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?

 Play Caption

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...

 Play Caption

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

 Play Caption

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

 Play Caption

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

 Play Caption

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

 Play Caption

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

 Play Caption

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)!

While we at Yabla encourage you to spend as much time as you can watching our videos, we realize that sitting in front of a computer screen all day isn’t that healthy. So we also encourage you to take a break every so often to move around a bit! To get you inspired, let’s review the various ways of saying “to move” in French. 

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

The two most basic verbs meaning “to move” are bouger and remuer, which are more or less interchangeable, but can both take on more specific meanings. In this cartoon, a polar bear tells Leon the lion not to move: 

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?

 Play Caption

Bouger can also be a more informal synonym of partir, meaning “to leave”:

Nous devons bouger d’ici.
We have to get out of here. 

Sometimes you’ll see the idiom ça bouge (literally, “it moves”) to refer to a place that’s lively or full of activity, like the city of Strasbourg: 

La ville, son charme... les bâtiments. -Ça bouge.

Um... the town, its charm... the buildings. -It's lively.

Caption 18, Strasbourg - Les passants

 Play Caption

In “Dernière danse” (Last Dance), Indila uses remuer to describe the power she feels in her douce souffrance (sweet suffering):

Je remue le ciel, le jour, la nuit

I move the sky, the day, the night

Caption 10, Indila - Dernière danse

 Play Caption

Besides “to move,” remuer can also mean “to stir” or “to mix” in a culinary setting:

Pour faire des œufs brouillés, il faut remuer les œufs dans une poêle.
To make scrambled eggs, you have to stir the eggs in a frying pan. 

When you’re talking specifically about moving from one place to another, se déplacer (literally, “to displace oneself”) is the best verb to use:

Ensuite on peut se déplacer au restaurant pour finir la soirée.

Then you can move to the restaurant to end the evening.

Caption 30, Cap 24 - Découverte d'un restaurant parisien

 Play Caption

Even more specifically, when you’re talking about moving from one home to another, use déménager. Un ménage is the word for “household,” so you can remember the difference by thinking of déménager as “to de-household”:

En effet, si vous avez déménagé, vous devez vous inscrire

Indeed, if you've moved, you must register

à la mairie de votre nouveau domicile.

at the city hall of your new residence.

Caption 10, Le Journal - Voter: un droit ou un choix?

 Play Caption

Finally, let’s not forget that we can be moved in a metaphorical way, when something makes us feel emotional. The verb for that is émouvoir, the past participle of which is ému (moved):

Son histoire...

Her story...

avait ému en début d'année des milliers de spectateurs.

had moved thousands of viewers at the beginning of the year.

Captions 1-2, Le Journal - Le mensonge

 Play Caption

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Hopefully, this lesson has moved you to get up and move! Here’s a suggestion: play our latest music video, Zaz’s “Éblouie par la nuit” (Blinded by the Night), and see how much of the lyrics you understand while dancing along. Or, if dancing isn’t your thing, you might want to check out Joanna’s video on preparing for a run.