French nature vocabulary: à la montagne, au bord de la mer, and faire de la randonnée
Cartes postales · where are you spending the holidays?
Les Alpesà lamontagnemon-TAN-yuh · the mountains
Cet hiver,this winteron partwe leaveà la montagne.to the mountains
set ee-VAIR, on PAR a la mon-TAN-yuh · “This winter we’re going to the mountains.”Why:À la montagne: always singular in French, where English says “the mountains”.
Short answer: holiday places take fixed prepositions: à la montagne, à la mer, à la campagne (countryside), but en forêt and au bord du lac (by the lake). French has two words for river: un fleuve flows into the sea (la Loire, la Seine), une rivière flows into another river. Outdoor activities use faire + du, de la: faire de la randonnée (to go hiking), faire du camping.
Water in the landscape
Le fleuve, la rivière, le ruisseau
French sorts water by where it ends up and how big it is. Tap a word to hear it in a sentence.
Animals of the countryside
Le renard, la vache, l’écureuil
Learn each animal with le or la; for words starting with a vowel, un or une shows the gender instead.
Outdoor activities with faire
Faire du vélo, de la voile, de l’escalade
Sports and activities you do take faire + the partitive: du for masculine, de la for feminine, de l’ before a vowel. In the negative they all become de: je ne fais pas de ski.
faire du
faire de la
faire de l’
The environment
Le réchauffement climatique, le tri, les énergies renouvelables
Environmental French is everyday news vocabulary. Each line is glossed word by word.
le réchauffementthe warmingclimatiqueclimatic
luh ray-shohf-MON klee-ma-TEEK
“global warming”Literally “climatic warming”.
JeIfaisdole trithe sortingsélectif.selective
zhuh fay luh TREE say-lek-TEEF
“I sort my rubbish for recycling.”Yellow bins for packaging, green for glass, in most towns.
les énergiesthe energiesrenouvelablesrenewable
lay zay-nair-ZHEE ruh-noo-VLABL
“renewable energy”Plural in French.
Il fautit’s-necessaryprotégerto-protectla biodiversité.the biodiversity
eel FOH pro-tay-ZHAY la byo-dee-vair-see-TAY
“We need to protect biodiversity.”Il faut + infinitive: “we must”.
Ellesheestistrèsveryécolo.eco
el ay tray zay-ko-LOH
“She’s very green.”Écolo: casual for écologiste, environmentally minded.
Describing a view
Il y a une forêt, la forêt est au loin
To describe a landscape, introduce things with il y a (“there is”), then place them with position words. Most nature nouns are masculine except a few useful ones: la forêt, la montagne, la mer, la plage, la colline.
Introduce
Il y athere-isune rivièrea riverdans la vallée.in the valley
eel ya ün ree-VYAIR don la va-LAY · “There’s a river in the valley.”
Place
La forêtthe forestestisau loin.in-the distance
la fo-RAY ay oh LWAN · “The forest is in the distance.”
Describe
Les montagnesthe mountainssontarecouvertescoveredde neige.of snow
lay mon-TAN-yuh son koo-VAIRT duh NEZH · “The mountains are covered in snow.”
Nature through the year
Au printemps, en été, en automne, en hiver
Three seasons take en; spring alone takes au, because printemps starts with a consonant.