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The sky is (partly) cloudy.

  • Writer: Flight Attendant Phrases
    Flight Attendant Phrases
  • Jun 12, 2019
  • 1 min read

English: The sky is (partly) cloudy.

French: Le ciel est (partiellement) nuageux.


This is one way you can translate “it’s cloudy”.


Ciel (m)=Sky, heaven

Nuageux=Cloudy

Nuage (m)=Cloud

Partiel=Partial

Partiellement=Partially, partly


To announce future arrival weather, don’t forget to use “sera” “will be”.


Instead of "nuageux" "cloudy", you may also hear "couvert" "covered" as in "ciel couvert".


Constructing full sentences like this is expected for written language, but when speaking and making announcements, it’s not nearly as important to form full sentences. Our Canadian French for Flight Attendants audio course thus teaches a simpler way to translate weather.

Want to learn to speak the French you need to work as a flight attendant? Learn even more with Canadian French for Flight Attendants.


Seoul, May 2019. Séoul, mai 2019. This is Gangnam subway station in Seoul. I don't think I had any good reasons to go there except to see the Gangnam Style stage that they had built at the corner of the intersection. Samsung's flagship location (Samsung D'light) was also nearby and you can go in and experience their latest products.



The sky is clear.

  • Writer: Flight Attendant Phrases
    Flight Attendant Phrases
  • Jun 7, 2019
  • 3 min read

English: The sky is clear.

French: Le ciel est dégagé.


There are many many different ways to describe the weather beyond simply “sunny”, “rain”, “snow”, “windy” etc. For a pilot, weather details are important as it affects their flying. They care about jet streams, wind direction, wind speed, cloud types, cloud altitudes, ceiling levels etc. You’ll find that they often announce all this unnecessarily detailed weather information to the passengers as well. But as you may expect, most passengers don’t care about the weather in this much detail. They just want to know what the temperature is, and whether it’s sunny, cloudy, rainy, or snowy. They may also care if anything will affect the plane’s ability to land, such as low visibility, extremely strong winds, or freezing rain. This is great news for us flight attendants since we don’t necessarily need to learn the vocabulary to become professional meteorologists in French, just enough to translate what the passengers care to know. Listen to your pilots’ weather announcement and pick out the bits that are relevant to passengers and translate those.


Sky conditions are relevant to passengers. Your pilots may say that it’s sunny or the sky is clear. “Clear sky” is more general than “sunny” as it’s applicable at night time too when the sun’s not out. So to keep things simple, we can translate both “it’s sunny” and “the sky is clear” as “le ciel est dégagé”.


Ciel (m)=Sky, heaven

Dégagé=Clear


You’ll hear your francophone colleagues say “clair” instead of “dégagé”, which is analogous to the English word “clear”. “Dégagé” is a more useful word for flight attendants and you’ll find our Canadian French for Flight Attendants audio course using “dégagé” in other flight attendant contexts as well.


Remember you’ll need to say “le ciel est dégagé” if you’re announcing current weather, and “le ciel sera dégagé” if you’re announcing future arrival weather. Our Canadian French for Flight Attendants audio course avoids tenses, which simplifies translations for you.


Want to learn to speak the French you need to work as a flight attendant? Learn even more with Canadian French for Flight Attendants.


Seoul, May 2019. Séoul, mai 2019. S(e)oul food! Too many pictures; can't share them all. Some highlights:

-The video is of a dish: freshly chopped octopus tentacles, on a bed of raw beef, with egg yolk to hold it all together. This was part of a street food tour I booked and the guide said that the tentacles, even after they're chopped up, still retain some muscle memory. Look closely. They're still moving.

-On the same tour, we were at a food stall, sitting on stools at collapsible tables as cars drove by us. The menu said "chicken gizzards", but the guide said they weren't gizzards. Maybe they didn't know how to translate the word, or maybe they didn't want to. The guide said it was actually the butt area. I asked "You mean the sphincter?" He said "Yes! The sphincter!" It tasted pretty good, I must admit. I had had my fair share of Soju by that point...

-Many pictures were taken at Gwangjang Market, Seoul's famous street food market. One picture is of a lady whose noodle and dumpling stall was featured on a Netflix show about street food. She's posted her Netflix picture by her stall.




The weather for arrival will be...

  • Writer: Flight Attendant Phrases
    Flight Attendant Phrases
  • Jun 3, 2019
  • 2 min read

English: The weather for arrival will be...

French: La météo pour l’arrivée sera…


At the time the weather announcement is made, the weather at the destination may be one thing. Depending on the duration of your flight, by the time your flight arrives at the destination much later, the weather may be completely different. Thus, sometimes your pilots or in-charge flight attendant will announce what the current weather is. Sometimes, they’ll announce what they expect the weather for arrival to be.


La météo (f)=The weather

Pour=For

L’arrivée=The arrival

Sera=Will be


Notice in French, we literally say “The weather for *the* arrival”.


Formal French and written French expect you to construct full sentences like this, but flight attendants almost exclusively use spoken French, and oral French often does not need to comply with all these grammar rules. Our Canadian French for Flight Attendants audio course thus offers a simpler way to translate this, which avoids conjugations “sera/will be”.

Want to learn to speak the French you need to work as a flight attendant? Learn even more with Canadian French for Flight Attendants.


Seoul, May 2019. Séoul, mai 2019. The day after I arrived, I decided to go hiking in Bukhansan National Park, which is the large, mountainous park north of the city. (For some reason, I thought it was a good idea to go on the stair master machine that morning before breakfast in the hotel gym.) Needless to say, the mountain was steep, and it was a tough climb, taking me about six hours to get from the west side of the park to the exit on the east side. The climb was so steep at certain points that steps had to be carved into the rock surface, and you were basically pulling yourself up by the metal railings that were installed along the path. But what a view! Well worth the effort.


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