Learn French Vocabulary: Professions and Fields of Employment

Vocabulary

Naming a Profession

French has a fixed rule for stating what someone does for work. After the verb être, the profession appears without any article.

Je suis professeur. — I am a teacher
Il est médecin. — He is a doctor
Elle est avocate. — She is a lawyer
Nous sommes ingénieurs. — We are engineers

The rule is different from English, which uses a or an in every case. French omits the article entirely in this context, though it returns when the profession appears with any other verb or in other sentence positions.

Common Professions

Masculine	Feminine	English
professeur	professeure	teacher
médecin	médecin	doctor
avocat	avocate	lawyer
ingénieur	ingénieure	engineer
infirmier	infirmière	nurse
vendeur	vendeuse	salesperson
serveur	serveuse	waiter, waitress
écrivain	écrivaine	writer
journaliste	journaliste	journalist
cuisinier	cuisinière	cook, chef
architecte	architecte	architect
photographe	photographe	photographer

Feminine Forms of Professions

Professions that end in a consonant typically add -e for the feminine form. The ending -er changes to -ère.

avocat becomes avocate — adds -e
ingénieur becomes ingénieure — adds -e
cuisinier becomes cuisinière — changes to -ère
infirmier becomes infirmière — changes to -ière

Professions ending in -eur usually change to -euse (vendeur becomes vendeuse, serveur becomes serveuse), but a small group including ingénieur simply adds -e to become ingénieure. The two patterns must be learned individually.

A few professions are the same in both genders. Médecin, journaliste, architecte, and photographe do not change. The article, possessive, or an accompanying adjective often reveals the speaker's gender, though the profession itself stays identical.

Workplaces and Fields

Each profession is tied to a workplace and a field of activity. The vocabulary below covers the environments where these professions are found.

un bureau — an office
une usine — a factory
un hôpital — a hospital
une école — a school
un restaurant — a restaurant
un magasin — a shop

Workplaces are introduced with dans or à depending on the noun. Dans un bureau places someone inside the office, while à l'usine uses the feminine article and the bare preposition.

Talking About Work

Three question patterns cover almost every conversation about work. The first asks what someone does, the second asks where they work, and the third asks a follow-up about the profession itself.

Qu'est-ce que vous faites comme travail ? — What do you do for work?
Où est-ce que vous travaillez ? — Where do you work?
Vous travaillez dans quel domaine ? — What field do you work in?

The answers follow the same pattern as the personal introduction. State the profession after être without any article, and add the workplace with dans or à as needed: Je suis professeur dans une école.

Examples

Je suis professeur.

Professions after être take no article. The noun appears directly without un.

Elle est médecin à l'hôpital.

Médecin is invariable in gender, so the same form works for a female speaker.

Mon père est ingénieur dans une usine.

The profession takes no article, and the workplace uses dans with the feminine noun usine.

Ma mère est avocate dans un grand cabinet.

The feminine form avocate adds -e to the masculine form. The adjective grand precedes the noun.

Il est serveur dans un restaurant.

Serveur changes to serveuse for a female waiter. The workplace takes dans with the masculine noun restaurant.

Ma sœur est infirmière.

Professions and Fields of Employment (Les métiers et le monde du travail)

What you’ll learn

Vocabulary

Naming a Profession

Common Professions

Feminine Forms of Professions

Workplaces and Fields

Talking About Work

Watch out for these

Examples

Exercises

What you’ll learn

Vocabulary

Naming a Profession

Common Professions

Feminine Forms of Professions

Workplaces and Fields

Talking About Work

Examples

Exercises

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