Le Travail — jobs and the workplace | Vocabulary
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Jobs, the workplace and the job hunt. This French jobs workplace job hunt vocabulary list gives you 22 essential words — from un médecin (a doctor) to un stage (an internship) — each with audio and its English translation. Use it to build the French words you need to talk about jobs workplace job hunt, then test yourself with the games below.
Le Travail
Jobs, the workplace and the job hunt
Les métiers · professions
Au bureau
Chercher un emploi
🎬 The 20-second version
Five phrases with « Le Travail » — guess before the reveal. Practise with the free games → Open this short as a page — transcript included →
📘 Work words in action
- Professions take no article after être: elle est médecin (not “une médecin”) — see the c’est vs il est chart.
- Many professions now have feminine forms: un ingénieur → une ingénieure, un auteur → une auteure.
- Travailler chez + company: je travaille chez Airbus · dans + field: dans le marketing.
- France works to live: les 35 heures, 5 weeks of congés payés — and lunch is sacred.
- Un dossier is the magic French admin word — everything requires one.
🇬🇧 Le travail: French for the office (and the boulot)
Work French starts with a register split: le travail is the proper word, le boulot the everyday one (« je vais au boulot » — off to work), with le job borrowed for casual gigs. The cast: un(e) collègue (colleague), le patron / la patronne (boss), un(e) employé(e), une entreprise (company), une équipe (team). Job titles increasingly carry feminine forms — une développeuse, une directrice, une avocate — and the CV kit matters if you’re relocating: un CV, une lettre de motivation (cover letter), un entretien (interview — « j’ai un entretien demain »), un stage (internship), un CDI (permanent contract — the French professional grail) vs un CDD (fixed-term).
Meeting French, since une réunion is where office life happens: on fait le point (let’s take stock), c’est noté (noted), je reviens vers vous (I’ll get back to you — the French « circle back »), un dossier (file/project), une pause café (the load-bearing institution), and la pause déjeuner — the lunch break France takes seriously enough that eating at your desk reads as a cry for help. Email sign-offs run on cordialement (the professional default) and bien à vous. Cultural note for anyone planning to work in France: vouvoyez colleagues until invited otherwise, greet the room (a bonjour to all is mandatory), and « bon courage » is the standard blessing for any colleague facing a hard afternoon. Say your workday aloud — je vais au boulot, j’ai une réunion à dix heures, bon courage ! — and the office is yours.
FAQ
What’s the difference between « travail » and « boulot »?
Register: le travail is standard, le boulot is casual everyday speech (like “work” vs “the grind”). « Je vais au boulot » is how France actually leaves the house.
What is a CDI in France?
Contrat à durée indéterminée — a permanent contract, the stable employment every French job seeker aims for. Its fixed-term sibling is the CDD.
How do I end a professional French email?
« Cordialement » is the safe universal sign-off; « bien à vous » slightly warmer. Open with Bonjour + name, vouvoyez by default, and keep la bise out of the office until offered.
🔊 Useful phrases
🔊 Example sentences
✍️ Practice
She is a doctor → elle est ___ (article ?) (no article!)
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médecin
I work at Google → je travaille ___ Google (preposition)
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chez
cover letter = une lettre de ___ (job hunt)
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motivation
🎮 Practise this with games
🎯 More practice — vocabulary recall — both directions
How do you say « a doctor »? (recall)
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un médecin
What does « un ingénieur » mean? (recall)
Show answer
an engineer
How do you say « a lawyer »? (recall)
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un avocat
What does « un cuisinier / -ière » mean? (recall)
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a cook
How do you say « a company »? (recall)
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une entreprise
What does « le patron / la patronne » mean? (recall)
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the boss
How do you say « a file / case »? (recall)
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un dossier
What does « le salaire » mean? (recall)
Show answer
the salary
Go further: get the full picture in our guide French for job interviews — phrases and strategy.
French jobs workplace job hunt vocabulary — FAQ
How do you say common jobs workplace job hunt words in French?
For example: a doctor is « un médecin », a teacher is « un(e) enseignant(e) », an engineer is « un(e) ingénieur(e) ». The full list above has 22 French jobs workplace job hunt words, each with audio so you can hear the pronunciation.
What are the most useful French jobs workplace job hunt words to learn first?
Start with the basics: un médecin (a doctor), un(e) enseignant(e) (a teacher), un(e) ingénieur(e) (an engineer), un(e) infirmier / -ière (a nurse), un(e) avocat(e) (a lawyer), un(e) vendeur / -euse (a salesperson). Master these core French words before moving on to the rest of the list.
How can I memorise French jobs workplace job hunt vocabulary?
Learn the words in small themed groups, say each one out loud with the audio, and use it in a short sentence about your own life. Spaced repetition is what makes new vocabulary stick — see our guide to learning French vocabulary that sticks.
🎮 Practise this lesson
Games built from this exact page — turn what you just read into play:
🧩 Sentence Builder rebuild these sentences
🃏 Memory Match pair FR ↔ EN
⚔️ Un ou Une ? guess the gender
🎧 Listening Game which sentence do you hear?
🎬 The whole word list, level by level
Le travail from your first words to native speed — the terms you actually need at each level. Practise it with the free games →