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We expect to arrive at 10:15.

  • Writer: Flight Attendant Phrases
    Flight Attendant Phrases
  • Apr 6, 2019
  • 2 min read

English: We expect to arrive at 10:15.

French: Nous prévoyons arriver à 10 :15.


A few weeks ago at the Lisbon Airport. Il y a quelques semaines à l'aéroport de Lisbonne. I was on a 2-hour layover at LIS airport. We flight attendants spend a lot of time in airports. It's good to take the time to enjoy our time there. Explore a little, find a nice café, bring some work or a book, or do as I was doing: watch airplanes.

Pilot announcements often start out with “we expect”. We expect a smooth flight. We expect a few bumps during the initial climb. We expect some turbulence on descent. We expect some weather and some turbulence when we fly over Greenland. We expect to arrive at 10:15. We expect to be at the gate at 10:30. We expect that deicing will take about 15 minutes.


Voir=To see

Prévoir=To foresee, to expect, to anticipate

Nous prévoyons=We expect

Arriver=To arrive

Nous prévoyons arriver à dix heures quinze=We expect to arrive at ten fifteen


‘’Nous prévoyons’’ ‘’We expect’’ is a very useful expression for flight attendants. Saying “we expect to arrive” instead of “we will arrive” acknowledges that there are unexpected things that might happen which may delay your arrival. Saying “we expect some turbulence” instead of “we will have turbulence” acknowledges that weather isn’t 100% predictable and you may end up not having any turbulence at all, despite your expectations.


Just as a side note, European French-speakers will tell you that “prévoir” needs to be followed by “de”. “Prévoir d’arriver” “nous prévoyons d’arriver”. The ‘’de’’ after “prévoir” is not necessary in Canadian French and it’s perfectly fine (and easier for you) to just say ‘’nous prévoyons arriver”.


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



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Our cruising altitude will be thirty-five thousand feet.

  • Writer: Flight Attendant Phrases
    Flight Attendant Phrases
  • Mar 22, 2019
  • 2 min read

English: Our cruising altitude will be thirty-five thousand feet.

French: Notre altitude de croisière sera de trente-cinq mille pieds.


Greetings from Boston. Bonjour de Boston. On a rather long layover in BOS, so popped downtown for some New England Clam Chowda by the harbour. I'm on my way to Europe and going off the grid for a couple of weeks, so blog posts will return then! See you soon. À bientôt.


Flight time is a piece of information that’s nice to know for passengers. On the other hand, not too many passengers will care about the altitude at which the airplane will cruise (usually measured in feet), besides aviation buffs. Nevertheless, cruising altitude is still a piece of information that’s commonly announced because it’s very important for the pilots’ job.


We are flight attendants first and foremost, and unlike other French courses, we understand the logistics of this job. We know that pilot announcements can sometimes come at very inopportune times, when you’re very busy doing something else in flight. Their announcements can also get unnecessarily detailed. As such, it can be hard to remember all these details while you’re preoccupied with something else. In these situations, we only try to remember the important points that passengers care about, and admittedly, we often drop things like flight altitude in our translations.


As we touched upon a few posts ago, Canadian French for Flight Attendants recognizes that the goal is not to train flight attendants to become perfect, professional translators, but to give you the tools to translate the main points and the information that your passengers care about.


That being said, this is one way you can use to translate flight altitude.

Notre=Our

Altitude (f)=Altitude

Croisière (f)=Cruise

Altitude de croisière=Cruising altitude

Sera=Will be

Trente-cinq=Thirty-five

Mille=Thousand

Pied=Feet


Remember in French, we say ‘’The flight time is *of* 2 hours”. “Le temps de vol est *de* 2 heures’’. Likewise, we literally say in French ‘’The cruising altitude will be *of* 35,000 feet”. “L’altitude de croisière sera *de* 35,000 pieds”.


This is how this translation will look like on paper, as a full sentence and proper verb conjugations. In our Canadian French for Flight Attendants audio course, you’ll notice that we’ll teach a simpler way of translating flight time and altitude, using a simpler sentence structure that avoids verb conjugations altogether, which is more suitable for spoken French.


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



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The flight time is two hours thirty minutes.

  • Writer: Flight Attendant Phrases
    Flight Attendant Phrases
  • Mar 18, 2019
  • 1 min read

English: The flight time is two hours thirty minutes.

French: Le temps de vol est de deux heures trente minutes.


One common piece of information that pilots announce is the flight time. This is one way you can use to include it in your translation.


Temps (m)=Time

Vol (m)=Flight

Heure (f)=Hour

Minute (f)=Minute

Le temps de vol=The flight time (literally: the time of flight)

Le temps de vol est de deux heures trente minutes=The flight time is two hours thirty minutes


Notice in French, we must literally say “The flight time is *of* two hours…” “Le temps de vol est *de* deux heures…’’


Le commandant annonce que le temps de vol est de deux heures trente minutes.


This is the formal way that airlines want you to translate this announcement, ensuring that your sentence is complete and grammatically correct. In our Canadian French for Flight Attendants audio course, you’ll notice we teach a simpler way of announcing flight time, avoiding verb conjugations altogether, which is more acceptable for spoken French.


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


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