French Lesson Career Progression

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Chapter 40 is from the book Hands Free Business French and will talk about French Lesson Career Progression.

  1. “a team”: « un service »

Example sentence 

“His progression from team manager to director was quick.”

« Sa progression de chef de service à directeur a été rapide. »

Breakdown

  • “a team” is usually « une équipe » in a general context. But in a business context, « service » is more used. 

« équipe » can also be used in a business context when there is a strong anglo influence: “we’re all part of a team”, « on fait tous partie d’une équipe ».

We also have “team building”: « des séminaires de team building ».

  • “a team manager” is « un chef de service ». In the manufacturing sector/at a smaller scale, we use « chef d’équipe ». « un chef d’équipe » is usually in charge of a team of workers
  • “a director”: « un directeur »/« une directrice » (feminine)

For all names of positions and career lexicon, please refer to the relevant extra chapter.

Grammar point: possessive adjectives

“his”: « sa ». “his progression”: « sa progression »

Those are possessive adjectives [Note: the audio incorrectly says “pronouns”]. They work a little bit differently in English and French. In English, the possessive adjective’s gender depends on the owner’s gender. In French, the possessive adjective’s gender depends on the object’s gender. 

e.g. In English you’ll use “his wife, “his house”, “his male dog”, “his female dog”. You use “his” because you’re talking about the owner and he is male (in this example). 

In French, the gender will depend on what you’re talking about. For example, “his wife”: « sa femme » but “his male dog”: « son chien ». And we could be talking about a male owner or female owner, it doesn’t matter. What matters is the object’s gender. Wife is female, male dog is male, and we change the adjective accordingly. 

The 6 possessive adjectives in French are:

POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES* (masculine/feminine/plural) More of this in the full book also, here

Mon/Ma/Mes My
Ton/Ta/Tes Your
Son/Sa/Ses His/Her
Notre/Notre/Nos Our
Votre/Votre/Vos Your
Leur/Leur Their

*This table is already present in Chapter 21, but with less explanation.

Quick tip: “progress” vs “progression”

Do not mix up “progress” with “progression”.

“progress” is « des progrès » (always plural) .

“progression” is « progression » – it’s transparent. 

e.g. “you’ve made progress”: « tu as fait des progrès ».

But “your progression is good”: « ta progression est bonne ». 

The difference between “progress”: « progrès » and “progression”: « progression » = “progress” is incremental steps and “progression” is an overview. So, you need to be careful when you’re translating this.

Learn Business French quickly – Get the FULL audiobook here or just the e-book here.