Faire l’école buissonnière

Faire l'école buissonnière
Share / Tweet / Pin Me!

French Expression

Meaning to skip school/work, to play hooky/truant
Literally to do bush/country school
Register normal
Pronunciation French sound files [fehr lay kuhl bwee suh nyehr]
IPA   [fɛʁ le kɔl bwi sɔ njɛʁ]

Usage notes: When you just don’t feel like going to school, you might play hooky in English, but in French, you go l’école buissonnière, or "bush school." Like "to play hooky," the meaning of faire l’école buissonnière can also refer to skipping work.

Par exemple…

La saison des soldes commence ! On va devoir faire l’école buissonnière mardi.   Sales season is starting! We’ll have to play hooky on Tuesday.
Le vendredi est le meilleur moment pour faire l’école buissonnière.   Friday is the best time to skip school / work.

 Conseil concis

Buissonnier (feminine buissonnière) comes from un buisson (bush). Logically enough, the expression was originally used literally in reference to a school out in the country.

 Related lessons

 Share / Tweet / Pin Me!

Il fait l'école buissonnière

Stay up to date with Lawless French

Questions about French?

 Visit the Progress with Lawless French Q+A forum to get help from native French speakers and fellow learners.

More Lawless French

 Subscribe to my twice-weekly newsletter.

Support Lawless French

  This free website is created with love and a great deal of work.

If you love it, please consider making a one-time or monthly donation.

Your support is entirely optional but tremendously appreciated.

Leave a Reply