At your own risk.

English: At your own risk.

French: À vos risques.

Inflight, a passenger asks you if they can go to the washroom while the seat belt sign is on.

“J’peux-tu aller aux toilettes?’’

The captain has turned on the seat belt sign because of turbulence. However, one’s physiological needs sometimes cannot wait. At the same time, you don’t want to contradict the captain’s seat belt sign and tell them they can go and be held liable if they do end up getting hurt because of the turbulence. However, you’re also not going to physically stop people from going. Always follow your own airline’s safety procedures, but in this case, we tend to tell passengers that they can go “at your own risk” or in French, literally “at your risks”.

À=At

Vos=Your

Risques=Risks.

À vos risques.

---

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 trial price for Module 1.

www.facebook.com/frenchforflightattendants

Sorry. No. We’re departing soon. No. We’re landing soon.

English: Sorry. No. We’re departing soon. No. We’re landing soon.

French: Désolé. Non. On part bientôt. Non. On atterrit bientôt.

A passenger asks if they can go to the washroom before departure or before landing.

"J'peux-tu aller aux toilettes?"

They may not have time to do so because departure or landing is imminent and you can’t have people in the lavatories for departure or for landing. In this case, you can tell them that we’re departing or we’re landing soon.

Désolé=Sorry

Non=No

On part=We’re departing.

On atterrit=We’re landing.

Bientôt=Soon.

Désolé. Non. On part bientôt.

Désolé. Non. On atterrit bientôt.

Formal conjugations for “we’re departing” and “we’re landing” are respectively “nous partons” and “nous atterrissons ”, using “nous”, the more formal pronoun for “we”. In speech however, and especially in Canadian French, we generally use the more flexible pronoun “on” and say “on part” or “on atterrit”.

On part bientôt. Nous partons bientôt.

On atterrit bientôt. Nous atterrissons bientôt.

---

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 trial price for Module 1.

www.facebook.com/frenchforflightattendants

Yes, but quickly.

English: Yes, but quickly.

French: Oui, mais rapidement.

Continuing from our last post, a passenger may ask if they have time to go to the washroom before departure or before landing. If they do, you want to emphasize that they should do so quickly, so as to not delay departure or landing, as the lavatories need to be empty for departure and landing. To hint that they shouldn’t spend too much time in the lavatory, you can say “quickly.”

Rapidement=Quickly, rapidly

Oui, mais rapidement, SVP.

---

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 trial price for Module 1.

www.facebook.com/frenchforflightattendants