Healthy Living: Vocabulary and Talking About Wellbeing
Learn the French for food, exercise, sleep and wellbeing, and how to say what you do to stay healthy.
Practise it before the paper, not after
Free, interactive practice on the words and structures the examiner keeps asking for.
Start revising freeWhat you'll cover
Talking about healthy living
Staying healthy is a favourite exam topic. This module gives you the French to talk about food, exercise, sleep and wellbeing. You will meet the key words, learn how to say what you do to stay healthy, and practise the handy phrase for what you should do. Say the French out loud as you go.
Health words in French
Start with four useful words for talking about health. Each French word is shown with its English meaning.
Match the word
- la santé
- le corps
- les légumes
- le médecin
- Health
- The body
- Vegetables
- The doctor
Find the word
Which French word means "health"?
- la santé
- le sport
- le corps
- le médecin
Healthy or not?
Sort habits into those that are good for your health and those that are not.
Match the phrase
- Je mange des fruits
- Je bois de l'eau
- Je fais du sport
- Je dors bien
- I eat fruit
- I drink water
- I do sport
- I sleep well
Say what you should do
To say what you must or should do, use il faut plus a verb. For example, il faut manger sainement means you must eat healthily, and il faut boire de l'eau means you must drink water. It is a phrase examiners love to see.
Complete the advice
Pour être en bonne _____, il faut _____ des légumes et _____ beaucoup. Il faut aussi faire du _____ et bien _____.
Healthy habits
Which of these French phrases are healthy habits? Choose all that apply.
- Manger des légumes
- Faire du sport
- Boire de l'eau
- Fumer
- Trop manger
Find the healthy sentences
Tap the two French sentences about healthy eating and drinking.
- Je mange des légumes.
- Je bois de l'eau.
- Je regarde la télé.
- Je joue aux jeux vidéo.
A healthy day
Put a healthy daily routine into a sensible order.
- Eat a healthy breakfast
- Do some exercise
- Eat vegetables at lunch
- Drink plenty of water
- Go to bed early for good sleep
Fix the il faut sentence
A student wants to write that you must sleep early, and writes: il faut tu dors tôt. Which correction is right?
- il faut dormir tôt, because il faut is always followed by an infinitive
- tu faut dormir tôt, because the verb has to agree with tu
- il faut tu dormir tôt, keeping the subject before the verb
- Nothing needs changing, as il faut can take any form of verb
Advise a friend
Your friend asks for healthy-living advice. Choose the best French suggestion each time.
- Your friend feels tired all the time. What do you suggest?
- Your friend wants more energy. Which healthy food do you suggest?
- Your friend is thirsty. What is the healthiest drink to suggest?
Staying healthy, in French
Write a few sentences in French about how you stay healthy. Talk about food, exercise and sleep.
- Say one healthy food you eat
- Say one form of exercise you do
- Say how you keep a good sleep routine