulaire<\/strong> (vocabulary).<\/p>\n

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Photo<\/a> by Pierre M on Flickr. Licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.<\/p><\/div>\n

Two words that I have trouble understanding when to use in French are le billet<\/strong> <\/em>and le ticket<\/strong><\/em>. They both generally mean ticket<\/em>, but it sometimes feels like les deux mots<\/strong> (the two words) are used randomly for different kinds of tickets. Par exemple<\/strong> (for example), if you use le billet<\/strong> when you should use le ticket<\/strong> or le ticket<\/strong> when you should use le billet<\/strong>, you will generally still be understood, but it will sound strange to French speakers.<\/p>\n

It’s hard to appreciate how saying something that can be understood can still feel wrong to a native speaker, but it would be like someone using the word loafers<\/em> to refer to any type of shoe <\/em>in English. Imagine a French person pointing to their new running shoes<\/em> and calling them loafers <\/em>to get an idea of how silly these mistakes can sound<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

In searching for a definition of les deux mots<\/strong>, I found many people, even native French speakers, are sometimes confused as to what exactly the difference is between le ticket<\/strong> and le billet<\/strong>. There seems to be an idea that le billet<\/strong> is more personnel<\/strong> (personal) and le ticket<\/strong> is more automatique<\/strong> (automatic).<\/p>\n

Malheuresement<\/strong> (unfortunately), the idea of one word being plus personnel<\/strong> and the other being plus automatique<\/strong> doesn’t really help me understand the difference any better. Cependant<\/strong> (however), one source<\/a> gave a nice and clear definition:<\/p>\n

Un ticket est un billet imprim\u00e9 de petite taille. Le mot est anglais mais venu du vieux fran\u00e7ais \u00e9tiquette.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A ticket<\/em> is a printed billet <\/em>of small size. The word is English, but comes from the old French \u00e9tiquette<\/em> (label, tag).<\/p>\n

Le billet poss\u00e8de un sens plus g\u00e9n\u00e9ral, et inclut le ticket et le coupon, qui sont des sortes particuli\u00e8res de billets.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A billet<\/em> has a more general sense and includes both tickets and coupons, which are specific kinds of billets<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is an all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares<\/em> situation. Le billet<\/strong> is the general word for tickets<\/em> and le ticket<\/strong> is generally a specific kind of ticket<\/em>.<\/p>\n

While knowing the definition helps to understand the difference between les deux mots<\/strong>, it doesn’t help you know when to use them. En pratique<\/strong> (in practice), it unfortunately comes down to memorizing when to use le ticket <\/strong>and when to use le billet<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

If you find yourself about to buy a ticket in la Francophonie<\/strong><\/a> and you are not sure if you should use le billet ou le ticket<\/strong>, don’t be afraid to say the wrong thing<\/a> and learn from your mistakes<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Voici<\/strong> (here’s) a short list of when les deux mots<\/strong> are used:<\/p>\n

Le ticket :<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ticket de caisse – Receipt
\nTicket de quai – Platform Ticket
\nTicket d\u2019entr\u00e9e – Entrance Ticket
\nTicket de loterie – Lottery Ticket
\nTicket de bus<\/a> – Bus Ticket
\nTicket de m\u00e9tro<\/a> – Subway Ticket
\nTicket parking – Parking Ticket (for a paid parking lot)<\/p>\n

Le billet :<\/strong><\/p>\n

Billet de train – Train Ticket
\nBillet de th\u00e9\u00e2tre<\/a> – Theater Ticket
\nBillet de concert – Concert Ticket
\nBillet de banque – Bank Note
\nBillet d’avion<\/a> – Plane Ticket
\nBillet de bateau – Boat Ticket
\nBillet d’entr\u00e9e – Entrance Ticket (for Museums and historical sites)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

There are some words in French that I have a hard time understanding when to use. These are the kind of words that lead to les fautes (mistakes) from thinking in English. Learning how to use les mots (words) that don’t exist in English is one of the hardest parts about learning le vocabulaire (vocabulary)…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":27704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27703","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29253,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27703\/revisions\/29253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}