👉 See also: Joie de vivre »
Today’s lesson examines the feminine noun la joie, which means “joy”. This lesson will leave you pondering an important question: How would you define la joie de vivre (the joy or love of life)?
la joie
joy
Word origine
The Modern French feminine noun joie comes from gaudium in Latin, which in turn comes from the Latin verb guadere (to rejoice). The English word joy comes from joie in French.
Example sentences
This first example sentence uses the verb ressentir, which means “to feel”.
Je ressens la joie quand je joue du violon.
I feel joy when I play the violin.
For this next sentence, beaucoup de (a lot of) is classified as an expression of quantity.
J’ai eu beaucoup de joie à revoir mes vieux amis.
I had a lot of joy seeing my old friends again.
For this next example sentence, we’re using joyeux, joyeuse – the adjective related to la joie. The following expression is a common year-end greeting for “happy holidays!” or “seasons greetings”.
Joyeuses fêtes de fin d’année !
Happy holidays!
In English, we’ve borrowed the term joie de vivre from French to mean “the joy or love of life”.
Comment pouvez-vous définir la joie de vivre ?
How do you define joie de vivre?
Related lessons
- Joyeux Noël – merry Christmas
- Heureux, heureuse – happy
- Heureusement – fortunately
- Courage – courage, bravery
- Avoir le cafard – to be depressed (expression)
- Feelings and emotions vocabulary
Reference
