troisième

Troisième is the French ordinal numeral meaning third, ranking after premier (first) and deuxième (second). It is used to indicate order in time, space, sequence, or importance, and forms a key part of counting and categorization in French.

Form and agreement

The form troisième is the same for masculine and feminine nouns; gender is indicated by the accompanying article or noun rather than by changing the word itself. For example, le troisième étage (masculine) and la troisième fois (feminine). In practice, troisième is treated as a fixed form when modifying nouns, similar to deuxième in many contexts.

Common usages

Troisième appears in expressions of order, such as à la troisième place, au troisième rang, or au troisième étage. It is also used in dates and cycles, for instance: la troisième décennie. In everyday language, it is frequent to say « en troisième » to indicate the third year of a school level or program.

Education

In the French education system, la troisième refers to the third year of collège (middle school), typically for students aged around 14 to 15. After the troisième comes the seconde, which marks entry into the lycée (high school). This usage is a standard, program-specific sense of the word.

History and culture

When capitalized as part of a proper name, troisième can denote a historical era or political period, notably la Troisième République, the French Third Republic, which lasted from 1870 to 1940. The term also occurs in phrases like la troisième dimension, meaning the third dimension, and in other compound designations referring to sequential concepts.

Etymology

Troisième derives from Latin tertius, via Old French and later developments in the French ordinal system.