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Walking Words

Daniel does a lot of walking in his Voyage en France series, showing us around some of France's most beautiful and historic cities and towns. He also uses several walking-related words during his tours:
 

Et d'emblée depuis cette promenade...

And right away from this walk...

Caption 5, Voyage en France - Conflans-Sainte-Honorine

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In English, "promenade" is a somewhat formal word for a boardwalk or a leisurely stroll. But une promenade is the standard French term for "a walk" or, when you're going somewhere in a vehicle, "a ride" or "drive":

 

Hier nous avons fait une promenade en voiture
We went for a drive yesterday. 

 

Its verb form, se promener, means "to take a walk": 

 

Quand on se promène dans le vieux Conflans...

When we take a walk in Old Conflans...

Caption 22, Voyage en France - Conflans-Sainte-Honorine

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Daniel also frequently uses the word une balade (not to be confused with une ballade, "a ballad"), which has the same meaning as une promenade:

 

Pendant votre balade dans le vieux Conflans...

During your walk in Old Conflans...

Caption 28, Voyage en France - Conflans-Sainte-Honorine

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Just like une promenadeune balade also has a verb form, se balader:
 

A se balader avec lui dans les rues de Dakar,

Strolling along the streets of Dakar with him,

on mesure toute la dimension de l'artiste.

one gets a sense of the depths of the artist.

Captions 30-31, Le Journal - Youssou N'Dour

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C'est très, très agréable de se balader

It's very, very pleasant to go for a ride

avec ces bateaux sur la mer.

on those boats on the sea.

Captions 33-34, Jean-Marc - La plage

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As you may know, marcher is the basic French verb for "to walk." But it's also often used informally to mean "to work," "to function," or "to go well": 

 

Non, c'est juste pour voir si tout marche bien.

No, it's just to see if everything is working well.

Caption 3, Il était une fois: Les découvreurs - 9. Galilée

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Elle est chez les seniors. Et ça marche bien.

She's with the seniors. And it's going well.

Caption 43, Actus Quartier - Fête de quartier Python-Duvernois

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Just as you can say "that works" to mean "OK" or "sounds good to me," in French you can say ça marche:

 

Tu veux prendre un café aujourd'hui à quinze heures? -Ça marche!
Do you want to get coffee today at three p.m.? -That works!

 

Now that you know all the different ways of saying "walk" in French, why not go take one? 

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Vocabulary

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