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noun

la leçon

lesson

Moment où une personne apprend quelque chose avec l’aide d’un enseignant ou d’un guide.

Definition & meaning

Leçon is a feminine noun meaning lesson. It can refer to:

  • A teaching session or a unit of instruction: a French lesson.
  • Something learned from an experience, often a moral or practical takeaway: the lesson of a mistake.
  • A reprimand or punishment intended to teach someone a lesson, especially in the expression “to teach someone a lesson.”
  • In some contexts, a passage or text read aloud as part of a service or formal presentation.

Grammar & Word origin

Leçon is feminine: une leçon. Its plural is leçons. The cedilla under ç keeps the c soft before o.

The word comes through Old French from Latin lectio, meaning “reading” or “a reading,” related to the Latin verb legere, “to read.” Its historical connection to reading is still reflected in the idea of a lesson as something taught or studied.

Synonyms & antonyms

Possible synonyms include:

  • cours — a class or course of instruction; often broader or more systematic than a single leçon.
  • enseignement — teaching or instruction in general, rather than one specific lesson.
  • reproche — a criticism or reprimand; it overlaps with the “telling-off” sense of leçon but does not necessarily imply teaching.

There is no single direct antonym for leçon. The opposite depends on the meaning: for an educational lesson, it might be ignorance , while for a reprimand, there is no natural one-word opposite.

Common phrases & collocations

  • [suivre une leçon] — to attend or follow a lesson.
  • [donner une leçon à quelqu’un] — to give someone a lesson; figuratively, to teach someone a lesson.
  • [tirer une leçon de quelque chose] — to learn a lesson from something.
  • [une leçon de piano] — a piano lesson.
  • [une leçon de grammaire] — a grammar lesson.

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Examples

Je prends une leçon de français.noun

I am taking a French lesson.

As-tu compris les leçons hier ?noun

Did you understand the lessons yesterday?

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