faire les trois-huit - French expression

to work an eight-hour shift – Mot du Jour – faire les trois-huit

faire les trois-huit. faire is ‘to do, to make’, les is ‘the’, trois is ‘three’ and huit is ‘eight’. faire les trois-huit - to do the three-eight - is an idiomatic expression that means ‘to work an eight-hour shift’.

However, it also has the notion of working in a factory that never stops, that works 24/7. If you ‘faire les trois-huit’, it implies you work in a team that rotates over a 24-hour period of time. Sometimes, you’ll work for 8 hours in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon, sometimes at night.

So, I guess a more accurate translation for faire les trois-huit could be ‘to work an eight-hour rotation shift.’

« Cette semaine, il est de nuit et la semaine prochaine, il sera du matin car il fait les trois-huit. »
- “This week, he works at night and next week, he will work in the morning as he works an eight-hour rotation shift.”