Today’s lesson focuses on the masculine noun collège. Many students have a hard time with this word as it is a faux ami or false cognate. Collège in French means middle school or junior high school and not university, which is l’université.
le collège – [kɔlɛʒ]
middle school, junior high school
Le Collège
Word origin
The modern French word collège comes from collegium (partnership) in Latin.
Example sentences
This sentence is autobiographical. I started learning French when I was in the seventh grade in 1987!
J’ai commencé à apprendre le français quand j’étais au collège.
I started learning French when I was in middle school.
In French the word for teenager is un(e) adolescent(e).
Les adolescents vont au collège avant le lycée.
Teenagers go to middle school before high school.
I included this final sentence to show that collégien/collégienne means middle school or junior high school student.
Guillaume est un collégien. Véronique est une collégienne.
Guillaume is a middle school student. Veronique is a middle school student.
Related lessons
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