Today we’ll look at one of my all time favorite words in French, the masculine noun le courage. It’s hard to pin down once specific translation for this word. Translations include courage, guts, energy, willingness to do or try, bravery and fortitude. You can do it – courage!
le courage – [ku-ʀaʒ]
courage
Word origin
The modern French word courage comes from Old French corage, which combines cor, meaning “heart” in Latin and the suffix -age. The suffix -age in French comes from -atĭcus in Latin. Essentially, the language is making a noun out of cor or cœur (heart) to mean “with heart”.
Example sentences
The French most commonly use “bon courage!” almost as a synonym for “bonne chance!” (good luck). However, bon courage has a slighly different meaning, almost implying “You have it in you!”.
Bon courage ! Je suis certain que tu vas réussir !
Good luck! I’m sure you’ll succeed!
For this sentence, courage means “guts”, “fortitude” or “chutzpah”.
Cette femme a beaucoup de courage.
This (or that) lady has a lot of guts.
For this example, courage translates best to “energy” or “strength”. The negation ne…plus means “anymore” or “no longer”.
Guillaume n’a plus le courage de finir le projet.
Guillaume has no more energy to finish the project.
“Courage !” on its own is difficult to translate. WordReference suggests “Keep going!”, “Stay strong” and “Chin up!”. However, I think of it as “You got this!”, “You can do it!” or “You have what it takes!”.
Courage ! Tu vas y arriver !
You got it! You’re going to make it!
In French, the adjective courageux/courageuse means courageous or brave.
Marc est courageux. Sylvie est courageuse.
Marc is courageous. Sylvie is courageous.
Related lessons
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