‘Un maillot de bain’ is a swimsuit, and it’s three words: ‘maillot’, ‘de’ and ‘bain’. The last one means ‘a bath’, which is an odd thing to name a swimsuit after until you’ve stood at the edge of a French swimming pool.
This is a 16-card illustrated word-history of ‘maillot de bain’ in black and white, with a sources page and summary pages at the end. Print it as a deck to laminate, punch and clip onto a ring, or print the summary pages and use them as they are.
What’s included
The swimming pool - what the shallow end and the deep end are called in French, and what either has to do with a bath.
Two words, two histories - where ‘bain’ comes from, and what a ‘maillot’ was long before anyone swam in one.
The map - what a swimsuit is called in Italian, Spanish and German, and which of those words share the Latin behind ‘bain’.
A sources page and a short guide for the adult.
For personal use in home education and tutoring only.
Who it’s for
KS3 and KS4 French learners on a holiday, clothes or sport topic
Families heading to a French pool or beach who’d like to read the signs
Learners who hold onto a phrase better once they can see what each word in it does, including dyslexic learners and those in specialist tuition
Home-educated children learning French
Parents learning alongside their child, and adults picking French back up
Why this exists
It’s easy to learn ‘maillot de bain’ as one block to memorise. Split into its three words, each part makes sense, and two of them turn up elsewhere: ‘bain’ at the pool, ‘maillot’ on a football pitch and in the Tour de France. One phrase then links several words a learner may already half-know.
Originally created for my dyslexic son.
How it prints
The 16 cards and the sources page print single-sided. Laminate and trim them, punch the top-left corner and put them on a binder ring. You’ll need a printer, a laminator and a ring, and the deck is yours to build. It goes in a bag or stays on the dinner table, with the history cards ready to shuffle and put back in order. The summary pages at the end need no laminating and go straight from the printer to the table.
Available now as a PDF download.
‘Un maillot de bain’ is a swimsuit, and it’s three words: ‘maillot’, ‘de’ and ‘bain’. The last one means ‘a bath’, which is an odd thing to name a swimsuit after until you’ve stood at the edge of a French swimming pool.
This is a 16-card illustrated word-history of ‘maillot de bain’ in black and white, with a sources page and summary pages at the end. Print it as a deck to laminate, punch and clip onto a ring, or print the summary pages and use them as they are.
What’s included
The swimming pool - what the shallow end and the deep end are called in French, and what either has to do with a bath.
Two words, two histories - where ‘bain’ comes from, and what a ‘maillot’ was long before anyone swam in one.
The map - what a swimsuit is called in Italian, Spanish and German, and which of those words share the Latin behind ‘bain’.
A sources page and a short guide for the adult.
For personal use in home education and tutoring only.
Who it’s for
KS3 and KS4 French learners on a holiday, clothes or sport topic
Families heading to a French pool or beach who’d like to read the signs
Learners who hold onto a phrase better once they can see what each word in it does, including dyslexic learners and those in specialist tuition
Home-educated children learning French
Parents learning alongside their child, and adults picking French back up
Why this exists
It’s easy to learn ‘maillot de bain’ as one block to memorise. Split into its three words, each part makes sense, and two of them turn up elsewhere: ‘bain’ at the pool, ‘maillot’ on a football pitch and in the Tour de France. One phrase then links several words a learner may already half-know.
Originally created for my dyslexic son.
How it prints
The 16 cards and the sources page print single-sided. Laminate and trim them, punch the top-left corner and put them on a binder ring. You’ll need a printer, a laminator and a ring, and the deck is yours to build. It goes in a bag or stays on the dinner table, with the history cards ready to shuffle and put back in order. The summary pages at the end need no laminating and go straight from the printer to the table.
Available now as a PDF download.
