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)!
The expression au niveau de means "at the level of" or "on the level of." You can use this expression to talk about something that's physically level with something else:
...pour avoir de l'eau au niveau des genoux,
...having the water at knee level,
vous allez être emporté de ce côté.
you are going to be carried away to this side.
Captions 12-13, À la plage avec Lionel - La plage
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La ville est au niveau de la mer.
The city is at sea level.
Or, as in English, it can refer to more general things, such as one's health or one's skills or abilities:
Ben, c'est vrai qu'au niveau de la santé,
Well, it's true that on a health level,
je le ressens parfois.
I feel it sometimes.
Captions 80-81, Amal et Caroline - La cigarette
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Je ne suis pas au niveau des autres élèves.
I'm not at the (same) level as the other students.
Another way of saying "on a health level" is au niveau sanitaire. You'll often see "au niveau + adjective" (no de) used in this way: au niveau national (on a national level), au niveau économique (on an economic level), au niveau spirituel (on a spiritual level), etc.
But sometimes "on the level of" or "on an x level" isn't the most succinct translation of au niveau de. It's also equivalent to phrases such as "when it comes to," "regarding," and "in regards to":
Parce que... en France
Because... in France
on a souvent tendance
we often have a tendency
à faire des amalgames
to mix them together
en particulier au niveau du sandwich, du kebab...
particularly when it comes to sandwiches, kebabs...
-Au niveau des fromages...
-When it comes to cheeses...
Captions 54-57, Lionel et J.B. - La salade grecque
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Ensuite au niveau de la selle,
Then regarding the seat,
faut bien la régler à votre hauteur.
you should really adjust it to your height.
Captions 35-36, Amal - Vélib
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Even when referring to physical spaces, au niveau de doesn't necessarily imply that something is level with something else. It could just mean "near," "by," or "in the region/area of":
Bruce se rend compte qu'un autre cours d'eau rejoint son
Bruce realized that another river joined his
Nil au niveau de Khartoum.
Nile near Khartoum.
Caption 42, Il était une fois - les Explorateurs - 15. Bruce et les sources du Nil
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Au niveau de also functions as a simple preposition when used with body parts, in which case it means "in":
Je ressens une douleur au niveau de mon genou.
I feel a pain in my knee.
No matter your niveau de français, au niveau de is a great expression to know!
Il y a is probably one of the most common French expressions, and appears countless times in Yabla videos, which makes it a perfect lesson topic! Though it literally means "it has there," il y a is the equivalent of "there is" or "there are." You'll find it very useful when describing a location or a situation:
Donc, en effet, il y a des vagues, il y a du courant. Le courant est fort.
So, indeed, there are waves, there is a current. The current is strong.
Caption 2, À la plage avec Lionel - La plage
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As the above example demonstrates, il y a remains unchanged regardless of whether its object is singular (du courant) or plural (des vagues). It does change, however, according to the tense of the sentence. Here it is in the imperfect, passé composé, and future tenses:
Il y avait un lièvre mais, tu vois, il courait trop vite.
There was a hare, but you see, it was running too fast.
Caption 15, Il était une fois: Les Amériques - 1. Les premiers Américains
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Quand il est mort, il y a eu un million ...
When he died, there were a million ...
Parisiens qui ont suivi, euh, le cortège.
Parisians following, uh, the procession.
Caption 15, Bertrand Pierre - Victor Hugo
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Il y aura beaucoup de tableaux à voir au musée.
There will be many paintings to see at the museum.
Il y a can also be used to indicate the passage of time, in which case it usually means "ago":
On a commencé il y a dix minutes.
We started ten minutes ago.
Caption 47, Actus Quartier - Fête de quartier Python-Duvernois
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You can also use the phrase il y a... que to express the same thing, though in this case it usually means "for" or "since":
Il y a trois mois que j'habite à Paris.
I've lived in Paris for three months.
Incidentally, you could rewrite the above sentence three different ways, all with the same meaning:
Ça fait trois mois que j'habite à Paris.
Voilà trois mois que j'habite à Paris.
J'habite à Paris depuis trois mois.
Another more informal way of using il y a is when you notice someone looking sad or upset and you ask them: Qu'est-ce qu'il y a? (What's wrong?) Even more informally, you can shorten that question to: Qu'y a-t-il? If you're wondering why there's suddenly a "t" and two hyphens there, check out our lesson on inversion for a full explanation.
It's very common for il y a to be shortened to y a in casual speech:
C'est festif, euh... Y a de la barbe à papa.
It's festive, uh... There's cotton candy.
Caption 32, Actus Quartier - Fête de la rose au caviar rouge
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To sum up, let's review all the uses of il y a in a short dialogue:
Qu'est-ce qu'il y a? -Je suis en colère parce qu'il y a trop de tableaux au musée du Louvre. Il y a trois mois que j'habite à Paris et je n'ai pas encore tout vu!
What's wrong? -I'm mad because there are too many paintings in the Louvre. I've lived in Paris for three months and I still haven't seen everything!
The expressions "this one" and "that one" are probably the most basic way of distinguishing between two things, such as two different types of saxophone:
Le saxophone alto, celui-ci, et le saxophone ténor.
The alto saxophone, this one, and the tenor saxophone.
C'est celui-là.
That's that one.
Caption 5, Alex Terrier - Le saxophone
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As you can see, the French equivalents of these terms have two different components: the word before the hyphen and the word after the hyphen. In this example, celui is the masculine singular demonstrative pronoun referring to le saxophone. Ci and là mean "here" and "there," respectively, but when added as a suffix to celui, they mean "this" and "that." An easy way to remember this distinction is to remember that there is an i in both ci and "this," and an a in both là (note the accent) and "that."
The demonstrative pronoun changes depending on the number and gender of the word it refers to. Its other forms are celle (feminine singular), ceux (masculine plural), and celles (feminine plural):
Elle prendra place dans une collection comme
She will take her place in a collection like
celle-ci à l'Assemblée Nationale.
this one at the National Assembly.
Caption 34, Le Journal - Marianne
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Donc, tous ceux-là, ce sont des thés verts.
So all those are green teas.
Caption 16, Joanna - Torréfaction du faubourg
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Et dans chacune des batteries,
And in each of the batteries,
on a cent deux cellules comme celles-ci.
we have one hundred and two cells like these.
Caption 55, Bateau sport 100% électrique - Le Nautique 196 E
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As you can see from the last two examples, the plural forms of these expressions are best translated as simply "these" and "those."
In more formal language, celui-là/celle-là means "the former," while celui-ci/celle-ci means "the latter":
J'ai un frère et une sœur.
I have one brother and one sister.
Celui-là est professeur et celle-ci est avocate.
The former is a teacher and the latter is a lawyer.
Ci and là can also be attached to nouns as a more demonstrative way of saying "this" and "that," but only when the noun is already preceded by a demonstrative adjective (ce/cet/cette/ces):
Le courant apparemment remonte un petit peu par ce côté-là.
The current apparently goes up a little bit on that side.
Caption 9, À la plage avec Lionel - La plage
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Je préfère ces photographies-ci.
I prefer these photographs.
If someone were asking your opinion on a collection of photographs, you could also just point to the ones you like and say, Je préfère celles-ci (I prefer these) or, Je préfère celles-là (I prefer those).
There are even more uses of celui/celle/ceux/celles that we'll save for another lesson. C'est tout pour cette leçon-ci (That's all for this lesson)!
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