fin de semaine

Question

I'm interested that you translate 'fin de semaine' as 'weekend'. That was what I was taught in school years ago, but French practice now seems to be to call Saturday/Sunday 'le weekend' and for 'fin de semaine' to mean Friday, or just Friday evening.

Accepted Answer

Hi Lucien, 
The idea of 'le weekend' is quite a recent institution for the French as until the 70's children still went to school on Saturdays, certainly in the morning. (I believe some colleges still do)
Sundays were traditionally and still are a family day just as in Italy,  Spain, and Portugal.
You might say -
on part en weekend = we are going away for the weekend
but 'fin de semaine' is still used -
quoi faire en fin de semaine? = what to do at the weekend?
I know the Canadians favour 'fin de semaine' which is odd since a lot of Québécois uses so many English words.
But you will hear both used in France.
Hope this helps!

Answer

A quick check revealed that la fin de (la) semaine is "the end of the week", which is a more loose term than le week-end. Le week-end usually means Saturday and Sunday. It is by far the most common term used in France for "weekend". La fin de semaine is "the end of the week" and apparently can also include Friday and even Thursday. In Canadian French it seems to be the more common term for "weekend".Here is more on it: https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/fin-de-semaine-week-end.2510639/