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How to Say ‘Mardi Gras’ in French

Mardi Gras

mar-DEE grah

[mar-DEE grah]

💬 Usage Tip: Literally "Fat Tuesday". The s in gras is silent (mar-dee grah).

🇫🇷 In France: In France it's mostly a day for children's costume parades and making crêpes or beignets "fritters", not big street parties.

Phrase Breakdown

Mardi

[mar-DEE]

Tuesday

The second day of the week; not capitalised in French.

Example

On se voit mardi.

See you on Tuesday.

Gras

[grah]

Fat (as in Fat Tuesday)

Means 'fat'; with Mardi it names the carnival day before Lent.

Example

On mange des crêpes à Mardi Gras.

We eat crêpes on Mardi Gras.

Guides for French learners

The Most Common French Verbs: the 20 You'll Actually UseThe 20 most common French verbs, with the present-tense forms you need, real example sentences with native audio, and two shortcuts for past and future.Ordering in French: Cafés, Bakeries and Restaurants (with Menu Vocabulary)How to order in French at a café, a bakery and a restaurant: the phrases, the questions staff ask, and the menu and food vocabulary to understand the answers.

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