Did you know that there are beaucoup (many) ways of saying "many" in French? In fact, French offers an abundance of terms to suit various styles, from common, conversational, colloquial to more formal and literary. In this lesson we will explore alternatives to the ubiquitous beaucoup.

But first, let's take a quick look at beaucoup (many, a lot). In Yabla videos, you will often come across the construction beaucoup de (a lot of/a great deal of). Here is one example: 

Ben, on te souhaite, ben, beaucoup de réussite

Well, we wish you, well, a great deal of success

Caption 106, 4 Mains pour 1 Piano Médaillon de Homard - Part 3

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As an adverb, beaucoup can also stand on its own. You are probably familiar with the polite expression merci beaucoup (thank you very much):

Ben merci beaucoup, hein. C'était un plaisir.

Well thank you very much, you know. It's been a pleasure.

Caption 108, 4 Mains pour 1 Piano Médaillon de Homard - Part 3

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A close cousin to beaucoup de is plein de (plenty of), which is slightly more casual. In this cheerful video, the weather forecaster wishes her viewers a Happy Halloween, which, of course, involves eating plein, plein de bonbons: 

Alors je vous souhaite une super fête et mangez plein, plein, plein de bonbons. Tchao-tchao.

So I wish you a great holiday and eat lots and lots and lots of candies. Ciao-ciao.

Caption 18, Alsace 20 Météo des Maquilleurs

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Slightly more colloquial than plein de (plenty of) is un tas de or des tas de, literally "a load of" or "heaps of." Take a look at the two examples below:

Mais on peut lui demander des tas d'autres choses

But we can request loads of other things from it

Caption 20, Il était une fois: Notre Terre 25. Technologies - Part 7

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Si vous êtes végétarienne, y a des tas d'autres choses

If you're vegetarian, there're heaps of other things

Caption 28, Mon Lieu Préféré Rue des Rosiers - Part 2

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Un tas de can also be translated as “plenty of”:

Ah, c'est bien simple. Il peut y avoir des tas de raisons

Ah, it's quite simple. There could be plenty of reasons for that

Caption 39, Il était une fois: la vie 6. Les petites plaquettes - Part 1

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There's also the expression pas mal de (a great deal of), which we've explored before. In the video below, the person interviewed has pas mal de problèmes de santé (quite a few health problems):

J'ai un pacemaker et pas mal de choses. 

I have a pacemaker and quite a few things. 

Caption 20, Actu Vingtième Le Repas des anciens

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Moving up a rung on the formality ladder, we have the idiomatic expression bien d’autres (many others), which has a more neutral tone (note that bien in this case no longer means “well," but “many”): 

...telle cette espèce de saladier que vous voyez là à l'image, et bien d'autres.

...such as this sort of salad bowl that you see here in the picture, and many others.

Caption 13, David La calebasse

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Similarly, énormément de (an emormous amount of) followed by a noun is used to emphasize quantity:

énormément de musique

an enormous amount of music

Caption 32, Alex Terrier Le musicien et son jazz

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Depending on context, it's sometimes better to translate énormément de as “(so) many” or “a great deal of”:

Donc ce sera une ligne très intéressante parce qu'il y a énormément de personnes qui vont travailler en dehors de Paris

So it will be a very interesting line because there are so many people who go to work outside of Paris

Captions 46-48, Adrien Le métro parisien

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Vous allez découvrir d'autres petits secrets de cette rue parce qu'il y en a énormément.

You're going to discover other little secrets of this street because there are a great deal of them.

Captions 63-64, Adrien Rue des Martyrs

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On a more formal register, you may come across the adjective maint, which is etymologically related to the English "many." Interestingly, maint does not need to be followed by de (of), unlike other adverbs of quantity. Maintes (the feminine plural of maint) is often combined with fois to form the expression maintes fois (many times):

Elles ont d'ailleurs été maintes fois représentées par des célèbres peintres

Incidentally, they've been depicted many times by famous painters

Caption 10, Voyage en France La Normandie: Honfleur

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There is also a more obscure equivalent to maint: the archaic adjective moult, dating back to the 16th century. It's no longer in use, but it might be a good word to know if you want to impress your professors with your knowledge! To quote French writer Gustave Flaubert, you could derive moult satisfaction (much satisfaction) from their reaction:

J'embrasserai ta vieille trombine avec moult satisfaction.

I will kiss your old face with much satisfaction.

–Gustave Flaubert, Correspondance

While people seldom use the word moult other than for effect, young people especially might like to use a little slang and say pas des masses (not many/not much). Interestingly, the expression is always in the negative form: 

Il n’y en a pas des masses.

There are not many.

As you can see, there are beaucoup de façons (many ways) to say beaucoup, and if you wish to know even more, see this Larousse entry. You now have plenty to choose from, as there are different options for all contexts, from casual settings to more formal ones. Just be aware of the tone you wish to use. Save des tas de for friends, and moult for literary buffs. 

Wishing you beaucoup de satisfaction in your French learning, and merci beaucoup or moult remerciements (many thanks) for reading!

Voilà is a very common word in French, and depending on the context, it can take a number of different meanings, the most general of which is "there/here it is." In grammatical terms, voilà is categorized as a presentative, or a word that is used to introduce something. Voilà comes from the imperative phrase vois là (see there), which makes the presentative nature of the word even more apparent. At its most basic, voilà is used to present a specific object or person

Donc voilà mon super falafel, avec de l'aubergine grillée...

So here is my super falafel, with grilled eggplant...

Caption 9, Mon Lieu Préféré - Rue des Rosiers

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Ah! Ben tiens, voilà Socrate.

Oh! Well look, here comes Socrates.

Caption 9, Il était une fois: l’Homme - 6. Le siècle de Périclès

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In these two examples, we see how voilà can be used to direct our attention to both an object (Caroline's "super falafel") and a person (Socrates). But when voilà isn't literally presenting us with something, it is often used as a way of emphasizing a statement:

La poésie c'est comme l'amour:

Poetry is like love:

c'est le plus court chemin entre deux êtres. Voilà.

it's the shortest path between two people. There.

Caption 39, Marché de la Poésie - Des poètes en tout genre

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In a sense, you could say that voilà is "presenting" us here with the metaphor on poetry that precedes it. But on a slightly less articulate note, when voilà is used for emphasis, it often acts as a sort of filler word, used when someone wants to end one topic and move on to another:

Euh... voilà. Après, l'inspiration, elle...

Uh... there you are. Well, inspiration, it...

elle vient de plein de sources diverses et variées.

it comes from a lot of different and varied sources.

Caption 48, Niko de La Faye - "Visages"

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You can also use voilà to affirm another person's statement:

Voilà, vous pouvez même voir le petit bateau en photo, euh, ici.

That's right, you can even see the little boat in the photo, uh, here.

Caption 50, Arles - Le marché d'Arles

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Or you can use it to express a period of time:

Voilà près de sept ans que les professionnels du bois attendaient ça.

For nearly seven years, the lumber business has been waiting for this.

Caption 5, Le Journal - Firewood

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Because voilà can be used in so many different situations, it is often tricky to translate ("there," "here," "there you go," "there you have it," "that's it," "there you are," and so on). And since no English word can really capture voilà's breadth of meaning, sometimes it's best not to translate it at all. In fact, the difficulty of translating voilà might be why it's become an (often humorous) English exclamation as well.

Now let's take a look at voilà's sister word, voici (from vois ici, "see here"). Like voilà, voici is also a presentative, but whereas voilà can either mean "there it is" or "here it is," voici usually just means "here it is." And unlike voilà, voici isn't used for emphatic or filler purposes, but almost exclusively for introducing or presenting a specific person or thing:

Nous voici devant une des quatre Statues de la Liberté

Here we are in front of one of the four Statues of Liberty

que l'on peut trouver dans la ville de Paris.

that you can find in the city of Paris.

Captions 24-25, Voyage dans Paris - Jardin du Luxembourg

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You can get a better sense of the difference between voici and voilà when they are both used in the same sentence:

Voici ma maison et voilà celle de mon ami.

Here is my house and there is my friend's.

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As you can see, voilà is used to point out something at a distance, whereas voici indicates something close by. The difference between voici and voilà is similar to the difference between ceci (this) and cela (that). In fact, another way of translating the sentence above would be, "this is my house and that is my friend's."

You've probably heard voilà used in English before, but voici hasn't really managed to make the crossover. Besides the fact that voilà is often hard to translate (voici is much more straightforward), this could also be because voilà often acts as a standalone phrase (Voilà!), whereas voici generally doesn't. But don't underestimate a good voici when speaking French: if you want people to notice something that's right in front of them, it's the word to use!