Today’s lesson covers the masculine noun roi, which means “king”. I’ve noticed many of my students have stumbled on this word. The pronunciation combines the tricky French R with oi (sounds like wah) to make: rwah or [ʀwa].
le roi
king
Word origin
The Modern French masculine noun roi (king) comes Middle French roy, which comes from rei and rex in Old French and rex (king, leader) in Latin.
Example sentences
This first example sentence is an example of the superlative (the most).
Louis XIV est le roi français le plus célèbre.
Louix XIV is the most famous French king.
I included this sentence because I like the way it sounds! The verb régner means “to reign” or “to rule”. The masculine noun royaume means “kingdom”, as in le Royaume-Uni (the United Kingdom).
Le roi règne sur tout le royaume.
The king reigns over the entire kingdom.
For “deck of cards”, you’ll find two translations: “paquet” (pack) de cartes and “jeu” (game) de cartes.
Il y a quatre rois dans un paquet de cartes.
There are four kings in a deck of cards.
Word of the Day Lessons | Lessons by David Issoskon