Level: B1 (Intermediate)
Today’s French word of the day is the B1 conjunction puisque, meaning both ‘since’ and ‘as’. For example, ‘Puisque vous ne venez pas, je rentre chez moi’ (I’m going home since you’re not coming).
puisque
Puisque – IPA pronunciation /pɥi.sk/
French Word of the Day: Puisque Explained
Puisque word origin & explanation
The French word puisque is a combination of the words puis (then) and que (that). Puis comes from the Latin word postĕā (afterwards) and que comes from the Latin word quĭă (because).
For all of the following example sentences, you’ll see that there is some sort of logical reason or argument following the word puisque. For example: puisque A, then logically B. As mentioned above, puisque can translate to both ‘since’ and ‘as’.
Puisque example sentences
Tu peux rentrer chez toi puisque tu ne te sens pas bien.
You can go home since you’re not feeling well.
Similar to the example sentence at the top of the lesson, for the next three examples we’re flipping both parts of the sentence in the English translations.
Puisque vous êtes là, on peut commencer la fête !
We can start the party since you’re here!
This next example is in the passé composé, a commonly used French past tense.
Puisque j’écris très vite, j’ai déjà fini mes devoirs.
I already finished my homework as I write very quickly.
Puisqu‘il est en très bonne santé, il s’est s’est rétabli vite.
He got better fast as he’s in very good health.
This sentence uses the reflexive verb se rétablir, which means “to get better”.
Continue learning French!
Now that you’ve mastered puisque, check out our word of the day lesson covering the conjunction car, meaning ‘for’, ‘because’ and ‘as’. Another excellent resource is French Today’s lesson covering the top 30 French conjunctions with audio.
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