In a previous lesson, we learned that the preposition depuis + a period of time or a point in time is the general equivalent of “since” or “for,” when describing an action that started in the past but is still ongoing. In the first part of this lesson, we will explore some informal alternatives to depuis. In the second part, we will discuss which prepositions can be used when referring to an action that started and was completed in the past.
Voilà + period of time + que (for + period of time) is often used in conversation as an informal equivalent to depuis. While the wording is different, voilà...que works in the same way as depuis for an action that started in the past but is still ongoing. We use the present tense in French and the present perfect continuous in English.
Voilà deux semaines que Julie et Mathieu sortent ensemble et qu'ils filent le parfait amour.
Julie and Mathieu have been going out for two weeks and been living the perfect love.
Captions 37-38, Le Jour où tout a basculé Je me suis fait voler ma musique - Part 3
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In this case, voilà deux semaines is equivalent to “for two weeks." But there are variations to the translation depending on context. In this example, voilà...que is equivalent to “it's been going on for X amount of time":
Voilà un petit moment que ça dure.
It's been going on for a little while.
An equivalent to this is cela fait + period of time + que, which translates in the same way in English. Both phrases are interchangeable:
Cela fait un petit moment que ça dure.
It's been going on for a little while.
Caption 3, Lionel & Lahlou La grève
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Here is another example with cela fait...que, which translates here as "for + period of time":
Cela fait quinze ans que Rudy s'attelle chaque année à métamorphoser son logis
For fifteen years, Rudy has been buckling down each year to transform his house
Caption 5, Alsace 20 Alsace: les plus belles déco de Noël!
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You can even combine cela fait...que with depuis to mean “it’s been X since Y point in time”:
Enfin, pour montrer que ce matériau est résistant, cela fait depuis quatre-vingt-cinq qu'il est dehors.
So to show how durable this material is, it's been outside since [nineteen] eighty-five.
Captions 24-25, Voyage dans Paris Mireille Bailly-Coulange
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Depuis and its informal equivalents, cela fait...que and voilà...que, are used with the present tense to describe an action that started in the past but is still ongoing. But these expressions can also be used to describe an action completed in the past. For this, you just need to switch to the past tense. Here is an example of depuis with the past tense:
Ce qu'elle a toujours voulu depuis la disparition de sa mère, c'est de réussir ce qu'elle entreprenait
What she always wanted since the passing of her mother was to succeed at what she undertook
Captions 64-65, Le Jour où tout a basculé Mon père s'oppose à ma passion - Part 7
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And here's an example with voilà...que and cela fait...que:
Voilà plus de vingt ans qu’il a disparu.
It’s been over twenty years since he passed away.
Cela fait plus de vingt ans qu’il a disparu.
It’s been over twenty years since he passed away.
Otherwise, for actions that are firmly set in the past, you can use the expression il y a to describe an action that occurred a while “ago." In his video on the town of Marsal, Lionel marvels at what happened many, many million years ago:
Incroyable, hein, donc il y a des millions et des millions d'années.
Incredible, right, so millions and millions of years ago.
Caption 19, Lionel Marsal - Part 10
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Of course, you can also use it to describe something that happened "a short time ago":
Savez-vous qu'il y a peu de temps que l'homme sait utiliser la vapeur ?
Do you know that it was just a short time ago that humankind learned how to use steam?
Caption 3, Il était une fois: Les découvreurs 13. Stephenson - Part 1
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To indicate the duration of a past action, use pendant (literally “during," but equivalent to “for” in this case). Here is an example with a specific duration:
J’ai étudié le français pendant dix ans.
I studied French for ten years.
The use of the past tense + pendant tells us that the person studied French in the past but is no longer doing so.
Whether you started studying French il y a peu de temps (a short time ago) or whether you've been studying it depuis longtemps (for a long time), we hope you've learned something from this lesson. Thank you for reading!
In her video on the famous French writer Victor Hugo, Patricia recites an excerpt from Hugo's poem "À l'Arc de Triomphe," a tribute to the city of Paris. The title of the poem means "At the Arc de Triomphe," but in another context à l'Arc de Triomphe could also mean "to the Arc de Triomphe." "At" and "to" are the most common meanings of the preposition à. But as we see several times in this video, à can also mean "from" when paired with certain verbs:
Cette science universelle
This universal science
Qu'il emprunte à tous les humains;
That it borrows from all humans;
Captions 46-47, Le saviez-vous? - La poésie de Victor Hugo
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Puis il rejette aux peuples blêmes
Then it rejects from pallid people
Leurs sceptres et leurs diadèmes,
Their scepters and their diadems,
Captions 48-49, Le saviez-vous? - La poésie de Victor Hugo
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À tout peuple, heureux, brave ou sage,
From all people, happy, brave, or wise,
Il prend ses lois, ses dieux, ses mœurs.
It takes their laws, their gods, their customs.
Captions 42-43, Le saviez-vous? - La poésie de Victor Hugo
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The verbal phrases here are emprunter quelque chose à quelqu'un (to borrow something from someone), prendre quelque chose à quelqu'un (to take something from someone), and rejeter quelque chose à quelqu'un (to reject something from someone). Though de is the more general equivalent of "from," you can't use de in verbal phrases like these–you have to use à.
The indirect object of these phrases (that is, what follows the à) is usually a person: "to x something from (à) someone."
Cacher (to hide) and voler (to steal) are two other common verbs that take à instead of de:
Je vais cacher les cadeaux de Noël à mes enfants.
I'm going to hide the Christmas gifts from my kids.
Marc a volé de l'argent à Sophie.
Marc stole money from Sophie.
Another very common verb with à is acheter (to buy). Be careful with this one though: acheter quelque chose à quelqu'un can either mean "to buy something from somebody" or "to buy something for somebody." You'll need to figure out the meaning from context:
Marc a acheté une bague au bijoutier.
Marc bought a ring from the jeweler.
Marc a acheté une bague à Sophie.
Marc bought a ring for Sophie.
But with other verbs—such as permettre à (to enable/allow), rappeler à (to remind), and coûter à (to cost)—the à doesn't translate to anything at all:
De permettre à quarante mille femmes et jeunes filles au Sénégal,
To enable forty thousand women and young girls in Senegal,
euh... d'être alphabétisées.
uh... to become literate.
Captions 3-4, Alphabétisation - des filles au Sénégal
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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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Et la différence, cela ne coûte quasiment rien à Martine.
And the difference costs Martine practically nothing.
Caption 57, Alsace 20 - Alsace: les plus belles déco de Noël!
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There are a good number of other verb phrases with à where the à means "from" or just isn't translated. Here are some of the more common ones:
arracher à (to remove from)
commander à (to order)
défendre à (to forbid/ban)
demander à (to ask)
enlever à (to take away from)
épargner à (to spare)
éviter à (to save/spare)
garantir à (to guarantee)
pardonner à (to forgive)
refuser à (to refuse/deny)
souhaiter à (to wish)
In the latest segment of Le Jour où tout a basculé, Frédéric and Anne-Sophie meet Laetitia at a café to deliver some shocking news: their daughters were switched at birth. Upon hearing this, Laetitia is in a state of total disbelief. She says to the couple:
Mais qu'est-ce que c'est que cette histoire?
But what is this all about?
Caption 38, Le Jour où tout a basculé - Nos bébés ont été échangés...
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Histoire is related to two English words, "history" and "story," and can mean either one depending on context:
Ici, donc une ville riche en culture et riche en histoire...
So here a town rich in culture and rich in history...
Caption 8, Lionel - à Wissembourg
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C'est vraiment une histoire d'amour,
It's really a love story,
c'est parti d'une histoire d'amour.
it started out as a love story.
Caption 4, Annie Chartrand - Sa musique
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But in informal expressions like qu'est-ce que c'est que cette histoire, the word means something more along the lines of "business" or "matter." It often has this meaning in the construction histoire de + noun:
Ici tout est histoire de récup' [récupération],
Here it's all a matter [or question] of recycling,
de quoi créer un beau Noël.
enough to create a beautiful Christmas.
Caption 58, Alsace 20 - Alsace: les plus belles déco de Noël!
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When histoire de follows an infinitive, it means "in order to," "just to," or "so as to":
Bats le beurre de citron, histoire de bien mélanger le tout.
Whisk the lemon butter, it's a matter of mixing it all well.
Caption 47, 4 Mains pour 1 Piano - Médaillon de Homard
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Two other, less familiar ways of saying "in order to" are pour + infinitive and afin de + infinitive.
Be careful with the expression raconter des histoires. It can either mean "to tell stories" or "to tell lies":
La mère raconte des histoires aux enfants chaque soir.
The mother tells stories to the children every night.
Arrête de me raconter des histoires!
Stop telling me lies!
That's the story with histoire! If you have any questions or comments, please write to us at [email protected] or tweet us @yabla.
If you listen to Jean-Marc’s description of Mediterranean beaches versus those in western France and the eastern United States, you might be struck by the way he pronounces the word plus (more):
Les plages sont beaucoup plus petites, avec beaucoup plus de gens.
The beaches are a lot smaller, with a lot more people.
Caption 8, Jean-Marc - La plage - Part 1
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Did you notice that he didn’t pronounce the “s” in the first instance of plus, but did pronounce it in the second? That’s no inconsistency on his part—Jean-Marc is actually obeying the tricky pronunciation rules of this common little adverb.
The general rule of thumb for plus is fairly easy to remember: when it’s used to mean more of something (plus de...), the “s” is pronounced; when it’s used in a negative sense (ne… plus [no more], non plus [neither]), the “s” is not pronounced:
Je ne savais plus qui j'étais.
I didn't know who I was anymore.
Caption 16, Melissa Mars - Mozart, L'opéra rock - Part 1
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Mais toi non plus tu n'as pas changé.
But you, you have not changed either.
Caption 25, Le Journal - Retour sur scène de Julio Iglesias
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This becomes especially important in informal conversation, when a lot of French speakers tend to drop the ne in negative constructions. So if someone says je veux plus de pain and they don’t pronounce the “s,” you can tell that they don’t want any more bread even though they left out the ne. If they do pronounce the “s,” you can pass them the bread basket!
A different rule applies when plus is used comparatively, i.e., when it’s followed by an adjective. In that case, the “s” is usually not pronounced (like when Jean-Marc says plus petites in the first example), unless the adjective begins with a vowel:
Voici celle qui est sans doute la maison la plus illuminée d'Alsace.
Here is what is without a doubt the most illuminated house in Alsace.
Caption 4, Alsace 20 - Alsace: les plus belles déco de Noël!
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If the adjective begins with a vowel, the “s” of plus is pronounced like a “z” to follow the rules of liaison, which you can learn about in our previous lesson on that subject.
The “s” is also pronounced when plus is used at the end of a sentence to mean “more” and when it is used as a noun (le plus):
Du coup, ils ont commencé à être plus proches de moi et à me parler plus.
So they started to be closer to me and to talk to me more.
Caption 35, B-Girl Frak - Limoges
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Qui peut le plus peut le moins.
He who can do more can do less.
So to sum up, here’s a general breakdown of the pronunciation of plus:
The “s” is pronounced:
-in the expression plus de....
-when plus is followed by an adjective beginning with a vowel.
-when plus is at the end of a sentence and means “more.”
-when plus is used as a noun.
The “s” is not pronounced:
-in negative plus constructions (ne… plus, non plus).
-when plus is followed by an adjective beginning with a consonant.
Nous espérons que c'est un peu plus clair maintenant! (We hope that this is a bit clearer now!) Since it’s such a common word, plus appears in quite a large number of Yabla videos—you can find a list of them here. And stay tuned for a lesson on the opposite of plus—moins (less)—coming soon to Yabla.
Thanks to subscriber Felicity S. for suggesting this lesson topic!
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