Travel to and from work

One of the challenges in the world of work is to bring people together in the workplace. A variety of solutions are in common use. Here are some of them, represented as images. Hover your mouse over each image to see the French words or expressions used to describe it. You can also click on the image to hear the word or expression pronounced in French. In some cases, more than one word or expression is possible. Different possibilities will be separated by a slash, and orally by a short pause.

Practice these until you feel comfortable with them. You will have an opportunity later on to test your knowledge.

Office buildings

Many people work in larger buildings. Navigating in one, by reading signs and asking directions, is an important skill. The following set of images show various parts of a typical office building. First though, an important distinction about floors. In North American English, we start counting floors at ground level. We call that the first floor. The one above is the the second floor and so on. French doesn't work that way. The floor at ground level has a name to itself. It's called le rez-de-chaussée (literally, 'at the level of the street'). The floor above is called le premier étage (literally, 'the first floor'), and so on. A good number of people have got lost because of that difference.

With that distinction out of the way, explore the following images:

As before, practice these until you feel comfortable with them.

The office environment

The typical work environment for many people is the office. This includes spaces, furniture and equipment. We will begin by exploring some of these. To explore this, mouse over the big image below to find different items and their names in French. (Hint: use the scrollbar to see the entire image.) Click on each item to hear it pronounced.

And here are a few other useful items of office furniture and office supplies not shown in the image:

As before, practice these until you feel comfortable with them.

Manufacturing and distribution

Many offices exist as part of a larger organization. In some cases, like government and education, the product provided is a service (un service), but in others, it is a physical product (un produit) like consumer goods (des biens de consommation). This entails a manufacturing and distribution process (la manufacture et la distribution). The following lists show some of the most typical French terms used for various aspects of this process and an example of its use. Mouse over each term to see its equivalent in English, and then try to understand the example provided. To check your understanding, mouse over the example.

The first stage in the process is the chain from raw materials through manufacturing. Here are some typical terms from this area.

Once goods have been manufactured, they are often stored before being sold. The following terms deal with some of the aspects of this.

Another crucial element of manufacturing is quality control: assuring that manufactured goods meet some preset standard and are free of defects. There are several terms from this area that you should know.

Another important component of the manufacturing process is the calculation of costs. These may be divided into several categories. The following list gives some of them.

Finally, once a product has been manufactured, it must be shipped. Here are a number of terms associated with this.

Some retailing terms

Once a product has been manufactured, it may be sold. There are two main groups usually involved in this process, the wholesaler (le grossiste) who deals in large quantities and does not typically sell directly to consumers (les consommateurs/les consommatrices), and the retailer (le détaillant/la détaillante) who does deal directly with consumers. However, this distinction is increasingly blurred in the area of online sales (le commerce en ligne/le cybercommerce). The following tables present some of the most typical words used in the area of in-person and electronic retail. As before, mouse over the terms in French to see their equivalent in English, and look at the the example provided to see the word used in context. Try to retain as many of these terms as possible and to understand their place in the system.

To begin with, there are several terms for the people and things involved in a sale:

There are also different types of places where retailing can be done. Here are some of them:

When items are sold, payment is made and goods passed to the customer. Here are some terms associated with these transactions:

Finally, retail sales are increasingly happening online. This has led to a range of new terms, as the list below shows:

Reading passages

We have spent some time familiarizing ourselves with the world of work. Now let's look at two real texts to let you begin to test your understanding. Don't forget to use the scaffolding we saw earlier:

• look for cognates to give you an initial sense of the meaning
• make educated guesses based on your knowledge of the world
• don't forget the mirror effect where French and English put words in opposite orders
• divide the sentence into parts of speech so you can identify the things (nouns) and actions (verbs) being talked about
• use the vocabulary we have learned in this module

These are real texts, so you likely won't understand everything. An English translation is provided for you to check your understanding and to learn new words. Remember also, this should be both challenging and fun.

A news article about the Ontario government (Source: La Presse)

Le gouvernement libéral ontarien a franchi une nouvelle étape vers la vente de la société d'État Hydro One, en déposant un prospectus pour l'émission publique d'actions.

Un prospectus préliminaire a été rempli à la Commission des valeurs mobilières de l'Ontario et à ses équivalents à travers le pays, offrant un portrait détaillé de la compagnie, de ses activités et de ses actifs de 22,6 milliards.

Queen's Park espère générer 9 milliards avec la vente de 60 % des actions d'Hydro One. La société d'État est actuellement propriétaire du réseau de transport d'électricité de la province et agit comme distributeur local d'électricité pour 1,4 million de clients, principalement dans le nord de l'Ontario et dans des secteurs ruraux.

La première ministre Kathleen Wynne soutient que son gouvernement a besoin de ces fonds pour financer un programme ambitieux de 130 milliards sur 10 ans pour le transport en commun et les infrastructures de la province.

Translation

The Ontario Liberal government has taken another step toward the say of the Crown Corporation Hydro One, by publishing a prospectus for the public sale of shares.

A preliminary prospectus was filled out at the Ontario Securities Commission and its equivalent offices across the country, offering a detailed portrait of the company, its activities and its assets of $22.6 billion dollars.

Queen's Park hopes to generate $ 9 billion by the sale of 60% of the shares of Hydro One. The Crown Corporation currently owns the province's electricity distribution network and acts as local electricity supplier for 1.4 million customers, principally in Northern Ontario and in rural areas.

Premier Kathleen Wynne claims that her government needs these funds to finance an ambitious $130 billion program over 10 years for public transit and infrastructures.

An article on electric taxis (Source: La Presse)

Les premiers taxis 100% électriques commenceront [...] à circuler dans les rues de Montréal à compter de la mi-novembre. Les usagers du taxi vont monter à bord de véhicules de fabrication américaine, japonaise et chinoise, a appris La Presse Affaires. Une cinquantaine de taxis «verts», qui auront une couleur unique pour être facilement repérables, vont alors prendre la route. Au moins trois fabricants - Nissan, Tesla et de BYD, une firme chinoise - ont confirmé leur participation au projet-pilote qui permettra de tester l'efficacité des véhicules. D'autres constructeurs pourraient s'ajouter à la liste. «On veut tester ces véhicules sur leurs aspects techniques et économiques», explique M. Taillefer. Le parc de taxis électriques inclura une dizaine de limousines Tesla. Le projet-pilote s'étendra sur une période de 18 mois, au cours de laquelle le nombre de véhicules passera à une centaine. «On aimerait avoir, éventuellement, plusieurs milliers de voitures roulant avec de l'énergie propre à Montréal», affirme M. Taillefer.

Translation

The first 100% electric taxis will begin circulating in the streets of Montreal starting in mid-November.

Taxi users will climb aboard taxis American, Japanese and Chinese made taxis, the Presse Affaires has learned. Around fifty "green" taxis, which will have a special colour to make them easy to recognize, will then take to the road.

At least three manufacturers - Nissan, Tesla and BYD, a Chinese company - have confirmed their participation in the pilot project which will test the efficiency of the vehicles. Other manufacturers may be added to the list.

"We want to test the economic and technical aspects of the vehicles", explained M. Taillefer.

The fleet of electric taxis will include around 10 Tesla electric limousines. The pilot project will last 18 months, during which the number of vehicles will reach around a hundred.

"We would like eventually to have several thousand clean energy vehicles in Montreal", said M. Taillefer.