Festive French Vocabulary
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The Jewish festival of Hanukkah lasts for eight days sometime between late November and the end of each year. The dates vary because they are not based on the Gregorian calendar, aka solar calendar. Hanukkah begins on the 25th of Kislev, the ninth month in the Hebrew calendar.
How do you say Hanukkah in French?
The name of the holiday has several spellings in both French and English because Hebrew is written with a different alphabet, which leads to spelling variations when transcribing it.
| English | French | |
| Hanukkah | Hanoucca | |
| Hanukah | Hanouccah | |
| Hanukka | Hannouccah | |
| Chanukah | Hanouka |
So "Happy Hanukkah!" may be any of the following in French:
- Joyeux Hanoucca !
- Joyeux Hannouccah !
- Joyeux Hanouccah !
- Joyeux Hanouka !
In addition, Hanukkah is known by two other names:
- The Festival of Lights – la Fête des Lumières
- The Feast of Dedication – la Fête des dédicaces
| Decorations and Details | Décorations et détails | |||
| blessing | une bénédiction | |||
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candle | une bougie | ||
| coin | une pièce | |||
| December | décembre | |||
| door | une porte | |||
| Dreidel (spinning top) | la toupie | |||
| eight days | huit jours | |||
| family | la famille | |||
| game | un jeu | |||
| gift | un cadeau | |||
| Hebrew (language) | l’hébreu |  |
||
| Jewish | juif | |||
| kosher | casher, kasher | |||
| lighter | un briquet | |||
| match | une allumette | |||
| menorah | la hanoukkia* | |||
| miracle | un miracle | |||
| November | novembre | |||
| pocket money | l’argent de poche | |||
| prayer | une prière | |||
| rabbi | le rabbin | |||
| Sabbath | le sabbat | |||
| song | une chanson | |||
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star of David | l’étoile de David | ||
| sunset | le coucher de soleil | |||
| temple | le temple | |||
| Torah | la Torah | |||
| victory | la victoire | |||
| window | une fenêtre | |||
| Hanukkah Foods | Aliments de Hanoucca | |||
| applesauce | la compote de pommes | |||
| bread | le pain | |||
| brisket | la poitrine de bœuf |  |
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| cheese | le fromage | |||
| chicken | le poulet | |||
| dairy products | les produits laitiers | |||
| doughnut | un beignet | |||
| milk | le lait | |||
| oil | l’huile (feminine) | |||
| potato pancake, latke | une galette de pommes de terre | |||
| sour cream | la crème aigre | |||
| turkey | la dinde | |||
| Hanukkah Verbs | Verbes de Hanoucca | |||
| to burn | brûler | |||
| to eat | manger | |||
| to fry | frire | |||
| to light (a candle, the menorah) | allumer (une bougie, la hanoukkia) | |||
| to sing | chanter | |||
* Une hanoukkia is a special nine-branched menorah for Hanukkah. A regular seven-branched menorah is called une ménorah.
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Hanukkah vocab quiz French Hanukkah menorah challenge |
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Bilingual article: Joyeux Hanoucca ! |
Related features
French holiday expressions
More from LKL
French vocabulary for other holidays
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My dictionary (Collins-Robert) spells it Hanoukka. Looks like it’s not an “aspirated” H? So it would liaise with the x in Joyeux, right? Namely: Joyeu zHan(insert your favorite spelling here).
BTW, I didn’t mean the other spellings were “wrong,” just that I’d found yet another variant. 🙂
I can’t imagine that it’s a mute h – names and foreign words almost always start with an aspirated h. I suspect it’s a mistake on Collins-Robert’s part; the only way to be sure would be to ask a Vrai Frenchie. 🙂