In today’s lesson we’ll focus on the masculine noun alcool, which means alcohol. This word made it onto my lessons list as many students aren’t quite sure of how to pronounce the double -oo. Keep reading and you’ll get it!
Pronunciation
In French, the pronunciation of l’alcool (alcohol) is ahl-kohl or alkɔl.
Word origin
The modern French word alcool comes from al-kuḥl in Arabic, with kuhl referring to powders obtained from sublimation. Over time kuhl was used to refer to distilled spirits.
Example sentences
For this first example, alcool can refer to a liqueur or spirits.
Le pastis est un alcool d’anis.
Pastis is is an anise liqueur.
This second sentence uses the term apéritif, which refers to a pre-dinner drink which almost always contains alcohol.
À l’apéritif, les invités ont bu de l’alcool.
The guests drank alcoholic beverages for the apéritif.
In French, cidre means hard apple cider which contains alcohol. Le jus de pomme means both apple juice and non-alcoholic apple cider.
Il y a de l’alcool dans le cidre.
There is alcohol in hard cider.
Martin commande une bière sans alcool.
Martin is ordering a non-alcoholic beer.
Sylvie commande une boisson alcoolisée.
Sylvie is ordering an alcoholic beverage.
Related lessons
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