The word rendez-vous is the second-person plural imperative form of the verb se rendre ("to go" or "to present oneself"). It literally means "go!" or "present yourself!" But rather than a command, you'll hear it most often used as a noun—un rendez-vous. In English, "a rendezvous" is another word for "a meeting." Un rendez-vous means that and much more, as you'll see in this lesson.
If you're a regular Yabla French user, you'll recognize this word from the final caption of nearly every video in our Voyage en France series:
Je vous donne rendez-vous très bientôt pour de nouvelles découvertes.
I will meet you very soon for some new discoveries.
Caption 50, Voyage en France - Mont-Valérien
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Donner rendez-vous à (literally, "to give meeting to") is to arrange to meet someone, to set up a date or an appointment with someone. Indeed, besides "a meeting," un rendez-vous can also be "a date" or "an appointment":
C'est au premier rendez-vous qu'ils franchissent le pas
It's on the first date that they take that step
Caption 5, Grand Corps Malade - Roméo kiffe Juliette
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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?
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Note the discrepancy between the French and the English in that last example: when talking about having an appointment with someone, you don't have to say j'ai un rendez-vous. J'ai rendez-vous will suffice.
In French, you don't "make" an appointment with someone—you "take" (prendre) one:
Aujourd'hui, on va apprendre à prendre rendez-vous chez le médecin.
Today we're going to learn how to make an appointment at the doctor's.
Caption 1, Manon et Clémentine - Rendez-vous chez le médecin
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And if something is by appointment only, it's sur rendez-vous ("on appointment"):
au trente-neuf rue Saint-Pavin des Champs sur rendez-vous
at thirty-nine Saint-Pavin des Champs Street by appointment
Caption 38, Le Mans TV - Le Mans: Ouverture d'un nouvel atelier d'artistes
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Un rendez-vous can refer both to a meeting and a meeting place:
Ce château était un rendez-vous de chasse.
This castle was a rendezvous point for hunting.
Caption 26, Le Mans TV - Mon Village - Malicorne
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Here's an interesting example that uses rendez-vous in more of a metaphoric sense:
Le soleil est au rendez-vous pour ce nouveau numéro de la découverte de la ville de Provins.
The sun is present for this new episode of the discovery of the city of Provins.
Caption 2, Voyage en France - La ville de Provins
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The sun is "at the meeting" for this new episode—in other words, the sun is out. Être au rendez-vous means "to be present." The expression is used in the negative in Part 1 of Le Jour où tout a basculé - J'ai piégé mon fan to describe an actress's lack of success in recent years:
Sophie est une comédienne célèbre, mais depuis quelques années le succès n'est plus au rendez-vous.
Sophie is a famous actress, but success has been hard to come by for several years.
Captions 1-2, Le Jour où tout a basculé - J'ai piégé mon fan
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Mais depuis deux ans, le succès n'est plus vraiment au rendez-vous.
But for the last two years, success has been somewhat elusive.
Caption 41, Le Jour où tout a basculé - J'ai piégé mon fan - Part 1
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That about does it for this lesson. Nous vous donnons rendez-vous très bientôt pour une nouvelle leçon (We'll meet you very soon for a new lesson)!
In our last lesson, we introduced the French imperative mood, which is used to express a command or a request. We concluded the lesson with a discussion of reflexive verbs, which become hyphenated in the imperative: for example, se souvenir (to remember) becomes souviens-toi! (remember!). In fact, any imperative verb followed by an object pronoun requires a hyphen:
Donne-moi l'info.
Give me the info.
An imperative verb can even precede two object pronouns (and therefore two hyphens). For example, we could shorten the above sentence to:
Ouais, donne-la-moi.
Yeah, give it to me.
Let's break that down: donne is the imperative verb (give), la is the direct object pronoun ("it," referring to "the info"), and moi is the indirect object pronoun (to me). Note that in imperative expressions like this, the direct object pronoun always comes before the indirect object pronoun.
On the other hand, when you negate an imperative verb with object pronouns, the hyphens disappear and the pronouns move before the verb:
Ne te souviens pas.
Don't remember.
Ne me la donne pas.
Don't give it to me.
Though we mentioned in our previous lesson that the imperative is nearly identical to the present indicative form of a verb, there are four very common verbs for which this is not the case: avoir (to have), être (to be), savoir (to know), and vouloir (to want). For these verbs, the imperative is nearly identical to their present subjunctive forms:
Mon ami, n'aie pas peur
My friend, don't be afraid
Caption 18, Arthur H et M - Est-ce que tu aimes?
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Mais soyons prudents!
But let's be careful!
Caption 18, Il était une fois - les Explorateurs - 10. Amerigo Vespucci
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Sachez qu'il y a de nombreux trains directs
Know that there are numerous trains direct
de Paris vers Trouville, Deauville.
from Paris toward Trouville, Deauville.
Caption 35, Voyage en France - La Normandie: Cabourg
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The imperative form of vouloir is mostly used in the second-person plural (veuillez) as a formal way of saying "please":
Veuillez ne pas quitter.
Please stay on the line.
Vous allez être mise en relation avec notre secrétariat.
You will be connected to our administrator's office.
Caption 5, Manon et Clémentine - Rendez-vous chez le médecin
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That about covers it for the imperative! Don't forget (n'oubliez pas) to check out our new videos this week and don't hesitate (n'hésitez pas) to tweet us @yabla or send your topic suggestions to newsletter@yabla.com.
When learning to speak a language, we mostly focus on words. But when learning to write that language, it’s equally important to think about what goes on between the words—that is, how they’re punctuated. While there are many similarities between English and French punctuation, there are some important differences that you’ll need to know when writing your next brilliant essay in French.
The major French punctuation marks are easily recognizable: there’s le point (period), la virgule (comma), les deux-points (colon), le point-virgule (semicolon), le point d’exclamation (exclamation point), and le point d’interrogation (question mark).
Speaking of what goes on between words, one of the major differences between French and English punctuation has to do with spacing. Generally, colons, semicolons, exclamation points, and question marks are all preceded by a space:
Lesquelles préférez-vous : les pommes ou les oranges ?
Which do you prefer: apples or oranges?
-Les pommes !
-Apples!
There is one set of French punctuation that might not look very familiar to English readers. This sentence alludes to them using an idiom:
C'est la "morale du film", entre guillemets.
That's the quote-unquote "moral of the film."
Caption 27, Télé Grenoble - La famille Maudru
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The phrase entre guillemets literally means "between guillemets." Guillemets are the French version of quotation marks, and they look like this: « ». So the above sentence could be more accurately written: C’est la « morale du film », entre guillemets.
Notice that the comma is placed outside the guillemets, as are all other punctuation marks. Also, there is always a space after the first guillemet and another one before the second.
Written French looks different on the page than it does in Yabla captions. Manon and Clémentine have already given us a thorough lesson on book-related vocabulary—now we’ll take an excerpt from one of their helpful skits and show you what it might look like in book form. Here’s the original, from their video on visiting the doctor:
Bonjour!
Hi!
J'ai pris un rendez-vous pour cet après-midi avec le docteur,
I made an appointment for this afternoon with Doctor,
Séléno-Gomez, mais j'ai un empêchement.
Séléno-Gomez, but I have a conflicting appointment.
-Bien. C'est à quel nom? -C'est au nom de Manon Maddie.
-Fine. It's under what name? -It's under the name Manon Maddie.
-Ah oui. Madame Maddie à dix-sept heures quarante-cinq.
Oh yes. Ms. Maddie at five forty-five.
Captions 42-45, Manon et Clémentine - Rendez-vous chez le médecin
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And here’s how that might look as dialogue in a novel:
« Bonjour ! dit Manon. J’ai pris un rendez-vous pour cet après-midi avec le docteur Séléno-Gomez, mais j'ai un empêchement.
—Bien. C'est à quel nom ? répond Florence.
—C'est au nom de Manon Maddie.
—Ah oui. Madame Maddie à dix-sept heures quarante-cinq ».
This is certainly different from what you would find in an English-language novel! The major difference is that, unlike quotation marks, guillemets are used to mark off the entire dialogue, not a change of speaker, which is instead indicated by a dash (un tiret).
You won’t have to worry too much about punctuation here at Yabla. We use a special style tailored to work well with the Yabla Player. But it’s always good to know proper punctuation when writing in any language, whether you’re fluent in it or just learning it. If you’re looking for something to inspire you to write in French, here are the first few lines of Marcel Proust’s classic novel À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time), as presented by Manon and Clémentine:
"Longtemps, je me suis couché de bonne heure.
"For a long time, I used to go to bed early.
Parfois, à peine ma bougie éteinte,
Sometimes, my candle barely put out,
mes yeux se fermaient si vite
my eyes would close so quickly
que je n'avais pas le temps de me dire: 'Je m'endors'."
that I had not even time to say to myself, 'I am falling asleep.'"
Captions 81-83, Manon et Clémentine - Vocabulaire du livre
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