Sometimes, the meaning of a French word is easy to guess when it looks similar to an English word. However, for every cognate, there are just as many false cognates. And yet, il en reste encore beaucoup (there are still many more) that are worthy of our attention. In this lesson, we will look at the word rester, which—you guessed it—is un faux ami (a false cognate) and doesn’t mean “to rest." So what does it really mean? 

The basic meaning of rester is “to stay/to remain.” In the example below, it means “to stay put”: 

Bouge pas de là, Léon. Tu restes ici!

Do not move from here, Leon. You stay here!

Caption 5, Les zooriginaux - 3 Qui suis-je?

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A more forceful variation of Tu restes ici! is the idiomatic expression Reste tranquille! (Keep still!), which is often used to control restless children:

Restez tranquilles, les enfants!

Keep still, children!

You can also use rester (to stay) for all sorts of situations, as in rester en contact (to stay in contact):

Par ailleurs, Manon est restée en contact avec Émilie.

Moreover, Manon stayed in contact with Émilie.

Caption 30, Le Jour où tout a basculé - Nos bébés ont été échangés...

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Rester also means "to remain,” as we mentioned earlier. The tour guide at Joan of Arc's house uses rester to tell us where Joan’s family lived for a long time:

Mais le principal de sa famille est effectivement restée en Lorraine.

But the majority of her family indeed remained in Lorraine.

Caption 56, Lionel - La maison de Jeanne d'Arc

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It’s important to note that rester is one of the few verbs that require the auxiliary être (to be) in the passé composé. Patricia discusses this in a video on the subject:

Et comme tu es resté(e) concentré(e) depuis toutes ces leçons

And since you've remained focused for all these lessons

Caption 5, Le saviez-vous? - Exception dans les verbes du 1er groupe au passé composé

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Rester is also used in the present tense, of course. For example, we have the expression ça reste (that remains). In the example below, ça (that) becomes redundant in English and is therefore omitted: 

Ouais, très bonne question.

Yeah, very good question.

Donc, le plat du jour c'est sûr, ça reste un produit d'appel.

So the daily special certainly remains a promotional product.

Caption 17, Alsace 20 - Grain de Sel: Au Caveau de l'étable à Niederbronn-les-Bains

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Ça reste sometimes means “it's/these are still”:

Rappeler effectivement aux gens que ça reste des produits de confiserie, c'est pas une mauvaise mesure

Indeed, to remind people that these are still sweets, it's not a bad idea

Caption 14, Le Journal - Publicité anti-calories

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On a l'impression d'être secoué, mais ça reste très agréable.

You have the feeling of being shaken, but it's still very pleasant.

Caption 16, À la plage avec Lionel - La plage

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Il reste encore (there is still) the expression il reste (there remains), which we will discuss in a future lesson. Merci d’être resté(e) concentré(e) pendant toute cette leçon (thank you for staying focused throughout this lesson)!

Before we embark on agreement rules, let’s find out which verbs are conjugated with être (to be) rather than avoir (to have) in the passé composé. Strictly speaking, only a limited number of verbs use the auxiliary être in the passé composé. These verbs are encapsulated in the popular mnemonic device known as DR. & MRS. VANDERTRAMP: 

Devenir, Revenir, Monter, Rester, Sortir, Venir, Aller, Naître, Descendre, Entrer, Rentrer, Tomber, Retourner, Arriver, Mourir, Partir (to become, to come back, to go up, to remain, to go out, to come, to go, to be born, to go down, to enter, to go back in, to fall, to retrun, to arrive, to die, to leave)

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The basic agreement rule for these verbs conjugated with être is that they must agree in gender and number with the subject. Patricia conjugated a few of these verbs and explained how they work in her video, Le saviez-vous? - Exception dans les verbes du 1er groupe au passé composé:

Et lorsque l'on dit: "elles sont tombées",

And when we say, "they fell,"

on mettra "es" à la fin de "tombé"

we'll put "es" at the end of "tombé"

car "elles" sont des sujets féminins et pluriels.

because "elles" [they] are feminine and plural subjects.

Captions 55-57, Le saviez-vous? - Exception dans les verbes du 1er groupe au passé composé

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Knowing that the pronoun elles (they) is feminine plural makes the agreement with the past participle tombé quite straightforward, but when faced with non-gender-specific pronouns such as tu (singular you) or je (I), you need to know from context who the subject pronoun stands for. 

In the example below, we need to know who je (I) represents to establish the gender of the subject. In this case, we know from the video that the speaker is male, so the past participle doesn’t change. (A past participle is considered masculine singular by default.)

Je suis allé en Grèce pour la première fois.

I went [masculine singular] to Greece for the first time.

Caption 10, Alex Terrier - "Roundtrip" et ses inspirations

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If the speaker had been female, it would have been:

Je suis allée en Grèce pour la première fois.  

I went [feminine singular] to Greece for the first time. 

And if the speaker had been a woman talking about herself and her girlfriends, it would have been:

Nous sommes allées en Grèce pour la première fois. 

We went [feminine plural] to Greece for the first time. 

When a plural subject involves individuals of all genders, you can be faced with a dilemma. What should you do in this case? The convention is that the masculine supersedes the feminine—even though it refers to a mixture of genders, the past participle becomes masculine plural: 

Les enfants sont partis en même temps.

The kids left at the same time. 

Nowadays, however, that convention often comes across as sexist. So you'll often see past participles stylized like parti(e)s or parti·e·s to be more inclusive:

Les enfants sont parti(e)s en même temps. / Les enfants sont parti·e·s en même temps. 

The kids left at the same time. 

There's another category of être verbs that also agree in gender and number with the subject, but in a slightly different way. These verbs are called reflexive or pronominal verbs, which we will discuss in the next lesson.