French Game: Quiz Your French Oral Comprehension

1 – C’est la goutte d’eau qui fait déborder le vase
It’s the water drop that makes the vase overflow.
→ It’s an expression that’s almost like un dicton / un proverbe (= a proverb)

2 – La fourchette, le couteau, et la cuillère.
The fork, the knife and the spoon.
→ Depending on where you are and what you eat, you might also use things like la cuillère à soupe (= the big spoon for soup), le couteau à poisson (= the fish knife), and la fourchette à escargot (= the fork for escargots.)

3 – Le chausson aux pommes.
→ Or literally, “the apple slipper.”
It’s a pastry that you can find close to les viennoiseries (like le croissant or le pain au chocolat.)

4 – L’addition (or la note)
→ When you’re in a restaurant, try also asking for le plat du jour, the day’s special!

5 – 20h15
→ It’s le quart d’heure de politesse (= “the polite quarter-hour”). You arrive around fifteen minutes later so your friend might deal with some last-minute preparations if they need to.

6 – Bouffer / Grailler / Casser la graine / Boulotter
There are a lot of ways to say “to eat” in casual French!
→ There are three levels of formality in French language:

• familier (= casual, informal, like “bouffer”),
• courant (= common, like “manger”),
• soutenu (= formal, like “se sustenter.” Don’t use it unless you’re a poet or an old French aristocrat.)

7 – “La sorcière de la rue Mouffetard” est un conte de fée français moderne.”
“The witch in Mouffetard street” is a modern French fairy tale by Pierre Gripari.
→ A Parisian witch wants to eat a little girl with tomato sauce. I read this fairy tale (and the book it comes from) a lot in my childhood, I love it!

Click here to watch the animated version of “La sorcière de la rue Mouffetard” in French

8 – Tout flatteur vit aux dépens de celui qui l’écoute.
All flatterers live at the expense of who’s listening to them.
→ Les Fables de La Fontaine are taught in French schools. They’re a bedrock of common French knowledge, that you might not know about unless you grew up in France.

9 – Napoléon III (= Napoleon the IIIrd, nephew of Napoleon Ist)
→ Le Second Empire (1852-1870) is not as famous as other parts of French history (including in France), yet you can see a lot of its effects in Paris today.
That’s when most avenues and boulevards where created, as well as all these immeubles hausmanniens (= apartment buildings built under perfect Haussman, like these ones.)

10 – La Normandie (= Normandy)
It’s the land of le mont Saint-Michel, Vikings, le camembert, and le Débarquement (= D-Day.) It’s in North-Western France, near its “rival” la Bretagne (= Brittany.)

11 – Une période où les magasins baissent leur prix! (= Sales period!)
→ There’s a law to regulate when (and how) shops can discount their stocks during les soldes. So we have les soldes d’hiver (= winter sales), les soldes d’été (= summer sales)…

12 – Couper la parole (= cutting someone off.)
→ Don’t do it, it’s rude.

13 – Merde !
This is usually un gros mot (= a rude word / a swear word), but here it’s also un porte-bonheur (= a lucky charm, a superstition.)

14 – La petite souris. (= the little mouse, the French tooth fairy.)
When a child loses une dent de lait (= a baby tooth), the “small mouse” traditionally comes to pick it up and leaves behind une pièce de monnaie (= a coin.)

15 – Le 15 (= health emergency number)
→ It’s the number for le SAMU (= medical help emergency service). They’ll be able to send you une ambulance if needed.

16 – Quoi de neuf ? (= What’s new?)
→ It’s the usual introduction for le bavardage (= small talk), along with “Ça va ?” (= “How are you ?” / “Are you fine?”). You can also use it for briser la glace (= as an icebreaker).

17 – Jean-Jacques Goldman.
→ French people’s favorite celebrity! His official Youtube channel offers you his biggest hits.
You can use une référence culturelle (= a cultural reference) as a starting point to create a connection with someone and make friends… But more importantly, you can also use it when you show up at events and meetings, join a club, and become part of a friends group that’s already formed. Adults don’t always have time to create a new circle of friends.

18 – Bien fait !
→ I talked about it in my lesson on Bien fait ! This French expression does not mean “Well done,” but rather “You had it coming! / Serves you well!”
If you want to give a compliment, you can instead say J’aime beaucoup / C’est super (= I love it. / That’s fantastic).

19 – Mon oncle (= my uncle), ma tante (= my aunt)
→ By the way, in French we have the same name for a stepfamily and a family-in-law: la belle-famille. So une belle-mère can be a stepmother, or a mother-in-law.

20 – Un lapin ! (= a rabbit)
→ Not showing up for a meeting or a date is Poser un lapin (= to put a rabbit there) in French. It’s cute, but it’s still annoying.
For example :
J’y crois pas, Michel m’a posé un lapin !
I can’t believe it, Michel stood me up!

And we’re done! How many answers did you get right?

If you enjoyed this French quiz and would love to learn more about French culture and expressions (while also having FUN testing your knowledge), you would love my program Exercise Your French.