Getting to grips with French grammar is not easy – which is why this series offers tips and tricks for French learners. This week we are looking at the slippery word ‘droit’ and its various uses in French.
As with most languages, there are several French words with multiple meanings, but one particularly tricky one is droit.
The word droit can be used as an adjective and a noun. As an adjective, its gender will change based on the noun it is describing.
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Droit (or droite) will also pop up in political discussions, driving lessons, and even parenting advice books. Just when you think you have memorised all of its various meanings, you find out there is a new usage you had not heard of before.
Here are some to look out for.
In the directional sense – droite translates as “right”. If you are giving directions and you want to say ‘to the right’ (à la droite) or ‘the right’ (la droite), you use the feminine version. For example, you may say Vous allez tourner à droite au feu de signalisation (You will turn right at the traffic light).
Meanwhile, to say ‘straight’ or ‘straight ahead’, you would use tout droit.
You’ll also see it in the notorious French driving rule priorité à droite – the rule that requires motorists to give priority to those coming from side roads to their right.
READ MORE: How does ‘priorité à droite’ really work when you’re driving in France?
In the political sense – as droit translates as ‘right’, it is also used to describe politicians and political parties based on their position on the left-to-right political spectrum. For instance, ‘far right’ would translate as extrême droite, while ‘hard/extreme right’ (meaning those using violent or nondemocratic methods) would translate as ultra droite.
In fact the use of the terms left and right to describe a political position comes from France, it refers to the spaces taken in the new French parliament after the Revolution.
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In the legal sense – it also refers to a ‘right’, or a liberty guaranteed by the state.
In France, you will hear about Les droits et devoirs, referring to your official rights and obligations as a citizen, such as the right to vote (le droit de vote).
Another phrase you might hear is L’état de droit, which is the principle that a society should be governed by laws and a justice system, in English we use the phrase ‘rule of law’.
L’état de droit is usually used as the opposite of vigilante justice, or the idea of people taking the law into their own hands and administering their own punishments to people they feel have wronged them.
If you are referring to a specific law, like a new immigration law, you would use the word loi.
In international trade – droit also translates as ‘duty’ or ‘tax’. The phrase droit de douane refers to the ‘duty’ levied in international commerce, as douane is the French word for customs.
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By the definition of the French customs authority, droit de douane (or droits de douane in plural) refers to the tax levied on goods entering or leaving a customs territory, so you’ll see the phrase in headlines referring to negotiations with Donald Trump over US tariffs.
In parenting – And finally, parents might discuss whether or not their children have certain privileges. If you are a parent, you might want to tell your babysitter ‘The kids are not allowed to eat candy before dinner.’
Les enfants n’ont pas le droit de manger les bonbons avant le dîner – the literal translation is ‘the children don’t have the right to eat sweets before dinner’, but it’s widely used in everyday French so a better, more casual translation would be ‘not allowed’.
Droit is of course not the only French word with multiple meanings – you can find a roundup of all the uses of the word coup (a useful word to chuck in to make your French sound more local) HERE.
Grammar tips
From agreeing adjectives to the subjunctive, French grammar can be fiendishly – some claim deliberately – complicated and almost all French learners have at one point despaired over ever getting it right.
People learn languages in different ways – some people prefer to just throw themselves into chatting, others like to have a textbook and some exercises. But the formal and structured nature of the French language means that if you want to become fluent – and if you need written French – then you are going to have to learn some grammar.
That’s the purpose of our weekly series of French grammar tips and tricks – and you can also sign up to receive them as a newsletter.
The tips are not intended as a substitute for formal classes or sweating over those verb tables (sadly, those are necessary for most people), but may be of some help to language learners.
They come from our own experiences of living and working in France, and as with our popular French Word of the Day feature, we’ve tried to focus on examples that will be useful in everyday life.
Read more French grammar tips;
Which French grammar rules do you find most confusing? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
