We expect to land in about 20 minutes.

English: We expect to land in about 20 minutes.

French: Nous prévoyons atterrir dans environ 20 minutes.

Instead of specifying exactly what time the plane will land or arrive, your pilots may instead just announce “in how many minutes” the plane is expected to land or arrive.

Dans=In

Environ=About, approximately

Nous prévoyons arriver à 10:15=We expect to arrive at 10:15

Nous prévoyons arriver dans vingt minutes, environ=We expect to arrive in twenty minutes, approximately

Nous prévoyons atterrir à 10:15, environ=We expect to land at 10:15, approximately

Nous prévoyons atterrir dans environ trente minutes=We expect to land in about thirty minutes.

“Environ” “Approximately” is a useful word that you can add freely every time you mention expected arrival or departure times.

Instead of “environ”, you may occasionally hear your colleagues and passengers use the word “approximativement”, which is more analogous to the English word “approximately”. “Environ” and “approximativement” mean the same thing and are used the same way, but in French “environ” is more commonly used. We recommend that you use “environ” as well, as it’s a shorter word with less syllables and you may find it easier to pronounce.

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Special pre-launch price for Module 1 (French basics) and Module 2 (French for flight attendant French tests).

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A few weeks ago, coming back from Barcelona. Il y a quelques semaines, revenant de Barcelone. I came home via Barcelona and only had one night there. It was my first time there and I did get the chance to visit the Sagrada Familia, Barcelona's famous unfinished church.

We expect to arrive at the gate at 10:30.

English: We expect to arrive at the gate at 10:30.

French: Nous prévoyons arriver à la porte à 10:30.

Sometimes, landing time will be announced and sometimes gate arrival time will be announced. Sometimes, both. To translate gate arrival time, you can use the following:

Arriver=To arrive

Nous prévoyons=We expect

Porte (f)=Gate, door

À la porte=At the gate

Nous prévoyons arriver à la porte à 10:30.

‘’Porte’’ in everyday French is simply “door” and can refer to almost any kind of door. In the context of an airport, a “gate” is the place where an airplane parks at the terminal and where passengers board or disembark from the airplane. Gates are marked by numbers. The screens inside the terminal will tell passengers (and crew) from which gate their flight is departing (or arriving) and the signage will tell them how to get to that gate. The official translation for “gate” in French is “porte” and will be recognized by all francophones. In Canada however, you will hear your French Canadian colleagues, passengers, and airport agents (especially those in Quebec) using the word “barrière” (f) for “gate”. “Barrière” in general contexts means “barrier”. Your passengers will also very often use the anglicism “gate” (f).

You yourself are invited to use “porte” at all times for the sake of simplicity. However, it’s important that you at least recognize these other terms that you’ll inevitably encounter (covered in Module 4 of our Canadian French for Flight Attendants audio course). I was personally thrown off the first time a passenger asked me in French about connecting gates but instead of using “la porte” or even "la barrière", she said “la gate”. All I heard was “la geite”, and didn’t think that “geite” was a real French word (it isn’t), then finally realizing that she was using the anglicism “gate”.

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Close to Cauterets, France. Près de Cauterets, France. These pictures were taken at the Pont d'Espagne (French for "Bridge of Spain"). There are nice hiking trails in the area surround the stream. In the winter, people come for snowshoeing and skiing.

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Special pre-launch price for Module 1 (French basics) and Module 2 (French for flight attendant French tests).

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We expect to land at 10:15.

English: We expect to land at 10:15.

French: Nous prévoyons atterrir à 10:15.

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A few weeks ago in Gavarnie. Il y a quelques semaines à Gavarnie. Gavarnie is a town just north of the France-Spain border. Pictured below is the Cirque de Gavarnie taken from just outside the town. Just beyond the Cirque is Spain. It was about a one-hour hike from the town to the middle of the Cirque.

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Saying ‘’arrive’’ may sometimes be ambiguous. The plane may land on the runway at a certain time but it may take more time for it to make its way over to the terminal building and its final parking spot. How much time it takes will depend on the distance from the runway to the gate, and how much traffic there is circulating on the ramp. The pilots often explicitly make the distinction time between landing time and gate arrival time.

“We’re expecting to land at about 10:15 and we’ll be at the gate 10 minutes after.”

“We should be landing in about 20 minutes and arriving at the gate at 10:30.”

Sometimes they will only announce landing time, or only announce gate arrival time. Other times, they'll announce both. To translate landing time, you can use the following:

Arriver=To arrive

Atterrir=To land

Nous prévoyons=We expect

À 10:15=At 10:15

Nous prévoyons arriver à 10:15.

Nous prévoyons atterrir à 10:15.

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

Special pre-launch price for Module 1 (French basics) and Module 2 (French for flight attendant French tests).

www.facebook.com/frenchforflightattendants