In today’s lesson we’ll have a look at the feminine noun maison which means “house” and “home”. This is a pretty basic word but it’s important to get the pronunciation right!
la maison
house
La maison – house in French
Word origin
According to Wiktionary.org, the modern French feminine noun maison comes from mansionem in Latin.
Pronunciation
The pronunciation of maison is: may-sohn or [mɛzɔ̃]. The final ON is a nasal sound and the N is not pronounced. Camille at French Today explains the French nasal sounds in this post.
Example sentences
This example sentence is somwhat autobiographical. At the bottom of the page I’ve included a picture of the house where I lived as a student in the north of France in high school!
Les maisons dans le nord de la France sont construites en briques.
The houses in the north of France are made of brick.
The word depuis means “since”. When combined with the present tense, it translates to “have/has been”. This lesson explains depuis in detail.
Nous habitons dans cette maison depuis quinze ans.
We’ve been living in this house for 15 years.
This example sentence uses the construction faire + infinitive, which is used to express having an action done or carried out.
La famille fait construire une maison à la campagne.
The family is having a house built in the countryside.
The adjective for homemade is masion. In this usage, maison is an invariable adjective and doesn’t take an E in the feminine form or an S in the plural form. Fait maison is another adjective for homemade.
La confiture maison de grand-mere est délicieuse.
Grandmother’s homemade jam is delicious.
Conclusion
Et voilà ! You now know how to use maison in French. Now check out this lesson covering ville (city) in French.
