Free French
1
5.1
- noun
:
Franceses Libres
- In fact, however, these Maritain letters were written in a climate of tension between the United States and the Free French, precipitated by the Saint Pierre and Miquelon incident in December 1941.
- Free French and de Gaulle
- leader of the Free French
Examples
-
It is predominantly composed of scholars who have adhered to the Free French movement.
Academic text (1998) -
De Gaulle led the Free French Forces, or French Resistance, during the Nazi occupation of France.
Blog text (9) -
And, you know, maybe you end up in the Free French forces and come back and liberate France.
-
This next hour of French-language broadcasts is dedicated to the soldiers of the Free French Army.
Fiction book (1993) -
He's paying tribute to the Free French Forces under DeGaulle and Leclerc.
-
Following liberation, however, a single narrative took hold: that an entire people, united under the French Resistance and Free French, had thrown out the Germans and their handful of French lackeys.
Academic text (2016) -
The insurgency in Iraq was not an authentic resistance like the Warsaw Ghetto uprising or De Gaulle's Free French forces.
Academic text (2009) -
Muselier's subsequent resignation from the French National Committee precipitated rifts among the Free French, and de Gaulle's moral and diplomatic standing with the United States understandably plummeted once again.
Academic text (1991) -
As of 1943, there were only a few male bacheliers preparing one of the required certificats de licence while awaiting to be drafted into the Free French forces, perhaps a dozen in letters, two or three in law, and none at all in science (Aglion, 1984, p. 131).
Academic text (1998) -
During World War II, Charles de Gaulle led the Free French to resist German occupation and restore the French Republic.
Synonyms
French soldiers and leaders who fought against German occupation in World War II under Charles de Gaulle
Surface Forms
Morphology
A B1 learner who knows 'free' and 'French' can infer a basic sense of 'French who are free' or French forces resisting occupation, so the components give a clear topical hint. However, the phrase is a specific historical/political proper name (the WWII movement led by de Gaulle) that cannot be fully derived from the words alone, so prior cultural/historical knowledge is needed.
Etymology
Free French: The name Free French came from World War II when French soldiers and leaders left France and kept fighting from abroad, so they were literally free of German control. That's why Free French means the French forces led by de Gaulle who 'resisted' the enemy and worked to restore their country.