The summer can mean lots of wonderful things, including spending time at the beach, barbecuing with friends and family, and trips to new and exciting locales. This means traveling, which means you might be spending a lot more time in your car.
In French, the word for car is voiture. The word voiture is feminine, so it is la voiture. The verb "to drive" in French is conduire. Conduire can also mean "to conduct or lead" in addition its main definition.
Conduire is also an irregular verb. Here is the conjugation of conduire in the present tense:
je conduis
tu condius
il/elle/on conduit
nous conduisons
vous conduisez
ils/elles conduisent
But there are many others words that you just might need to use when you’re driving a car. In fact, if you happen to be driving a car in a French-speaking country, learning vocabulary related to cars and driving might be important for safety reasons. Here are some words that might be useful to you:
La ceinture de sécurité - Seat belt
Le klaxon - horn
Le volant - the steering wheel
Le tableau de bord - the dashboard
Le clignotant - the turn signal/indicator
Le phare - the headlight
Le rétroviseur - the rearview mirror
Le frein - the brake
Le capot - the hood
Le coffre - the trunk
Le pneu - the tire
Le pare-brise - the windshield
L’essuie glace (m) - the windshield wiper
Le permis de conduire - driver’s license
La plaque d’immatriculation - license plate
Démarrer - To start (the ignition)
There are also certain phrases that might be useful if you fall into any problems while driving in France. Hopefully, you’ll never need to use some of the following phrases!
L’autoroute est payante - The highway charges tolls.
Je suis en panne d’essence - I ran out of gas.
Il faut que je fasse le plein - I need to fill up the tank.
J’ai un pneu crevé - I have a flat tire.
C’est un feu vert/rouge - It’s a green/red light.
Il faut gonfler les pneus - The tires need to be inflated.
Il y a un problème de freins - There’s a problem with the brakes.
Le pare-brise est cassé - The windshield is broken.
Ma voiture est en panne - My car broke down.
If you are traveling this summer, amusez-vous bien et bon voyage!
Blog submitted by: Alex at The French Property Network - Cle France.
This blog was originally posted on The French Language Blog pages.
