The article focuses on the relationships between master and apprentices (girls and boys) and on the overlapping between learning and work during the apprenticeship in 18th-century Turin and Rouen. The article provides evidence of the ambiguous language of the contracts, and shows that these latter were lacking in details concerning tasks and duties of masters and apprentices. In addition, the paper shows that in both cities the apprenticeship was a mix of learning and work. Secondly it points out that the relationships between masters and apprentices, even hierarchical, were liable to be negotiated: indeed, the content of the contacts varied according to the nature of previous relationships existing between the apprentice, his/her family and the master.