French Phrases used in English

Guess these French words and phrases that are used in the English-speaking world.

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Last updated: December 16, 2019

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First submitted	May 24, 2011
Times taken	42,807
Average score	50.0%
Rating	4.20

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Clue	Answer
"Enjoy your meal!"	Bon Appétit
Limo driver	Chauffeur
Snails as food	Escargot
Young woman introduced to society for the first time	Débutante
The illusion of having experienced the same thing before	Déjà Vu
The wealthier class of commoners	Bourgeoisie
Dead-end of a street	Cul-de-sac
Goose liver	Foie Gras
On the contrary	Au Contraire
The newly rich	Nouveau Riche
The joy of life	Joie de Vivre

Clue	Answer
Artistic vanguard	Avant-Garde
Morale of the troops	Esprit de Corps
Thawing of political tensions, such as in the Cold War	Détente
Military overthrow of the government	Coup d'état
"Hands-off" system of government	Laissez-Faire
Refers to separately-priced menu items	À la Carte
Dangerously charming woman	Femme Fatale
Lacking in social graces; Literally "left"	Gauche
Wine steward	Sommelier
A fancy shindig	Soirée
Appetizer	Hors d'œuvre

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64 Comments

Level 59

Jun 19, 2014

What about "camaraderie" for "Morale of the troops"?

Level 60

Jun 19, 2014

Rapprochement could also work for Detente: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rapprochement

I also tried aperitif for appetizer although it specifically refers to wine served as an appetizer.

Level ∞

Jun 19, 2014

Yes, except that it was specifically referred to as détente during the Cold War.

Level 50

Jun 20, 2014

Yes, I tried rapprochement too.

Level 56

Jun 19, 2014

I'm French and I can say "esprit de corps" doesn't mean "morale of the troops" in English... It means rather "corporate spirit" .

Level ∞

Jun 19, 2014

Yes, but in English it means "morale of the troops".

Level 68

Jun 29, 2016

Morale and esprit de corps are definitely different things, although related. Also, the current meaning applies to businesses just as much as the armed forces. Morale is the collective emotional condition with regard to things like confidence, contentedness, optimistic outlook, etc. Esprit de corps has more to do with group identity, loyalty, camaraderie, pride, etc.

Level 57

Mar 3, 2018

Reference?

Wiktionary defines it as we do in French:

"(idiomatic) A shared spirit of comradeship, enthusiasm, and devotion to a cause among the members of a group, for example of a military unit."

Level 69

Mar 13, 2019

Absolutely! Collins define it as "a feeling of loyalty and pride that is shared by the members of a group who consider themselves to be different from other people in some special way." Esprit de corps means exactly the same thing in both French and English, and it definitely does not mean "morale of the troups". This needs to be changed.

Level 70

Dec 13, 2021

It really doesn't have anything to do with morale. It's closer to "team spirit", and in a military context could be strong in times of high or low morale.

Level 76

Jun 20, 2014

I think it is more general, meaning feelings of loyalty, allegiance, devotion towards a particular group of people by the members of the group. Could be military troops, a sports team, a club, whatever.

Level 81

Oct 12, 2020

The closest English phrase is team-spirit, in my opinion.

Level 56

Aug 24, 2016

I'm pretty sure that 'cul-de-sac', which definitely means 'dead end' in England and the rest of the UK, although not necessarily the rest of the English speaking world, is also not used for this purpose in France, where it literally translates to 'arse of the bag' as a teacher once gleefully informed me in a school French lesson.

The quiz is not about translation, it's about common English use of French phrases, regardless of their literal meaning.

Level 86

Sep 10, 2017

In french, "Cul-de-sac" means... "dead end" ;).

Level 31

Jun 22, 2023

In France we say "Cul-de-Sac" or "Impasse" for a dead-end

Level 36

Oct 11, 2017

You may be French, but you are taking a rather narrow view of the matter. Yes, it may have that meaning if your in the business world

but to the rest of us slobs, it merely means a feeling of fellowship shared by members of a particular (ANY particular) group.

Level 83

Jun 19, 2014

12/22 I would have had 5 more if I could figure out how to spell things in French.

Level 25

Jun 20, 2014

Knew all but one. Couldn't spell most of them.

Level 79

Jun 21, 2014

Yes - got 22 out of 22 with 1:38 left on the clock, thank you for being forgiving of slight spelling errors on this one!

Level 48

Jun 22, 2014

It should be laisser-faire, not laissez-faire which addresses the 2nd person.

Level 38

Sep 27, 2019

It is definitely Laissez-faire in French.

Level 81

Oct 12, 2020

Do your homework before "correcting" people. It is laissez-faire.

Level 74

Mar 31, 2015

An hors d'oeuvre is not an appetizer, it's something served with the apéritif. The French word for an appetizer is entrée, and the English for the course served before the main dish is appetizer. Also, if you're going to say "the" newly rich, which implies plural, the French should be nouveaux-riches.

Level ∞

Apr 1, 2015

This quiz isn't about proper French grammar. It's about the way the phrases are used in English.

Level 75

Oct 18, 2016

There may be a limit to the way the phrases are used in English. I still laugh when I remember overhearing a man at a wedding reception ask a server if there were any more "horse doovers".

Level 71

Feb 6, 2020

I am English and I spelt it nouveaux riches.

Level 81

Oct 12, 2020

In that case Fad, you are spelling it wrongly.

Level 80

Jan 26, 2023

In that vein I thought that canape or amuse bouche would have been more appropriate

Level 83

Oct 4, 2016

you're lucky "entrée" is not on the list

Level 81

Oct 12, 2020

dasubergeek, you are wrong with pretty much all of what you have said there.

Level 34

Apr 21, 2015

Finally a word quiz that's not biased towards US players. More please! Only missed two and would have got those if the clues had been better. "Laissez faire" doesn't only apply to government, and "shindig" definitely bears no relation to a soirée.

Level 71

Jan 14, 2019

How is it not? Unless you mean Us opposed to Uk. Because for non english speaking (native) people it is still hard. Most of these terms arent used in other countries.

PS not a complaint, but just pointing out that this quiz (obviously) is still in favour of englishspeaking countries.

I think we only have: chauffeur ( but we use it as driver in general like in busdriver it is bus chauffeur) dejavu, alacarte (but mainly in french restaurants so not sure if that counts..) femme fatale, though I havent really heard anyone say it. I think it saw it written somewhere once though. And I guess some say bon appetit.

Level 71

Feb 6, 2020

And again there is no way I would have called a 'shindig' a 'soiree'

Level 55

Sep 16, 2015

How about "coquette" for "a dangerously charming woman"? I guess a coquette isn't quite as dangerous...

Level 36

May 22, 2017

a Cquette would be a flirt, n'est pas? Not a femme fatale, which conjures up something far more serious in my mind. Same goes for Entrée. It literally means begin with or or first, which would not translate into the main course, even in English.

Level 56

Dec 16, 2016

why is there a picture of charles de gualle?

Level 44

Dec 16, 2016

My spelling is awful. Foie Gras!

Level 55

Jul 4, 2020

I had to look up the spelling - I thought it was fois gras.

Level 69

Jan 23, 2017

you could add double entendre and rendez-vous

Level 75

Sep 5, 2020

and 'bra'

Level 71

Aug 30, 2017

I know a lot of allowances have been made, but do you think you could loosen the spelling just a little more? Like for newly rich, took me a while

Level 75

Sep 5, 2020

They're French words - maybe don't go for quizzes with French words if you can't spell French words... (french words)

Level 82

Sep 6, 2017

The French are horrible spellers

Level 69

Nov 27, 2023

Cry

Level 36

Jan 20, 2018

I kept putting in Petite Bourgeois, but it wasn't working.

The clue made it seem like they were richer than bourgeois

Level 83

Jan 26, 2024

The bourgeoisie are richer than the petite bourgeoisie. Petite ("little") bourgeoisie would be like someone who owns and runs a single restaurant, whereas true bourgeoisie would be like someone who owns a chain of restaurants that are run for them by managers or franchisees.

Level 76

Apr 17, 2018

Is anyone else having a déjà vu regarding not one French person you meet understanding what déjà vu means?

Level 18

Apr 26, 2018

can you add col de sac for cul de sac?

Level 55

Jun 14, 2018

anders, surely a cotillion is a dance??

Level 60

Aug 31, 2018

I didn't even know what a shindig was... I thought it was an offence aimed at someone, like a kick in the shins :)

Level 36

Oct 10, 2018

^ LOL! You're absolutely right! - It's a misnomer in any event. My first thought when seeing "Shindig" was "Fete". A soiree conjures something much more formal.

Level 70

Dec 13, 2021

Fete is accepted now - it was my first thought also.

Level 71

Jan 14, 2019

I thought it was a "house" like welcome to my shack, welcome to my shindig. I guess i thought that since there is an overlap. the party is at the house. ANd cool shindig when someone arrives at a party, when you dont know it he could ve meant nice place.

Level 55

Jul 4, 2020

It would be nice if amuse-bouche, canape, or apertif worked for "appetizer".

Level 75

Sep 5, 2020

I tried amuse bouche too

Level 75

Sep 5, 2020

Grr I was left with so many hanging e's in this quiz...!

Level 81

Oct 12, 2020

Thanks QM, it is a good, light-hearted fun quiz.

Level 60

Nov 28, 2020

I think dead end of a street should be changed to circlular dead end of a street

Level 73

Feb 7, 2021

It's almost like the French have a different word for everything.

Level 76

Jun 8, 2022

Hors d'œuvre is literally impossible to spell even remotely correctly

Level 43

Jul 2, 2022

it should accept "la joie de vivre" for the joy of life instead of only joie de vivre because of the word "the"

Level 66

May 30, 2023

I know it's not how the word is used in the US, but could entrée be an acceptable answer for appetizer?

It's what came to mind first for me (Irish and British native English speaker), and once that was in my head it was more difficult to think of a different answer. In my experience, entrée is often used as another word for starter or appetizer in the UK or Ireland.

Level 77

Dec 10, 2023

This quiz has a certain, as the French say, "I don't know what."

Level 80

Jun 7, 2024

Maybe an idea for an additional word: rendezvous

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