Driving in France - En Voiture

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!