il |
1. pron. he (third-person singular masculine subject pronoun for human subject) | |
Il est parti. - He left. | |
2. pron. it (third-person singular subject pronoun for grammatically masculine objects) | |
Je cherche mon livre. Où est-il ? - I'm looking for my book. Where is it? | |
3. pron. (impersonal pronoun) Impersonal subject; it | |
Il pleut. - It’s raining. | |
ne |
1. part. (literary) not (used alone to negate a verb; now chiefly with only a few particular verbs: see usage notes) | |
2. part. not, no (used before a verb, with a coordinating negative element usually following; see Usage Notes, below) | |
3. part. (Used in a subordinate clause before a subjunctive verb (especially when the main verb expresses doubt or fear), to provide extra overtones of doubt or uncertainty (but not negating its verb); the so- | |
4. part. In comparative clauses usually translated with the positive sense of the subsequent negative | |
Apprendre le français est plus facile qu'on ne pense. - Learning French is easier than you (might) think. | |
y |
1. pron. there (at a place) | |
Il est dans la maison. Il y est. - He is in the house. He is there. | |
2. pron. there, thither (to there) | |
Nous allons au Mexique. Nous y allons. - We are going to Mexico. We are going there. | |
3. pron. Used as a pronoun to replace an adverbial phrase starting with à. | |
Je pense à mon pays. J'y pense. - I think about my country. I think about it. | |
4. pron. With verbs: see for verbs which use this structure. | |
5. pron. With adjectives. Only used with a handful of adjectives (the most common combination being y compris, which is a special case), mainly in legal terminology. | |
personnes y nommées - Persons named there(in) | |
procédures y afférentes - Related procedures | |
documents y relatifs - Related documents | |
eaux y affluentes - Tributary waters | |
6. pron. (Quebec, France, colloquial) he: Alternative form of il | |
7. pron. (Quebec, France, colloquial) they: Alternative form of ils | |
8. pron. (Quebec, colloquial) they: Alternative form of elles | |
a |
1. n. a, the name of the Latin-script letter A | |
2. pron. (Quebec, colloquial) alt form-lite, elle, , she | |
C'te fille-là, a'a l'air cute. - This girl, she looks cute. | |
3. v. third-person singular present indicative of avoir | |
Elle a un chat. - She has a cat. | |
avoir |
1. n-m. asset, possession | |
2. v. to have (to own; to possess) | |
J'aimerais avoir 20 dollars. - I would like to have 20 dollars. | |
3. v. (auxiliary) to have (auxiliary verb to form compound past tenses of most verbs) | |
J'ai parlé. - I have spoken, I spoke. | |
Qu'est-ce que vous m'avez fait ? - What have you done to me? | |
4. v. to have (a condition) | |
J'ai faim. - I have hunger. | |
J'ai soif. - I have thirst. | |
J'ai froid. - I have cold. | |
J'ai chaud. - I have hot. | |
J'ai la chiasse. - I have the shits. | |
J'ai le rhume. - I have a cold. | |
J'ai le SIDA. - I have AIDS. | |
J'ai de la fièvre. - I've got a fever. | |
5. v. to have (a measure or age) | |
Elle a 19 ans. - She has 19 years. | |
6. v. to have (to trick) | |
Tu t'es fait avoir. - You've been had. | |
7. v. to have (to participate in an experience) | |
avoir des relations sexuelles - to have sexual relations | |
8. v. (indtr, à) to have (to), must +preo, à, infinitive | |
J'ai à vous parler. - I have to talk to you. | |
il y a |
1. v. singular present indicative of y avoir: there is, there are | |
Il y a un problème. - There is a problem. | |
Il y a deux personnes ici. - There are two people here. | |
2. prep. ago | |
Je l'ai vu il y a longtemps. - I saw it a long time ago. | |
Elle est allée en France il y a deux ans. - She went to France two years ago. | |
C'est il y a dix ans que je suis allé aux États-Unis. - It was ten years ago that I went to the United States. | |
y a |
1. v. (colloquial)contraction of il y a | |
Heureusement, y a l'amour. - Fortunately, there's love. Lyric by Michelle Daniel (1968) | |
y avoir |
1. v. (impersonal, transitive) there be | |
Il y a deux raisons. - There are two reasons. | |
point |
1. n-m. point (small mark) | |
2. n-m. (sports) point | |
3. n-m. full stop, period (punctuation mark) | |
4. n-m. (knitting) stitch pattern | |
5. n-m. dot (Morse code symbol) | |
6. adv. (literary, dialectal, usually with "ne") not | |
Ne craignez point - Fear not | |
7. Participle. past participle of poindre | |
8. v. third-person singular present indicative of poindre | |
poindre |
1. v. to prick, sting | |
2. v. to sting, afflict (of pain, love etc.) | |
3. v. to come up (of a plant), peep through | |
4. v. to break, dawn (of day); to break (of dawn) | |
5. v. to appear, spring up | |
de |
1. prep. of (expresses belonging) | |
Paris est la capitale de la France. - Paris is the capital of France. | |
2. prep. of (used to express property or association) | |
Œuvres de Fermat - Fermat’s Works | |
Elle est la femme de mon ami. - She is my friend’s wife. | |
le voisin de Gabriel - Gabriel's neighbor | |
3. prep. from (used to indicate origin) | |
Elle vient de France. - She comes from France. | |
Êtes-vous de Suisse ? - Are you from Switzerland? | |
Ce fromage vient d’Espagne. - This cheese is from Spain. | |
C’est de l’ouest de la France. - It’s from the west of France. | |
Le train va de Paris à Bordeaux. - The train goes from Paris to Bordeaux. | |
4. prep. of (indicates an amount) | |
5 kilos de pommes. - 5 kilograms of apples. | |
Un verre de vin - A glass of wine | |
Une portion de frites - A portion of fries | |
5. prep. used attributively, often translated into English as a compound word | |
Un jus de pomme - Apple juice | |
Un verre de vin - A glass of wine | |
Une boîte de nuit - A nightclub | |
Un chien de garde - A guarddog | |
Une voiture de sport - A sportscar | |
Un stade de football - A football stadium | |
6. prep. from (used to indicate the start of a time or range) | |
De 9:00 à 11:00 je ne serai pas libre. - From 9 to 11 I won’t be free. | |
Je travaille de huit heures à midi. - I work from 8 o'clock to noon. | |
un groupe de cinq à huit personnes - a group of from five to eight people | |
7. prep. used after certain verbs before an infinitive, often translated into English as a gerund or an infinitive | |
J’ai arrêté de fumer. - I stopped smoking. | |
Il continue de m’embêter. - He keeps annoying me. | |
Elle m’a dit de venir. - She told me to come. | |
Nous vous exhortons de venir. - We urge you to come. | |
8. prep. by (indicates the amount of change) | |
Boire trois tasses par jour réduirait de 20 % les risques de contracter une maladie. - Drinking three cups a day would reduce the risks of catching an illness by 20%. | |
9. art. Used in the plural with prepositioned adjectives. | |
Ce sont de bons enfants. - They are good children. | |
Il y a d’autres exemples. - There are other examples. | |
10. art. Used in negated sentences with the grammatical object. | |
Elle n’a pas de mère. - She doesn’t have a mother. | |
Il ne mange pas de viande. - He doesn’t eat meat. | |
Il n’y a pas de problèmes. - There are no problems. | |
11. n-f. abbreviation of dame | |
beurre |
1. n-m. butter | |
Il a bu une pinte de beurre fondu. - He drank a pint of melted butter. | |
2. v. first-person singular present of beurrer | |
3. v. third-person singular present of beurrer | |
4. v. second-person singular imperative of beurrer | |
beurrer |
1. v. to butter, to rub with butter | |
2. v. (Canada, Quebec) to get dirty, to soil smth (or oneself, with se) | |
3. v. (Canada, Quebec, transitive) to exaggerate, to try too hard | |
à |
1. Notes. In Canada, à and a are not homophones, à a, a ɑː. | |
2. prep. to (destination) | |
aller au bout - go to the end / go all the way | |
Je vais à Paris. - I am going to Paris. | |
3. prep. to (until) | |
Le spectacle sera de 18h à 21h. - The show will be from 6 pm to 9 pm. | |
4. prep. on the, to (some directions) | |
Tournez à gauche ! - Turn to the left! | |
Ne tournez pas encore à droite ! - Don't turn to the right yet! | |
Le vent vire au nord. - The wind turns north. | |
L'école est à gauche. - The school is on the left. | |
5. prep. at (said of a particular time) | |
à dix heures et quart - at quarter past ten | |
Je pars à cinq heures précises. - I am leaving at exactly five o'clock. | |
6. prep. at, in, on (said of a particular place) | |
à la maison - at home | |
à l'hôtel - at the hotel | |
au comptoir du bar - at the bar | |
au bois - in the woods | |
J'habite à un demi-kilomètre d'ici. - I live half a kilometer from here. | |
La maison qui a été détruite hier soir ne se trouvait qu'à trois kilomètres de chez nous. - The house that was destroyed last night was only three kilometers from our place.à trois kilomètres d | |
7. prep. Used in various interjections used as warnings or exhortations | |
au voleur ! - stop thief! | |
à l'assassin ! - murderer! | |
au meurtre ! - murder! murderer! | |
à moi ! - help! | |
à l'aide ! - help! | |
au secours ! - help! | |
au feu ! - fire! | |
aux armes ! - to arms! | |
à l'attaque ! - attack! forward! charge! up and at 'em! | |
à l'abordage ! - on board! | |
au boulot ! - get to work! let's get to work! | |
au travail ! - get to work! let's get to work! | |
8. prep. from (origin) | |
Nous prenons de l'eau au puits. - We get water from the well. | |
Je l'ai eu à la bibliothèque. - I got it from the library. | |
Voilà la femme à laquelle j'ai acheté mon chien - There's the woman I bought my dog from. | |
9. prep. of (belonging to) | |
C'est un ami à moi. - This is a friend of mine. | |
Cette voiture est à John. - This is John's car. | |
le chien à Marie - Mary's dog nonstandard: one normally would use de here | |
10. prep. till, until (used in farewells) | |
à plus tard - see you later | |
à bientôt - see you soon | |
Salut, donc. À demain. - Bye, then. 'Til tomorrow / see you tomorrow. | |
11. prep. (cuisine) cooked in or with | |
12. prep. Used to make compound nouns to state what something is used for | |
moulin à poivre - pepper mill | |
sac à dos - backpack | |
boite à musique - music box | |
13. prep. (before an infinitive) to (used to express something not completed) | |
l'équipe à battre - the team to beat | |
Il n'y a jamais grand-chose à faire par ici. - There's never much to do around here. | |
Là où tu ne vois pas grand-chose, je ne trouve qu'une grande abondance de choses qui restent à faire. - Where you see nothing great, I only see a great abundance of things that need doing. | |
Il reste deux tâches à finir. - There are two things left to finish. | |
Il y a de la bière à boire. - There's some beer to drink. | |
14. prep. Used to describe a part of something, often translated into English as a compound adjective | |
un animal à quatre pattes - a four-legged animal | |
une femme au visage pâle - a pale-faced woman | |
un homme à longue barbe - a long-bearded man — a man with a long beard | |
une chemise à manches courtes - a short-sleeved shirt | |
une maison aux murs de brique - a brick-walled house / a house with brick walls | |
15. prep. by | |
peu à peu - bit by bit | |
petit à petit - little by little | |
minute à minute - minute by minute | |
jour à jour - day by day | |
un à un - one by one | |
16. prep. or, to (used to express an approximate number) | |
six à sept personnes - six or seven people | |
de vingt à trente ans - from twenty to thirty years | |
tous les cinq à six ans - every five or six years | |
17. prep. Used to indicate the recipient of certain phrasal verb. | |
mettre le feu à - to set fire to | |
clouer le bec à - to shut (someone) up | |
donner la chasse à - to give chase to | |
18. prep. with | |
mettre |
1. v. to put; to place | |
2. v. to put on | |
3. v. to set (to lay a table) | |
4. v. (takes a reflexive pronoun) to start (+ à) (something / doing something), to get around to doing something | |
sur |
1. prep. on, upon | |
2. prep. on top of | |
3. prep. from on top of | |
4. prep. above | |
5. prep. out of | |
sept sur dix - seven out of ten | |
6. prep. in the case of | |
7. prep. about, concerning | |
8. prep. (informal, France) in (a place) | |
sur Paris - in Paris | |
9. adj. sour | |
mon |
1. det. (possessive) my (used to qualify masculine nouns and vowel-initial words regardless of gender) | |
J'ai perdu mon chapeau. - I lost my hat. | |
La décision a été prise pendant mon absence. - The decision was taken in my absence. | |
2. det. Followed by rank, obligatory way of addressing a (male) superior officer within the military. (Folk etymology: military-specific short for "monsieur".) | |
pain |
1. n-m. bread | |
2. n-m. piece of bread | |
3. n-m. food | |
4. n-m. bread-and-butter needs, basic sustenance; breadwinner | |
5. n-m. (informal) punch (a hit with the fist) | |
6. n-m. a block (of ice, of salt, of soap …) with the shape and size of bread | |
7. n-m. (slang) (music) mistake during a performance (false note, forgot an intro, wrong solo, …) | |