A Quick Guide to Business French

Speaking your clients’ or colleagues’ language can make a real difference at work. You may be preparing to work in France, communicating with French-speaking partners or developing French as an additional skill for your career.

Business French has its own rules and vocabulary. In this guide, you will learn useful language for professional life in France, from job applications and interviews to meetings and everyday workplace culture. If you need French for your career, my French lessons for professionals can be tailored to your profession, level and goals.

Before applying for a position, it can be useful to know your current level of French. This will help you describe your language skills accurately on your CV and understand which positions are suitable for you.

Your French CV and your Application

Here are some useful terms for reading job advertisements and sending applications:

• Une annonce = an ad advertising it
• Envoyer sa candidature = Send your application
• Faire une candidature spontanée = Send your application directly, without seeing an ad
• Postuler à = to apply for
• Une lettre de motivation = a cover letter

Preparing for an interview

If your application is successful, you may be invited to an entretien d’embauche. My guide on how to prepare for a French interview offers practical advice to help you get ready. The following words also frequently appear during the recruitment process:

• Un entretien d’embauche = an interview
• Un poste = a position
• Un emploi ou un métier = a job
• Décrocher un emploi = to get a job
• Embaucher / recruter = to hire
• Un boulot / un taff = a job (slang)
• Des concurrents = competitors

Once you start working in a French-speaking environment, you will encounter vocabulary related to company roles, meetings, projects and performance.

Company Roles and Hierarchy

Every company has an employeur, or employer, and one or more employés, or employees. Depending on its size and structure, you may also work with a few stagiaires (interns), or even some apprentis (apprentices), depending on the size of your company.

Some students also work en alternance, a system that allows them to attend school half the time and work half the time, funding their studies and gaining essential experience.

In addition, the CEO of the company is known as the PDG (Président Directeur Général). He or she is likely known to some as le chef or la cheffe, le patron ou la patronne or even le ou la boss. He or she is probably part of a Comité de direction, known as a Codir for short. Les cadres are the executives.

If you are interested in other borrowed terms, my guide to English words used in French explains expressions such as meeting, open space, planning and team building.

Meetings and Appointments: Réunion or Rendez-vous?

And with regards to French vocabulary for meetings, there’s often a confusion between rendez-vous and réunion.

Une réunion is a business meeting.

Un rendez-vous can be un rendez-vous professionnel but is usually more an appointment (with your dentist, your doctor), a meet-up with friends or a date.

Donner rendez-vous à quelqu’un is to arrange to meet someone.

Last but not least, if you work with clients, you can also organize un Comité de pilotage (or Copil). This is a very specific term for a project meeting between clients and service providers. It generally includes: a project director, one or several project managers, a customer success manager and technical teams. The aim of the Copil is to ensure a good progress of the project and to make any necessary adjustments.

Using Tu or Vous ?

On that occasion, one of the first questions I get is ‘Should I say tu or vous‘ ? Deciding whether to use tu or vous with your boss and colleagues can be more difficult when you realize there’s no definite rule! In the past, everyone in the office used vous exclusively, but nowadays, especially with the open space, the tendency is moving more towards tu. 

What I often recommend is to use the vous and to be attentive and listen to how other people are speaking. Sometimes, in start-ups and young companies, even with the CEO the tu is frequent.

Useful Phrases for Meetings and Emails

These expressions can help you participate without sounding too direct:

• Je voudrais revenir sur un point. — I would like to return to one point.
• Pourriez-vous préciser ? — Could you clarify?
• Si j’ai bien compris… — If I have understood correctly…
• Qu’en pensez-vous ? — What do you think?
• Je suis tout à fait d’accord. — I completely agree.
• Je ne suis pas certain(e) que ce soit possible. — I am not sure that this is possible.
• Nous allons faire le point. — We are going to review the situation.
• Je vous tiens au courant. — I will keep you informed.
• N’hésitez pas à me contacter. — Do not hesitate to contact me.
• Merci d’avance pour votre retour. — Thank you in advance for your reply.

You do not need to use complex sentences to sound professional. A clear structure, an appropriate level of formality and a polite conditional such as pourriez-vous are often more effective.

Workplace habits vary considerably between companies, regions and professions. The following observations can nevertheless help you understand situations that many learners encounter in France.

Lunch time at work

In many French workplaces, lunchtime is treated as a genuine break rather than something to be eaten quickly in front of a screen. Colleagues may use this time to relax, talk and get to know one another outside their usual work activities. Taking part in these conversations can help you feel more integrated and practise natural spoken French. These French phrases to help you sound like a native speaker can give you some useful expressions for your next lunch break.

Some companies also provide informal communal spaces with games or table football, particularly in start-ups and workplaces with a more relaxed culture.

Many offices offer tickets restaurants (or ticket restos) allowing employees to pay half the face value for a check. It can be used at restaurants, cafés and even in boulangeries or supermarkets.

Dress code and Company Culture

Dress codes depend on the organisation and profession. Some workplaces expect formal clothing, while others are comfortable with casual outfits. Clothing alone, however, does not tell you whether to use tu or vous. Observe how colleagues behave, and ask if you are uncertain about company expectations.

The same principle applies to working hours, communication styles and social events: each organisation develops its own culture. Asking a simple question is often better than assuming that every French company works in the same way.

Coffee and Informal Breaks

While smoking is now limited in public spaces, many employees still have pause café et/ou pause cigarettes (or clopes in slang).

It’s a friendly time away from your screen to get to know your colleagues a bit better even if you don’t smoke.

Set up your business in France

With the pandemic, many French people decided to have more meaningful jobs and to create their own business. If you’re dreaming about setting your own business made in France, you can check the Autoentrepreneur website. This web portal will provide advice, insight and guides to establish your aspiring entrepreneur career.