faire les courses
/fɛʁ le kuʁs/
The English phrase 'to go shopping' can be translated into French as faire les courses.
Use faire les courses when you are shopping for food and basic household supplies. If you are shopping for pleasure, such as buying clothes, electronics or luxury items, you should use the phrase faire du shopping.
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase faire les courses literally translates to 'to do the errands' or 'to do the shopping' (referring to essential supplies).
Which one should you use?
Use faire les courses for essential groceries and household necessities. Use faire du shopping for leisure activities like buying clothes. Finally, Aller faire les magasins is an informal way to say 'to go shopping' generally.
How does it change in a sentence?
The phrase faire les courses is a fixed idiom. You cannot replace les courses with other nouns if you want to maintain the meaning of buying groceries.
How do you pronounce it?
/fɛʁ le kuʁs/
What mistakes should you avoid?
Avoid using faire les courses when you are talking about shopping for fun or luxury items like clothes. In those cases, use faire du shopping instead.
Did you know?
- While faire du shopping is common, it is an anglicism. In some formal contexts or in certain French-speaking regions like Quebec, people prefer magasiner to avoid using an English loanword.
- The word courses in this phrase does not mean 'shopping' in the sense of a selection of goods, but rather refers to a 'race' or a 'running errand'.
- In French, une course can also mean a quick trip to a specific destination, such as the pharmacy or the post office. If you have only one errand to run, you would say faire une course instead of faire les courses.
Examples in context
- Je dois aller faire les courses.I have to go shopping.This sentence is useful for expressing a necessity to use faire les courses.Tatoeba #129870 by Micsmithel, translation #282502 by CK
- J'ai oublié de faire les courses.I forgot to go shopping.This sentence shows how to use faire les courses when expressing a forgotten task.Tatoeba #6875108 by felix63, translation #6882553 by kaiperkins271
- Qui veut aller faire les courses ?Who wants to go shopping?This sentence is a way to ask a question involving faire les courses.Tatoeba #5627622 by olivier, translation #5626659 by CK
- Je vais faire du shopping ce week-endI am going shopping this weekend
- Elle a l'intention de faire des achats au centre commercialShe intends to go shopping at the mall
- On va faire les magasins demainWe are going shopping tomorrow
- Je vais faire du shopping au centre commercialI am going shopping at the mall
- Nous allons faire du shopping ensemble demainWe are going shopping together tomorrow
- 7 more sentences on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Chloé and Lucas are in their kitchen discussing their plans.
- ChloéLucas, est-ce que tu peux faire les courses ?Lucas, can you go shopping?
- LucasOui, je vais faire les courses ce soir.Yes, I will go shopping this evening.
- ChloéSuper, n'oublie pas le lait et le pain.Great, don't forget the milk and the bread.
- LucasD'accord, je m'en occupe.Okay, I'll take care of it.
Sources
- Pronunciation: Wiktionary entry faire les courses, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
