Verbes français essentiels et leurs contraires
A1 French luyện nghe · Tiếng Pháp · Phù hợp với người mới bắt đầu
What do “allumer” and “éteindre” mean in French?
Allumer and éteindre are the French on/off pair, and they stretch further than their English equivalents. Allumer covers switching on a lamp, a television or a phone, and also lighting a candle, a fire or a cigarette. Éteindre undoes all of it, including putting a fire out. Where English tends to swap verbs — switch on, light, put out — French usually keeps the same two.
Allumer traces back to Latin lumen, “light”, which is why lumière is hiding inside it. The family is useful: une allumette is a match, l’allumage is a car’s ignition, and un extincteur is a fire extinguisher, from the same Latin root as éteindre. In this clip the pair arrives as one of five opposites: tu allumes la lumière en entrant et tu l’éteins en sortant.