The French words encore and toujours have a few different meanings, but they share one in common: "still." Because of this shared meaning, it’s easy to confuse these two very common words. Let’s take an in-depth look at both of them to see where they merge and diverge.
In general, when you're using "still" in the sense of continuity (i.e. "to still be doing something"), encore and toujours are interchangeable. For example, "he is still on the phone" could be both il est encore au téléphone and il est toujours au téléphone.
Besides "still," the basic meanings of encore and toujours are:
encore: more/another, again, yet
toujours: always, anyway/anyhow
Let’s start with encore. In their video for "La place des anges" (The Angels’ Place), the Belgian band Yaaz manages to fit two of encore’s meanings into one sad little line:
Elle a encore peur, elle a encore pleuré
She is still afraid, she has cried again
Caption 13, Yaaz - La place des anges
Play Caption
Hopefully she’ll be feeling better soon! On a different note, encore can also mean "another" or "more" (as in "one more," "two more," etc.), as the band Dahlia uses it in this song lyric:
Encore une fois, encore une autre,
One more time, another one,
et encore une voix, encore un manque
and one more voice, another lack
Caption 25, Dahlia - Contre-courant
Play Caption
So now do you see why a band’s return to the stage is called an "encore"? It’s because the audience wants to see them once again!
Along these same lines, encore + a noun usually means "more of something," like food at the dinner table:
Vous voulez encore du pain?
Do you want some more bread?
Encore can also mean "yet," usually in the sense of "not yet" (pas encore):
Donc elle est pas encore prête pour la ferme.
So it's not ready for the farm yet.
Caption 8, Agriculture verticale - TerraSphere
Play Caption
Now let’s explore toujours. Daniel Benchimol uses it as "still" when orienting us on his tour of the Normandy town of Honfleur:
Toujours à Honfleur,
Still in Honfleur,
nous sommes maintenant sur la place Sainte-Catherine.
we are now in Sainte-Catherine Square.
Caption 17, Voyage en France - La Normandie: Honfleur
Play Caption
And Fred uses it as "always" to describe the perpetually perfect weather in Miami:
Il fait toujours chaud, toujours beau, toujours agréable.
It's always warm, always nice, always pleasant.
Caption 34, Fred et Miami Catamarans - Fred et sa vie à Miami
Play Caption
You can remember this meaning by breaking the word down: toujours is a combination of the words tous (all) and jours (days), so it literally means "all days."
The final meaning of toujours is "anyway":
Je ne vais probablement pas gagner à la loterie, mais je vais toujours essayer.
I probably won’t win the lottery, but I’m going to try anyway.
Since both of these words have quite a few meanings, context is key when determining which one they’re referring to. So if you receive a text message after a first date that reads, Tu as toujours envie de me voir?, don't freak out! Your potential love interest isn't asking you if you always feel like seeing him or her, but rather if you still feel like seeing him or her. You're just being asked out on a second date! Context is also important when the two words are used in the same sentence:
Il y a encore autre chose que nous t'avons toujours caché!
There is still another thing that we've always hidden from you!
Caption 6, Les zooriginaux - 3 Qui suis-je?
Play Caption
We could rehash this subject encore et toujours (again and again), but maybe it’s best for you to explore these words on your own by looking out for them in the Yabla French videos. They should pop up quite often!
The verbs "to bring" and "to take" are often interchangeable in English, but their French equivalents are much more specific, and knowing when to use them can be a bit tricky. French actually has four different translations of these two simple verbs: amener, emmener, apporter, and emporter.
You can see that each of these verbs begins with a- or em- and ends with mener or porter. Keeping that in mind will help you determine when to use which verb. You can break it down like this:
1. The verbs ending in mener are only used for things that can move (namely people, animals, or vehicles). The verbs ending in porter are only used for inanimate objects. Mener means "to lead" and porter means "to carry"—you’re more likely to "lead" people and animals and "carry" inanimate objects.
2. The verbs beginning with a- refer to bringing something or someone to another place or another person (emphasis on the arrival or destination; remember that à means "to" in French). The verbs beginning with em- refer to taking something or someone with you, away from the original location (emphasis on the departure or the journey).
The first rule is pretty straightforward, but context is key for the second one. Let’s explore them both by looking at these two examples:
Ils avaient emmené avec eux quelques animaux d'élevage.
They had brought with them a few farm animals.
Caption 24, Il était une fois: Notre Terre - 9. Les écosystèmes
Play Caption
Ils avaient emporté des tonnes de conserves?
Did they bring tons of canned food?
Caption 23, Il était une fois: Notre Terre - 9. Les écosystèmes
Play Caption
Farm animals are living, breathing creatures, and canned food is just about as inanimate as you can get, so it makes sense that emmené was used in the first sentence and emporté was used in the second. But why the em-verbs instead of the a-verbs? The words avec eux help us to see where the emphasis lies—not on where they brought the animals and food, but on the fact that they brought things with them.
Now let’s take a look at amener and apporter:
Aujourd'hui notre rendez-vous nous amène dans l'est de Paris.
Today our rendezvous brings us to the east of Paris.
Caption 2, Voyage dans Paris - Belleville
Play Caption
Vous voulez que je vous apporte une paire pour que vous puissiez comparer?
Do you want me to bring you a pair so that you can compare?
Caption 27, Margaux et Manon - Magasin de chaussures
Play Caption
Our rendezvous with tour guide Daniel Benchimol is "bringing" us to the east of Paris, so amener is used here, since we’re all animate human beings. On the other hand, Manon brings Margaux a pair of inanimate shoes to try on, so she uses apporter. In both cases, the emphasis is on where we and the shoes are being brought—to the east of Paris and to Margaux.
As a final example, let's see how one situation can call for both types of verbs. We already saw that apporter was the right verb to use when Manon asked Margaux if she wanted her to bring her a pair of shoes to try on. But if the shoes don't fit, Margaux could say to Manon:
Emportez-les, elles sont trop petites.
Take them away, they're too small.
She wants Manon to bring the shoes back with her (not necessarily to any particular place), so emporter is the right fit here.
This is a lot to take in, so you might need some time to chew it over. In fact, why not go to a restaurant and review it all over a nice meal? If you decide to amener un ami (bring a friend) you'll want to have it sur place (to stay); if you're alone you might want to take it à emporter (to go)!
In his new travel video on the Parisian suburb of Saint-Mammès, Daniel Benchimol uses the word face quite frequently when giving directions on getting around town:
Face aux péniches de Saint-Mammès,
Facing the barges of Saint-Mammès,
arrêtez-vous quelques instants face au numéro quarante-et-un.
stop for a few moments in front of number forty-one.
Captions 8-9, Voyage en France - Saint-Mammès
Play Caption
Face à Saint-Mammès,
Opposite Saint-Mammès,
nous sommes à Saint Moret-sur-Loing maintenant.
we are in Saint Moret-sur-Loing now.
Caption 40, Voyage en France - Saint-Mammès
Play Caption
Face à is a useful expression meaning "facing," "in front of," or "opposite." You can even put the verb faire in front of it to make the verbal expression for "to face," in the sense of both "to be in front of" and "to cope with":
La NASA a dû faire face à une avalanche
NASA had to face an avalanche
de données et de preuves embarrassantes.
of data and embarrassing evidence.
Caption 7, La Conspiration d'Orion - Conspiration 3/4
Play Caption
The word face is used in a number of other directional expressions, such as en face (across, opposite), as the lead singer of Babylon Circus uses it when lamenting the seating arrangement of him and his love interest:
Je suis assis en face, et pas à tes côtés
I'm sitting across from you and not by your side
Caption 23, Babylon Circus - J'aurais bien voulu
Play Caption
They might not be sitting close, but at least they’re maintaining eye contact by sitting face à face (face-to-face)!
Unsurprisingly, the French face is related to the English "face," but it usually doesn’t refer to the front part of your head. French actually has two words for that: la figure and le visage. (To see some incredible French faces, check out our interview with artist and master visage-painter Niko de La Faye.)
Sometimes face can in fact mean "face," mainly in a figurative sense:
Ça change pas la face du monde, mais qui sait?
That doesn't change the face of the world, but who knows?
Caption 26, Le Journal - Laurent Voulzy
Play Caption
Il peut voir la face cachée des choses.
He is able to see the hidden face of things.
If you're particularly concerned about your reputation, you might make a lot of effort to sauver la face (save face) or worry that you might perdre la face (lose face).
By itself, la face generally just means "side" (synonymous with le côté). Chef Wodling Gwennaël uses face in this way when explaining his delicious recipe for fried scallops:
On va les saisir, euh, à peu près une minute sur chaque face.
We're going to sear them, uh, for about one minute on each side.
Caption 14, Les Irrésistibles - Recette: Saint-Jacques poêlées
Play Caption
Face also applies to the side of a coin, namely, the "heads" side (that is, the side that usually features someone's face). So whenever you want to settle something in French with a coin toss, you can say:
Pile ou face?
Heads or tails?
Voyons les choses en face (let’s face it): the word face has many faces! In other "face"-related news, make sure to check out our Facebook page for all the latest information from Yabla.
In one of our latest videos, our friends Margaux and Manon revisit their childhood for a bit by playing shop. Margaux, the customer, sees a pair of shoes she likes, and Manon, the shopkeeper, asks her what size she is:
Vous faites du combien?
What shoe size are you?
Un bon trente-sept.
A solid thirty-seven [American size seven].
Captions 21-22, Margaux et Manon - Magasin de chaussures
Play Caption
If it’s not quite obvious what Manon’s question has to do with shoe sizes, keep in mind that the phrase "faire du + [shoe size]" means "to wear a size x."
(And if Margaux’s size thirty-seven seems impossibly large, note that shoe-sizing scales vary from one region of the world to another. You can use this handy chart for all your future foreign shoe purchases.)
Another way of saying "to wear a size x" is "chausser du + [shoe size]":
Vous chaussez du combien?
What shoe size are you?
Je chausse du trente-sept.
I wear a size thirty-seven.
The French word for "shoe size" is la pointure (as opposed to the word for clothing size, la taille). So yet another way of rephrasing Manon’s question would be:
Quelle est votre pointure?
What shoe size are you?
Chausser is a pretty important verb when it comes to shoes (les chaussures). Besides its meaning above, it can also refer to "putting on" shoes or anything that covers your feet... even rollerblades!
La chose qui me fait le plus plaisir, c'est de chausser, d'aller rouler.
The thing that gives me the most pleasure is to put on my blades, to go and roll.
Caption 6, Cap 24 - Démonstration de roller freestyle
Play Caption
Manon takes the verb even further when describing how Margaux’s shoes might fit:
Je vais vous prendre un trente-sept et un trente-huit,
I'll get you a thirty-seven and a thirty-eight,
mais elles chaussent grand.
but they run big.
Caption 23, Margaux et Manon - Magasin de chaussures
Play Caption
Luckily, Margaux’s shoes chaussent bien (fit well)!
If you’re talking about wearing shoes (or any other article of clothing), the verb to use is porter:
Margaux porte des escarpins noirs.
Margaux is wearing black pumps.
J'ai plus besoin de porter cette écharpe.
I don't need to wear this scarf anymore.
Caption 27, Flora - et le théâtre
Play Caption
If black pumps aren't your thing, you can try some of these on for size:
les sandales - sandals
les chaussons/les pantoufles - slippers
les chaussures de sport/de tennis - sneakers
les mocassins - loafers, flats
les bottes - boots
les ballerines - ballet shoes
les chaussures à talons hauts - high heels
les tongs - flip-flops
les chaussures de marche - hiking boots
les sabots - clogs
Now that you know all about buying shoes in France, why not try reenacting Margaux and Manon’s dialogue with a friend? You can go shopping after!
Just as English contains a large number of French loanwords, you’ll also find a good deal of anglicismes in French. In this lesson, we’ll focus on a specific group of English loanwords to French, all ending in -ing.
Like most loanwords, many of these -ing words have the same meaning in both languages, such as un meeting (a meeting), le marketing (marketing), un kidnapping (a kidnapping), le baby-sitting (babysitting), le shopping (shopping), and le jogging (jogging):
Elle fait son jogging sur la banquise.
She's out jogging on the ice field.
Caption 40, Les zooriginaux - Léa jacta est
Play Caption
There are quite a few -ing words related to sports or other physical activities, including le footing (jogging), le bowling (bowling or bowling alley), le stretching (stretching), le karting (go-karting), le body-building (body-building), and le camping (camping or campsite). In case you haven't noticed, these -ing loanwords are always masculine, so you won't have to worry about gender here!
Sometimes, these words have slightly different meanings from their English counterparts. Le parking, for example, doesn’t mean "parking," but "parking lot," like the one that was formerly the site of a beautiful hotel near the castle of Fontainebleau:
Aujourd'hui, derrière, malheureusement,
Today, behind it, unfortunately,
il ne reste plus qu'un parking.
all that's left is a parking lot.
Caption 25, Voyage en France - Fontainebleau
Play Caption
(The parking lot probably takes away from the splendor of Fontainebleau, but who knows—maybe someone will find a king buried beneath it, as Richard III was found in England.)
A fair number of French -ing words deal with beauty and grooming, such as the two hair-related words le shampooing (shampoo) and un brushing (a blow-out). Note that while most -ing loanwords sound very similar to the English, shampooing sounds completely different (it rhymes with poing, "fist"). You can hear the difference in these captions:
Ici le shampooing, le savon de corps, et le savon menthe.
Here the shampoo, the body soap, and the mint soap.
Caption 28, Visiter un yacht - Visite du yacht
Play Caption
Les brushings des serveuses se répandent
The waitresses' blow-outs [hairstyles] spread
Caption 31, Boulbar - Motor Hotel
Play Caption
On the more extreme side of cosmetic -ing words, there’s un relooking (a makeover) and un lifting (a facelift). Of course, for your relooking, if you don't want to go all the way with a lifting, you could just get un peeling (a facial peel). And for proper grooming before a black tie affair, it’s always good to make sure one’s smoking (tuxedo) is perfectly clean:
Il y a du chewing-gum sur mon smoking, donc je dois l’apporter au pressing avant la fête.
There’s gum on my tuxedo, so I have to bring it to the dry cleaner’s before the party.
And don't forget that if you ever get du chewing-gum in your hair, you can wash it out with du shampooing!
Keep on the lookout for some other -ing anglicismes in your Yabla French studies and see how similar or different their meanings are to their English source words. You can use this helpful WordReference forum thread as a guide.
You may have heard the word "coup" in English before, in phrases like "a major coup" (a successful, unexpected action), "a coup d’état" (a sudden overthrow of a government), or even "a coup de grâce" (a deathblow). In French, un coup means "a blow," "stroke," or "shot," and the construction "un coup de + noun" can give rise to a wide variety of expressions. Un coup d’état, for example, is literally "a blow of the state," and un coup de grâce is "a stroke of grace."
Two very common expressions with coup are un coup de poing (a punch or "strike of the fist") and un coup de pied (a kick or "strike of the foot"). But coup doesn’t always have to refer to violence! In general, "un coup de + noun" can just refer to something that happens very quickly. It’s often used in sports lingo, as Caroline uses it in her how-to video on the basics of badminton:
C'est un petit coup comme ça, un petit coup de raquette.
It's a little shot like this, a little stroke with the racket.
Caption 33, Caroline - et le badminton
Play Caption
And in French soccer terminology, you have un coup d’envoi, a "sending shot" (better known as a "kickoff"):
Une demi-heure avant le coup d'envoi.
Half an hour before kickoff.
Caption 29, Le Journal - Le football
Play Caption
Have you ever been spooked by a "clap of thunder"? That’s un coup de tonnerre in French, and as the band Château Flight points out, it can be a beautiful thing:
Ainsi qu'un coup d'tonnerre
As well as a thunderbolt
Dont la beauté sidère
Whose beauty astonishes
Captions 10-11, Château Flight featuring Bertrand Burgalat - Les antipodes
Play Caption
And let's not forget the counterpart of un coup de tonnerre, un coup de foudre (a lightning strike), which can also mean "love at first sight."
In contrast with the violent coup de poing and coup de pied, there is the much more benevolent coup de pouce or "stroke of the thumb." This is the phrase for a "helping hand" or a "push in the right direction," and it’s also the name of a French organization that held a contest to benefit abandoned pets:
Un concours organisé par l'Association Coup de Pouce.
A competition organized by the "Coup de Pouce" [Push in the Right Direction] Association.
Caption 15, Grand Lille TV - Des photos contre l'abandon des animaux
Play Caption
Besides the construction "coup de + noun," two other expressions with coup are quite common: tout d’un coup (all of a sudden) and du coup (as a result):
Jai des images dans la tête et puis tout d'un coup ça devient réalité.
I have images in my head and then all of a sudden that becomes reality.
Caption 26, Melissa Mars - Ses propos
Play Caption
Donc du coup on devient très créatif.
So as a result you become very creative.
Caption 16, Les Nubians - Les origines et les influences
Play Caption
The list of coup expressions could fill a book, but here are some more interesting ones:
un coup d’essai – a trial run
un coup d’œil – a glance
un coup de chapeau – a pat on the back ("hat’s off")
un coup de chance – a stroke of luck
un coup de fil – a phone call
un coup de soleil – a sunburn
un coup de vent – a gust of wind
un coup de théâtre – a turn of events
un coup de cœur – a favorite, an infatuation
un coup fourré – a dirty trick
boire un coup – to have a drink
faire d'une pierre deux coups – to kill two birds with one stone
We hope you’re not experiencing un coup de barre (a sudden fatigue) and that you will be able to tenir le coup (cope) with learning so much about this little word! If you do need to unwind, why not watch a movie? We here at Yabla recommend one of the defining films of the French New Wave movement, François Truffaut's Les quatre cents coups (The Four Hundred Blows; the phrase faire les quatre cents coups means "to live a wild life").
Avoir is the general French verb for "to have," but if you’re talking about something that you physically have, tenir might be the better verb to use. The simplest meaning of tenir is "to hold." This is the way the singer Corneille uses it in one of our most popular music videos, Comme un fils (Like a Son):
Tiens ma tête quand elle fait plus de sens.
Hold my head when it no longer makes sense.
Caption 28, Corneille - Comme un fils
Play Caption
When it’s not referring to something that you’re holding in your hand, tenir can also be used for something that you keep, maintain, or manage, such as a restaurant:
Aller chez Gilles Spannagel qui tient Le Cruchon,
To go visit Gilles Spannagel who owns Le Cruchon [The Little Jug],
qui est le petit restaurant...
which is the little restaurant...
Caption 23, Strasbourg - Les passants
Play Caption
Or it can refer to something that is attached to something else, like needles on a Christmas tree:
Des épines qui tiennent plus longtemps...
Needles that stay on longer...
Caption 7, TV Tours - Une seconde vie pour vos sapins de Noël?
Play Caption
Tenir also applies to situations in which you are compelled to do something, in the expressions tenir à and être tenu(e) de:
Je tiens à préciser que la Bretagne a son charme aussi.
I have to mention that Brittany has its charms too.
Caption 13, Fanny et Corrine - Leurs origines
Play Caption
Mais ils sont tenus d'avoir... un certificat de capacité.
But they are required to have... a certificate of competency.
Caption 48, TV Sud - Fête de la Tortue 2012
Play Caption
Tenir à can also mean "to be fond of," "to be attached to," or "to care about":
Elle tient à son emploi.
She is fond of her job.
And when you make tenir reflexive (se tenir), it means "to stand," "remain," or "behave." Can you imagine walking into someone’s house and seeing a llama standing in the living room?
C'est bien un lama qui se tient fièrement en plein milieu d'un salon.
That's really a llama proudly standing in the middle of a living room.
Caption 2, Angers 7 - Un lama en plein appartement
Play Caption
Tiens-toi tranquille, hein sinon!
Hold still, OK, or else!
Caption 5, Il était une fois: les Explorateurs - 10. Amerigo Vespucci
Play Caption
Les enfants se tiennent bien.
The children are behaving themselves.
You can also use tiens, the singular imperative form of tenir, for the interjection "look" (or more literally, "behold"):
Tiens, ça doit être bon, ça!
Look, this should be good!
Caption 24, Il était une fois: les Explorateurs - 10. Amerigo Vespucci
Play Caption
The verb détenir is related to tenir and is often translated the same way, though it has the specific connotation of "to possess" or even "detain":
...qui autorise des gens à détenir des animaux, des tortues chez eux.
...which allows some people to keep animals, turtles, at home.
Caption 47, TV Sud - Fête de la Tortue 2012
Play Caption
Crois-moi, tu détiens là, la base de toute connaissance.
Believe me, you hold there the basis of all knowledge.
Caption 13, Il était une fois: l’Homme - 6. Le siècle de Périclès
Play Caption
Even if you don’t hold the basis of all knowledge, with this lesson you should hold everything you need to make good use of the verb tenir. You can check out the WordReference page on the verb for even more uses. So soyez sûr de retenir le verbe tenir (be sure to hold onto the verb tenir)!
"Only" might seem like a pretty lonely word, but there are actually several different ways of saying it in French: the adjectives seul(e) and unique, the adverb seulement and uniquement, and the verb phrase ne... que.
First let’s take a look at the words seul(e) and seulement:
Parce que le mardi, c'est le seul jour où je ne travaille pas.
Because Tuesday is the only day when I don't work.
Caption 10, Fred et Miami Catamarans - Fred et sa vie à Miami
Play Caption
Aussi je vais dire seulement trois choses.
Also I am only going to say three things.
Caption 10, Le Journal - Joëlle Aubron libérée
Play Caption
Seulement is the adverbial form of the adjective seul(e), which has another similar (and sadder!) meaning as well:
Alors je me retrouve un petit peu seul en ce moment.
So I find myself a little alone right now.
Caption 5, Hugo Bonneville - Gagner sa vie
Play Caption
Some other ways of saying "alone" or "lonely" are solitaire and isolé(e).
And seulement has some additional meanings of its own. It can be used to express a regret ("if only...") and to mean "however":
Si seulement je l'avais su avant.
If only I had known before.
Il veut venir, seulement il ne peut pas.
He wants to come, however he can't.
Although unique and uniquement are most directly translated as "unique" and "uniquely," they can also mean "only":
Je suis un enfant unique.
I am an only child.
Ce que l'on demande, c'est d'avoir uniquement la photo de l'animal.
What we're asking is to have only the photo of the animal.
Caption 17, Grand Lille TV - Des photos contre l'abandon des animaux
Play Caption
Now let’s look at a bit more complicated way of saying "only": the verb phrase ne... que. As you might have guessed, ne... que is a negative construction, as in ne... pas (not), ne... personne (no one), and ne... rien (nothing). In these constructions, the two components go on either side of the verb:
Il ne mesure que soixante-dix mètres carrés,
It only measures seventy square meters,
Caption 8, Voyage dans Paris - Saint-Germain-des-Prés
Play Caption
Moi je ne parlais que français.
Me, I spoke only French.
Caption 10, Annie Chartrand - Grandir bilingue
Play Caption
Most of the time, ne... que can be replaced with seulement:
Il mesure seulement soixante-dix mètres carrés.
It only measures seventy square meters.
Moi, je parlais seulement français.
Me, I spoke only French.
Sometimes, que can mean "only" outside of the ne... que construction. For example, in an interview with Le Figaro, A-lister Ashton Kutcher laments being typecast as a jokester, declaring: "Je ne suis pas qu’un clown!" (I’m not only a clown!)
The ne in this sentence goes with pas (not), while the que stands on its own to mean "only." Ashton (or his translator) could just as well have said, Je ne suis pas seulement un clown!
Maybe the former "Punk’d" star can shed his clownish reputation by undertaking some serious French studies at Yabla French! Since he’s known to be an avid tweeter, he might want to start by following us on Twitter @Yabla. And you should follow us too!
Monter is a French verb that can come in handy in many situations. We find the most basic meaning of the verb in our interview with Joanna, whose apartment is so tiny that her entire kitchen fits inside a cupboard! And although living on the ground floor means she doesn’t have to climb any stairs, she does have to climb a ladder to get to her bed.
J'habite au rez-de-chaussée,
I live on the ground floor,
donc je n'ai pas besoin de monter les escaliers.
so I don't need to go up the stairs.
Caption 6, Joanna - Son appartement
Play Caption
C'est pour dormir, avec mon lit, et je dois monter à cette échelle.
It's for sleeping, with my bed, and I have to climb this ladder.
Caption 14, Joanna - Son appartement
Play Caption
Joanna uses the verb monter to describe going up the stairs and climbing the ladder. Although “to go up” is the verb's most basic meaning, there are quite a few others. For example, a price or a level of something can also monter:
Le prix de l’essence monte chaque année.
The price of gas rises every year.
Jean-Marc also uses the verb to talk about getting inside his dream car:
À chaque fois que je monte dedans, j'y prends beaucoup de plaisir.
Every time I get in, I enjoy it very much.
Caption 13, Jean-Marc - Voiture de rêve
Play Caption
The opposite of monter is descendre (to go down), and just as monter can refer to getting into a car or onto a bus or train, descendre refers to getting out or off:
On va monter dans le train à Bastille et descendre à République.
We’ll get on the train at Bastille and get off at République.
Note that it’s monter dans le train (literally, “to go up into the train”) and descendre du train (to descend from the train).
When monter is used with a direct object, it can mean “to put up,” “set up,” “establish,” or “put together”:
C'était un peu une façon pour moi et de faire un film et de monter une pièce.
It was kind of a way for me to make not only a film but also to stage a play.
Caption 18, TLT Toulouse - Dorfman mis en scène à Toulouse
Play Caption
Il a réussi à monter sa propre pizzeria.
He succeeded in opening his own pizzeria.
Caption 3, Le Journal - Les microcrédits
Play Caption
Donc, le crapaud il va falloir beaucoup plus de temps pour le monter.
So for the squat, it will take much longer to put it together.
Caption 37, Le Tapissier - L'artisan et son travail
Play Caption
Speaking of direct objects, it’s good to know what to do with monter in the past tense (passé composé). Monter is one of the few verbs that usually takes the auxiliary être in the passé composé instead of avoir:
Joanna est montée à l’échelle.
Joanna climbed the ladder.
But when monter takes a direct object and becomes transitive, it does take avoir:
Nous avons monté une pièce.
We staged a play.
The passé composé is a very tricky aspect of French grammar. You can find a detailed introduction to it here.
This lesson just dips its toe into the verb’s numerous possibilities: you can also monter un film (edit a film), monter à cheval (ride a horse), monter un complot (hatch a plot), monter au combat (go to battle), monter des blancs d’œufs (whisk egg whites), and much more!
You can find a comprehensive list of monter's meanings on this site.
In this lesson, we’ll focus on the verb arriver, which has four different but equally common meanings. As you might guess, arriver is cognate with the English word “arrive,” which is the first meaning of the word:
On arrive au square de l'Opéra Louis Jouvet,
We arrive at the Opéra Louis Jouvet Square,
que je trouve très joli aussi.
which I also find very pretty.
Caption 40, Mon Lieu Préféré - Place Édouard VII
Play Caption
Just as “arrive” doesn’t only refer to reaching a specific location (you can “arrive at” a solution, for example), arriver can also mean “to manage” or “succeed”:
On arrive enfin à se mettre d'accord.
We manage finally to come to an agreement.
Caption 18, Rémy de Bores - Auteur
Play Caption
The expression y arriver specifically means “to make it” or “do it”:
Pour sortir des toilettes,
To come out of the restroom,
c'est vraiment extrêmement étroit et avec le fauteuil, on y arrive...
it's really extremely narrow and you can do it with the wheelchair...
Captions 19-20, Le Journal - Manifestation de paralysés
Play Caption
And if someone is waiting for you and you’re on your way, you can use arriver to let them know that you’re coming (or arriving):
Dépêche-toi, Michel, je suis en retard! -Oui, j’arrive!
Hurry up, Michel, I’m late! -Yes, I’m coming!
Car Ivan arrive; le cyclone progresse à trente kilomètres / heure.
Because Ivan is coming; the cyclone is moving at thirty kilometers per hour.
Caption 12, Le Journal - La Martinique
Play Caption
The final meaning of arriver is “to happen.” In this sense, it is synonymous with the verb se passer:
Ce qui ne m'était pas arrivé depuis six ans.
Which had not happened to me for six years.
Caption 24, Voyage en France - La Normandie: Cabourg
Play Caption
Qu’est-ce qui se passe?
What’s happening?
There is also the expression il arrive que... (it happens that...), which is usually translated as “sometimes”:
Il arrive que les rêves se réalisent.
Sometimes dreams come true.
Note that il arrive que... takes the subjunctive.
So whether someone or something is arriving, succeeding, coming, or happening, you can cover a lot of ground with the verb arriver. See if you can come up with sentences for each of its meanings!
Chez is one of those few French words with no exact English equivalent. It’s a preposition that can be literally translated as "at the home of" or "at the establishment of," as Alex Terrier uses it when describing his early music influences.
Ensuite j'ai découvert chez mes parents
Then I discovered at my parents' place
des disques trente-trois tours...
some thirty-three rpm records...
Caption 11, Alex Terrier - Le musicien et son jazz
Play Caption
It can also be used in front of a surname to indicate a family household:
Chez les Marchal, le bac c'est une affaire de famille.
At the Marchals', the bac is a family affair.
Caption 23, Le Journal - Le baccalauréat
Play Caption
(Note that French surnames don’t take an extra s when pluralized: les Marchal.)
Or it can be used with disjunctive pronouns (moi, toi, soi, etc.) to mean "at my house," "at your house," or even just "at home":
L'hiver, les gens préfèrent rester chez eux...
In the winter, people prefer to stay at home...
Caption 1, Fanny parle des saisons - La Bouffe
Play Caption
You can also use chez for businesses, offices, restaurants, and other commercial locations:
Je suis pizzaman chez F&F Pizza, un shift par semaine.
I'm a pizza man at F&F Pizza, one shift per week.
Caption 2, F&F Pizza - Chez F&F
Play Caption
J'ai rendez-vous chez le dentiste et je suis en retard!
I have an appointment at the dentist and I'm late!
Caption 10, Micro-Trottoirs - Art ou science?
Play Caption
But chez doesn’t only refer to buildings! Quite often, you will also see it used more figuratively. For example, just as "at home" can mean "in one’s house," "in one's country/native land," and just "familiar" in general, chez soi (or chez nous, chez moi, etc.) carries all those meanings as well:
On se sentait absolument chez nous.
We felt right at home.
Caption 23, Les Nubians - Le multiculturalisme
Play Caption
Finally, when describing something "about" or "in" a person, "among" a group of people, or "in the work of" an author or artist, chez is the word to use:
Je l'ai retrouvée, je l'ai vue chez toutes les femmes, toutes les filles.
I recognized it, I saw it in all the women, all the girls.
Caption 53, Alphabétisation - des filles au Sénégal
Play Caption
Les pâtes sont très populaires chez les Italiens.
Pasta is very popular among Italians.
Il y a beaucoup de figures bizarres chez Salvador Dalí.
There are many bizarre figures in the work of Salvador Dalí.
We chez Yabla encourage you to speak French as much as you can chez vous!
Take a look at these three words: éventuellement, actuellement, forcément. If you read one of our previous lessons, you would probably guess that these words are all adverbs. And you would be right! You might also guess that they mean "eventually," "actually," and "forcefully." No such luck this time. These words are all false cognates (or faux amis, literally "false friends"), which are words that look similar in two languages but mean different things. French and English share too many faux amis to include in one lesson, so for now we'll focus on these three deceptive adverbs.
Éventuellement is synonymous with possiblement, which means "possibly" (no false friends there!). It can also be more specifically translated as "when necessary" or "if needed."
Éventuellement dans... dans telle ou telle de cir'... situation...
Possibly, in... in such and such a cir'... situation...
Caption 19, Actu Vingtième - La burqa
Play Caption
Aujourd'hui il y a dix-sept médicaments disponibles,
Today there are seventeen medications available,
utilisés éventuellement en combinaison.
sometimes used in combination.
Caption 17, Le Journal - Le sida
Play Caption
"Eventually" is usually translated as finalement (finally) or tôt ou tard (sooner or later):
J'ai décidé finalement de ne pas aller à la fête.
I eventually decided not to go to the party.
Nous y arriverons tôt ou tard.
We'll get there eventually.
Our second adverb, actuellement, is not "actually," but "currently" or "presently":
Actuellement sans travail, ils résident aujourd'hui près de Saintes, en France...
Currently unemployed, they now live near Saintes, in France...
Caption 3, Le Journal - Les Français de Côte d'Ivoire
Play Caption
"Actually" in French is en fait (in fact):
Et... pour imaginer le texte, en fait j'ai eu une vision dans ma tête.
And... to imagine the lyrics, actually I had a vision in my head.
Caption 16, Melissa Mars - On "Army of Love"
Play Caption
And in case this wasn't complicated enough, "currently" has a faux ami of its own: couramment (fluently).
Nicole parle couramment cinq langues.
Nicole speaks five languages fluently.
Finally, forcément means "necessarily" or "inevitably." "Forcefully" is simply avec force or avec vigueur:
Je l'aime bien, mais euh, enfin,
I like him all right, but uh, well,
ce n'est pas forcément le meilleur qui soit...
he's not necessarily the best there is...
Caption 14, Interviews à Central Park - Discussion politique
Play Caption
This one actually makes sense if you break up the word. Like many adverbs, forcément is made up of an adjective (forcé) plus the ending -ment, which corresponds to the English adverbial ending -ly. Forcé(e) means "forced," so forcément literally means "forcedly" or "done under force," i.e., "necessarily."
Actuellement and éventuellement are also made up of an adjective plus -ment, and their adjectives are also false cognates: actuel(le) means "current" (not "actual") and éventuel(le) means "possible" (not "eventual"). These words have noun forms as well: les actualités are the news or current events, and une éventualité is a possibility. (Interestingly, éventualité is a cognate of "eventuality," another word for "possibility.")
English and French share so many faux amis that there are entire books dedicated to the subject. But if you're not itching to memorize them all right away, you can learn why there are so many of them in this article.
Well, it's official. French Prime Minister François Fillon has declared that the title mademoiselle (Miss) will no longer be included on any government forms or documents. The decision comes after months of campaigning by two French feminist groups, Osez le féminisme! (Dare To Be Feminist!) and Les Chiennes de garde (The Watchdogs), who argue that the term places an unfair emphasis on a woman's marital status. Mademoiselle literally means "my young lady" (ma + demoiselle), just as madame comes from "my lady" and monsieur "my lord." Monsieur has long been used to identify both single and married men, as the archaic male equivalent of mademoiselle, mon damoiseau, never became an honorific title. Now madame will be used for all women, whether single or married, and is thus best translated as "Ms." instead of "Mrs."
Madame, qu'est-ce que vous avez préparé, vous?
Ma'am, what about you, what did you prepare?
Caption 17, Actus Quartier - Fête de quartier Python-Duvernois
Play Caption
Ne riez pas, monsieur, c'est très sérieux.
Do not laugh, sir, it's quite serious.
Caption 17, Le Journal - Les effets bénéfiques du rire!
Play Caption
Non, c'est madame qui a préparé le riz.
No, it's the lady who prepared the rice.
Caption 38, Actus Quartier - Fête de quartier Python-Duvernois
Play Caption
Y a un beau monsieur là de quatre-vingt-treize ans qui veut vous inviter, hein!
There's a handsome ninety-three-year-old gentleman here who wants to invite you, you know!
Caption 33, Actu Vingtième - Le Repas des anciens
Play Caption
Mesdames et messieurs,
Ladies and gentlemen,
sans plus tarder, voici Hugo Bonneville.
without further delay, here is Hugo Bonneville.
Captions 4-5, Hugo Bonneville - Être musicien
Play Caption
Si is a little French word that mainly corresponds to three little English words: "if," "so," and "yes." Although these are three very different words, it’s usually easy to tell which one si is referring to in context. So let’s see what si can do!
Most of the time, you’ll probably hear si used to mean "if," as Bertrand Pierre uses it in his emotional song "Si vous n’avez rien à me dire" (with text by Victor Hugo, of Les Misérables fame):
Si vous n'avez rien à me dire
If you have nothing to say to me
Pourquoi venir auprès de moi?
Why come up to me?
Captions 1-2, Bertrand Pierre - Si vous n'avez rien à me dire
Play Caption
Note that when si meaning "if" is followed by il ("he" or "it") or ils ("they," masculine), it is contracted to s'. This is perhaps most commonly seen in the expression for "please," s’il vous plaît (formal) or s’il te plaît (informal), which literally translates to "if it pleases you."
Si can also be used to indicate a contrast or opposition, in which case it means "whereas":
Si Émilie aime la musique rock, Henri la déteste.
Whereas Émilie loves rock music, Henri hates it.
Since si and "so" look quite similar, it shouldn’t be too hard to remember this meaning of the word. Just keep in mind that si refers to the adverb "so" (as in "so happy"), not to "so" as a conjunction (as in "move so I can see"):
Pourquoi si long et pourquoi si las, tenir à bout de bras?
Why so long and why so weary, to hold at arm's length?
Caption 26, Dahlia - Contre-courant
Play Caption
One of the first words you learn in French is the word for "yes," oui, but sometimes si can also mean "yes" (as it does in Spanish and Italian). However, si only means "yes" in a very specific context: when someone is contradicting a negative question or statement. In case that sounds kind of convoluted, here's an example:
Non! Il n'est pas bien, Sarkozy! -Si, si, si. -Si, il est bien.
No! He's not good, Sarkozy! -Yes, yes, yes. -Yes, he's good.
Captions 15-17, Interviews à Central Park - Discussion politique
Play Caption
If oui were used here instead of si, the speaker would just be confirming the negative statement ("Yes, Sarkozy is not good"). On the other hand, si takes a negative proposition ("He's not good, Sarkozy!") and turns it into a positive one ("Yes, he's good"). This is why it can come in very handy when you want to correct someone or express a contrary opinion.
To conclude, here are two expressions with si that you might find useful: si ça se trouve... ("maybe" or "it could be the case that") and si ce n'est que... (apart from the fact that):
Si ça se trouve, Georges n'a jamais terminé ses études.
It could be that Georges never finished school.
Nous n'avons rien en commun, si ce n'est que nous sommes tous les deux français.
We have nothing in common apart from the fact that we are both French.
This tiny word is probably one of the most versatile in the French language. So now that you know all about si, here's a challenge for you: try writing a two-sentence dialogue using as many meanings of the word as you can. Just use this lesson as a guide, and it'll be easier than you think!
Voilà is a very common word in French, and depending on the context, it can take a number of different meanings, the most general of which is "there/here it is." In grammatical terms, voilà is categorized as a presentative, or a word that is used to introduce something. Voilà comes from the imperative phrase vois là (see there), which makes the presentative nature of the word even more apparent. At its most basic, voilà is used to present a specific object or person
Donc voilà mon super falafel, avec de l'aubergine grillée...
So here is my super falafel, with grilled eggplant...
Caption 9, Mon Lieu Préféré - Rue des Rosiers
Play Caption
Ah! Ben tiens, voilà Socrate.
Oh! Well look, here comes Socrates.
Caption 9, Il était une fois: l’Homme - 6. Le siècle de Périclès
Play Caption
In these two examples, we see how voilà can be used to direct our attention to both an object (Caroline's "super falafel") and a person (Socrates). But when voilà isn't literally presenting us with something, it is often used as a way of emphasizing a statement:
La poésie c'est comme l'amour:
Poetry is like love:
c'est le plus court chemin entre deux êtres. Voilà.
it's the shortest path between two people. There.
Caption 39, Marché de la Poésie - Des poètes en tout genre
Play Caption
In a sense, you could say that voilà is "presenting" us here with the metaphor on poetry that precedes it. But on a slightly less articulate note, when voilà is used for emphasis, it often acts as a sort of filler word, used when someone wants to end one topic and move on to another:
Euh... voilà. Après, l'inspiration, elle...
Uh... there you are. Well, inspiration, it...
elle vient de plein de sources diverses et variées.
it comes from a lot of different and varied sources.
Caption 48, Niko de La Faye - "Visages"
Play Caption
You can also use voilà to affirm another person's statement:
Voilà, vous pouvez même voir le petit bateau en photo, euh, ici.
That's right, you can even see the little boat in the photo, uh, here.
Caption 50, Arles - Le marché d'Arles
Play Caption
Or you can use it to express a period of time:
Voilà près de sept ans que les professionnels du bois attendaient ça.
For nearly seven years, the lumber business has been waiting for this.
Caption 5, Le Journal - Firewood
Play Caption
Because voilà can be used in so many different situations, it is often tricky to translate ("there," "here," "there you go," "there you have it," "that's it," "there you are," and so on). And since no English word can really capture voilà's breadth of meaning, sometimes it's best not to translate it at all. In fact, the difficulty of translating voilà might be why it's become an (often humorous) English exclamation as well.
Now let's take a look at voilà's sister word, voici (from vois ici, "see here"). Like voilà, voici is also a presentative, but whereas voilà can either mean "there it is" or "here it is," voici usually just means "here it is." And unlike voilà, voici isn't used for emphatic or filler purposes, but almost exclusively for introducing or presenting a specific person or thing:
Nous voici devant une des quatre Statues de la Liberté
Here we are in front of one of the four Statues of Liberty
que l'on peut trouver dans la ville de Paris.
that you can find in the city of Paris.
Captions 24-25, Voyage dans Paris - Jardin du Luxembourg
Play Caption
You can get a better sense of the difference between voici and voilà when they are both used in the same sentence:
Voici ma maison et voilà celle de mon ami.
Here is my house and there is my friend's.
As you can see, voilà is used to point out something at a distance, whereas voici indicates something close by. The difference between voici and voilà is similar to the difference between ceci (this) and cela (that). In fact, another way of translating the sentence above would be, "this is my house and that is my friend's."
You've probably heard voilà used in English before, but voici hasn't really managed to make the crossover. Besides the fact that voilà is often hard to translate (voici is much more straightforward), this could also be because voilà often acts as a standalone phrase (Voilà!), whereas voici generally doesn't. But don't underestimate a good voici when speaking French: if you want people to notice something that's right in front of them, it's the word to use!
In this lesson, we'll take a look at some of the different ways of welcoming people in French, all involving the word bienvenue (welcome).
In English, you usually welcome people to a particular place: “welcome to my house,” “welcome to New York,” and so on. In French, however, any number of prepositions can follow bienvenue, depending on their object:
Bonjour et bienvenue sur Yabla.
Hello and welcome to Yabla.
Caption 1, Yabla à Nancy - Le masculin et le féminin
Play Caption
Bienvenue dans la plus chic des stations alpines, Gstaad.
Welcome to the most fashionable of the Alpine ski resorts, Gstaad.
Caption 3, Le Journal - Gstaad
Play Caption
Bienvenue au théâtre, mes amis!
Welcome to the theater, my friends!
Caption 18, Il était une fois: l’Homme - 6. Le siècle de Périclès - Part 2
Play Caption
The choice of preposition specifies the kind of place where you are being welcomed. In the first example, Yabla is a website, and if you are on a website, you are sur un site web. So here you are literally being welcomed “onto” the website. In the second example, you are being welcomed “into” a ski resort, dans une station alpine. And in the third example, you are being welcomed “to” the theater: au théâtre.
Another way to welcome someone in French is with the expression être le bienvenu / la bienvenue / les bienvenus / les bienvenues (to be welcome):
Que les visiteurs soient les bienvenus sous mon toit.
May visitors be welcome under my roof.
Caption 9, Il était une fois: l’Homme - 6. Le siècle de Périclès - Part 3
Play Caption
Ben, vous êtes les bienvenus à découvrir de visu...
So, everyone is welcome to come in and see with their own eyes...
Caption 38, Galerie "Art Up Déco" - La galerie d'art
Play Caption
Literally translated, the expression vous êtes les bienvenus means something like, “you are the welcome ones.”
Note that bienvenue used as a greeting (either alone or at the beginning of a sentence) is a feminine noun, short for je vous souhaite la bienvenue (literally, “I wish you welcome”). Therefore, its spelling doesn’t change. On the other hand, the bienvenu/e/s after être le/la/les is an adjective used as a noun that must agree with its subject. So you would write, Vous êtes les bienvenus/bienvenues en France, but not, Bienvenus/Bienvenues en France! The correct form would be: Bienvenue en France!
You can also put the above expression in the imperative form:
Soyez les bienvenus chez moi.
Welcome to my home.
It is also very common to see bienvenu/bienvenue used to express a wish, as in this sentence:
Vos suggestions seraient les bienvenues.
Your suggestions would be welcome.
And if you’re in Quebec, you’ll hear bienvenue used by itself to mean “you’re welcome.” So when you say merci (thank you) to a French person, he or she will respond with de rien or je vous en prie. But a French Canadian will answer, Bienvenue!
As you can see, you have a lot of options with this one elementary word. But no matter how you use it, you’ll definitely make people feel welcome!
There are two ways of saying "either... or..." in French, and they both involve repeating one word. The first is the construction soit... soit.... Soit is a conjunction that marks a set of alternatives, and it is also spelled the same as the third-person present subjunctive form of the verb être (to be):
Les médecins étaient soit morts, soit partis.
The doctors were either dead or gone.
Caption 4, TV8 Mont Blanc - De retour de Haïti
Play Caption
A similar construction with soit is que ce soit... que ce soit..., which can best be translated as "be it... or...":
Que ce soit déposer dans le sable,
Be it landing on sand,
que ce soit déposer dans la neige...
or on snow...
Caption 26, Le Journal - École de pilotage
Play Caption
The second way of saying "either... or..." is ou... ou.... Ou by itself just means "or" (not to be confused with où, "where"), but when it is repeated to describe two or more choices or alternatives, the first ou means "either":
Ou vous pouvez le laisser tout simplement sur la plage,
You could either simply leave it on the beach
ou vous en servir comme cendrier.
or you could use it as an ashtray.
Caption 15, Jean-Marc - La plage
Play Caption
Sometimes, bien can be added to ou to emphasize the distinction:
Ou bien il est très heureux, ou bien il est misérable.
Either he's very happy or he's miserable.
Note that you will often see a comma separating the alternatives soit... soit... and ou... ou... (soit morts, soit partis).
Now that we've learned how to say "either... or...," we'll move on to its opposite, "neither... nor...." There is only one way to say this in French: ni... ni....
Ni vu ni connu
Neither seen nor known [on the sly]
When using ni... ni... with verb phrases, add a ne in front of the verb:
Nous ne sommes ni les premiers, ni les derniers.
We are neither the first nor the last.
Caption 3, La Conspiration d'Orion - Conspiration 2/4
Play Caption
Sometimes, you might just find a single ni:
Cette femme habite un monde sans foi ni loi...
This woman inhabits a world without faith or law...
Caption 19, Le Journal - Milady
Play Caption
So now, if you're ever asked to recite the unofficial creed of the US Postal Service in French, you won't hesitate to say:
"Ni la neige, ni la pluie, ni la chaleur, ni la nuit n'empêchent de fournir leur carrière avec toute la célérité possible".
"Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."
(The creed is actually a line from Herodotus.)
In a previous lesson, we introduced a trio of words that are spelled the same except for their accent marks: côté, côte, and cote. We will examine a similar trio in this lesson: des, dés, and dès.
You might already know that des is a contraction of de and les. It is always followed by a plural noun, and can be used as a preposition to mean "of," "from," or "by," or as an article to mean "some" or "a few." Note that when des is used as an article, it is often left untranslated.
Ce monde des images, habité par les images, dans les images.
This world of images, inhabited by images, in the images.
Caption 25, Projet "Polygon" - PIIMS et la République des Images
Play Caption
Des gens super beaux avec des... avec des peaux super lisses.
Really beautiful people with… with really smooth skin.
Caption 34, Niko de La Faye - "Visages"
Play Caption
When you place an acute accent on the e of des, you get the French word for "dice": les dés (le dé in the singular). In the kitchen, you might hear the expression couper en dés (to dice). And if you're sewing by hand, it might be helpful to use un dé à coudre (a thimble; literally, a "sewing dice").
Le backgammon se joue avec des dés.
Backgammon is played with dice.
With a grave accent, des becomes dès, a preposition meaning "starting from," "as early as," or "since." Here are some examples of this versatile little word from our video library:
Près de trois cent mille personnes venues dès l'aube
Nearly three hundred thousand people who came as early as dawn
applaudir les héros des océans.
to applaud the heroes of the oceans.
Captions 14-15, Le Journal - Les navigateurs du Vendée Globe
Play Caption
Et j'ai toujours, euh... dès les... les premières fois où j'ai découvert...
And I've always, uh... ever since I first... first discovered...
Caption 24, Manu le Malin - Album Biomechanik III
Play Caption
Les épreuves commencent dès demain.
The exams begin as early as tomorrow.
Caption 28, Le Journal - Le baccalauréat
Play Caption
Although dès is frequently used on its own, you'll also sometimes see it coupled with another word, notably in the expressions dès que (as soon as, whenever) and dès lors (from then on, since then, consequently, therefore):
Tout de suite, en fait, dès que je suis arrivée ici, euh...
Right away, in fact, as soon as I arrived here, uh...
Caption 6, Alsace 20 - Mangez bien, mangez alsacien!
Play Caption
Dès lors, elle n'est jamais retournée à la maison.
From then on, she never returned home.
Now that you're familiar with the difference between des, dés, and dès, let's see if you can decipher this sneaky little sentence:
Le magicien a su piper des dés dès l'âge de cinq ans.
(The magician knew how to load dice from the age of five.)
inglese
tedesco
italiano
spagnolo
English
Deutsch
Español
Français
Italiano