faire les courses

The heavy lifting here is done by the verb faire (to do/make). Since faire is an irregular verb, you’ll need to brush up on your conjugations: je fais, tu fais, il fait, nous faisons, vous faites, ils font. You simply pair the conjugated verb with the fixed phrase les courses. If you want to specify where you're going, you can add a prepositional phrase like au supermarché or au marché. Interestingly, you don't usually say faire ma course or faire la course. It is almost always plural and uses the definite article les. If you use the indefinite des (faire des courses), it shifts slightly towards 'running various errands,' which might include the pharmacy or the post office, but les courses is the gold standard for the weekly grocery haul.

Picture this: You’re lying on the couch, scrolling through TikTok, and you see a 'restock' video where someone fills their fridge with perfectly organized glass containers. You sigh and say, Il faut que je fasse les courses. Or maybe you're texting your roommate: 'I'm at Carrefour, do we need anything?' That's the essence of the phrase. In the age of digital convenience, you might even faire les courses en ligne (do the groceries online) via an app like Uber Eats or a 'Drive' service where you pick up your bags from the store. You’ll hear parents telling their kids, On va faire les courses, which is usually met with a groan because grocery shopping with parents is a universal test of patience. Even in French pop songs, you'll hear it used to ground a story in the relatable boredom of everyday existence.

Use this phrase whenever the goal is replenishment. If you are out of toilet paper, coffee, or those specific French cookies you can't live without, you are en train de faire les courses. It’s perfect for casual conversations with friends, planning your weekend with a partner, or explaining why you can't come to the phone right now. It fits perfectly in a professional context too, if you're explaining a slight delay: Désolé, je devais faire les courses pour mes parents. It’s the ultimate 'neutral' phrase—not too formal, not too slangy. It’s just what everyone does. If you're documenting your life on an Instagram story with a photo of a mountain of vegetables, the caption Matinée : faire les courses is peak relatable content.

Never use faire les courses when you're looking for a new pair of sneakers or a birthday gift for your aunt. For that, you use faire du shopping or faire les magasins. If you use faire les courses in a Nike store, the clerk might look at you like you’re looking for a bag of potatoes among the Air Jordans. Also, be careful not to confuse it with faire la course. Without the 's', faire la course means 'to race' (like in a marathon or a Formula 1 event). Unless you are literally sprinting through the aisles of Lidl against another shopper to get the last discounted air fryer, stick to the plural. Finally, don't use it for 'browsing' without buying. If you're just looking, you're en train de regarder.

One of the biggest pitfalls for English speakers is the word 'shopping.' In French, le shopping is a borrowed word, but it's very specific to fashion and leisure. Another mistake is using the singular form. Here are some quick fixes:

• ✗ Je vais faire le shopping pour le dîner. → ✓ Je vais faire les courses pour le dîner.
• ✗ Je fais la course au supermarché. → ✓ Je fais les courses au supermarché. (Unless you're racing!)
• ✗ On a fait des magasins pour du lait. → ✓ On a fait les courses pour du lait.
• ✗ Est-ce que tu as fait les courses de Noël ? (This one is tricky! If you mean food for the meal, it’s les courses. If you mean presents, it’s les cadeaux or le shopping.)

If you want to sound a bit more old-school or formal, you might use faire des emplettes. This sounds like something a grandmother would say while putting on her best hat to go to the market. Then there’s faire le plein, which literally means 'to fill it up.' Usually used for gas/petrol, people often use it metaphorically for a massive grocery trip: On va faire le plein pour la semaine. If you are specifically talking about small, frequent trips to the corner store, you might hear descendre à l'épicerie (going down to the grocery store). For those who love a good bargain hunt, faire les arrivages refers to checking out new shipments at discount stores. Each of these adds a little flavor to the basic act of buying bread and cheese.

You’ll often hear people say aller faire les courses (to go do the groceries). This is the most common way to express the intention of leaving the house. If the task is already in progress, you’d say être en train de faire les courses. In casual speech, people sometimes shorten it to just faire les courses, dropping the 'aller.' You might also see faire ses courses (to do one's groceries). Using the possessive ses makes it feel a bit more personal, like you have your specific routine and list. On social media, you might see the hashtag #RetourDeCourses for 'grocery hauls,' where influencers show off their organic kale and artisanal bread. Whether it's faire les courses, faire ses courses, or aller aux courses, the meaning remains centered on that essential food run.

Is faire les courses only for food? Mostly, yes. It covers anything you’d find in a supermarket, including laundry detergent or shampoo. If you're buying a TV, even if it's at a big hypermarket, you’d probably use a different term. Does it sound like a chore? Yes, it usually implies a bit of a burden. Nobody says faire les courses with the same excitement they use for partir en vacances. Can I say je shopping? Absolutely not! Even though the French use the word 'shopping,' they use it as a noun with the verb faire (faire du shopping). Shopping is never a verb in French. Finally, what about 'errands'? If you have to go to the bank, the dry cleaners, and the bakery, use faire des courses (with 'des') or faire des commissions (though that's a bit regional/older).