When you want to exit a building, look for a sign that says Sortie (Exit). Based on the past participle of the verb sortir (to go out), la sortie is a very versatile word that can be used in many different ways, both literally and figuratively.
As mentioned earlier, la sortie refers to “the exit” of a building. The studio in the video below has several sorties, which may explain André’s wife’s mysterious disappearance:
Ah ben... parce qu'il y a d'autres sorties...
Oh, well... because there are other exits...
Caption 24, Le Jour où tout a basculé Ma femme est-elle réellement morte ? - Part 2
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Just as in English, you can combine sortie with faire (to make): faire sa sortie (to make one's exit), like singers and superstars do.
Voici comment toutes les grandes superstars font leur sortie.
Here's how all the big superstars make their exit.
Captions 64-65, Extr@ Ep. 5 - Une étoile est née - Part 3
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Speaking of singers, we also use the word sortie to talk about an album release:
Sortie de l'album le vingt-sept février deux mille douze
Album release February twenty-seventh, two thousand twelve
Caption 1, Boulbar New York, 6 heures du matin
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Sortie is also a verb form meaning "released." In this case, it's the feminine past participle of the verb sortir (to be released). Remember that sortir belongs to the small group of verbs that go with the auxiliary être and take agreement in the past tense. In the video below, sortie agrees with the feminine noun chanson (song):
Cette chanson est sortie en deux mille onze.
This song was released in two thousand eleven.
Caption 134, Français avec Nelly 12 Songs to Improve Your French - Part 1
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It’s not just songs or movies that can be released. People can too! In the example below, it’s a prisoner who is being freed.
Dès sa sortie de prison, Brice contacte Enzo.
As soon as he is released from prison, Brice contacts Enzo.
Caption 1, Le Jour où tout a basculé À la recherche de mon père - Part 9
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The recently released prisoner would no longer need permission for chaque sortie (each outing), unlike French residents during the early COVID pandemic:
Il faut signer une attestation, surtout attester de chaque sortie.
You have to sign a certificate, above all register every outing.
Captions 54-55, Lionel L La pandémie
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As for poor Barbara, she has to beg her mother for la permission de sortie:
Il fallait passer par d'interminables négociations pour obtenir la permission de sortie.
I had to go through endless negotiations to obtain permission to go out.
Captions 26-27, Mère & Fille La soirée
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Unlike Barbara, our former prisoner is free to enjoy être de sortie (being out and about), like the people in this Christine and the Queens song:
Nous et la "man", on est de sortie
We and the man, we are out and about
Caption 25, Christine and the Queens Christine
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Être de sortie can also just mean “to be out,” as opposed to being home:
J'aurais pu refuser et prétexter que j'étais de sortie
I could've refused on the pretext that I was out
Caption 72, Le Jour où tout a basculé Ma mère fait tout pour briser mon couple - Part 5
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Interestingly, when sortie is preceded by the definite article la (the), as in à la sortie, the phrase usually signals the end of an activity:
À la sortie, cette idée semble avoir été abandonnée
In the end, they seem to have abandoned this idea
Caption 6, Le Journal Enseigner l'Holocauste en classe
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À la sortie de la séance, certains n'en reviennent toujours pas.
At the end of the showing, some still can't believe it.
Caption 27, Le Journal Les Ch'tis
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...et de me les communiquer à la sortie du conseil de classe.
...and communicate them to me at the end of the teachers' conference.
Captions 54-55, Mère & Fille Le coup de téléphone
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However, note the subtlety here. La sortie des classes doesn’t just mean the end of classes, but also when classes are dismissed:
Ça tombe juste pendant la sortie des classes.
That falls right when classes are dismissed.
Caption 23, Le Jour où tout a basculé Ma mère fait tout pour briser mon couple - Part 3
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And watch out: in a different context, une sortie de classe is a "field trip" or "school trip," like the one Barbara is going on:
Les sorties de classe, c'est l'occasion de découvrir des choses nouvelles
Class field trips are an opportunity to discover new things
Caption 1, Mère & Fille La sortie de classe
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Here are some other uses of the noun sortie. This one is straightforward: à la sortie du four means “out of the oven."
...pour que les manneles à la sortie du four, ils aient une belle croûte.
...so that the mannele out of the oven have a beautiful crust.
Caption 62, Alsace 20 Grain de Sel: le Lycée hôtelier Alexandre Dumas
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In the next example, however, the meaning is not so obvious. Remember earlier when we talked about la sortie d’un album? This time, la sortie sort of means the opposite: "the phaseout" or "the end of an era":
Tu crois que pour toi ça symbolise la sortie du nucléaire, là ?
Do you think this symbolizes the phaseout of nuclear energy for you?
Caption 75, Actus Quartier Manif anti-nucléaire à Bastille
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Another less common meaning of sortie is “output” in an industrial context, as in la sortie de l’électricité:
Dans les batteries, on a des contacteurs qui coupent la sortie de l'électricité
In the batteries, we have contactors that shut off the electricity output
Captions 64-65, Bateau sport 100% électrique Le Nautique 196 E
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And in a commercial context, we have l'entrée et sortie de marchandises:
...logiciels informatiques pour gérer tout ce qui est entrée et sortie de marchandises.
...computing software to manage everything that is about the entry and departure of goods.
Captions 33-34, GO! Formations Présentation du centre
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Indeed, sortie can mean “departure,” as in to leave a place or depart. In the video below, la sortie refers to the time the couple left the hotel:
Au moment de leur sortie, eh bien, cette carte avait disparu.
At the time of their departure, well, this card had gone missing.
Captions 88-89, Le Jour où tout a basculé À l'audience - Arnaque en couple ? - Part 6
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In some cases, sortie doesn’t just mean “departure,” but “quitting,” as in giving up:
C'est-à-dire les différentes épisodes de sortie, ensuite, les envies, et cetera, correspondent en tout point à ce que nous vivons avec...des patients qui fument...
That is, the different quitting episodes, then the cravings, et cetera, correspond point by point with what we experience with...patients who smoke...
Captions 157-160, Le Figaro Elle a banni le sucre pendant un an - Part 2
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So far, we’ve explored many ways of using the word sortie, and like Sacha in the video below, you may be wondering comment vous allez vous en sortir (how you’re going to manage):
Oh là là là là, comment vont-ils s'en sortir ?
Oh dear, how are they going to manage?
Caption 10, Extr@ Ep. 6 - Le jour du loto - Part 1
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Just keep in mind that the main meanings of sortie are “exit," "departure," and "outing." However, pay close attention to context to interpret the less common uses of sortie. And remember that Yabla videos are at your disposal pour vous aider à vous en sortir (to help you cope). Thanks for reading!
The phrase pas mal literally means "not bad," and like its English counterpart, it's often used to express an assessment of something:
La nourriture à ce restaurant n'est pas mal.
The food at that restaurant isn't bad.
C'est pas mal déjà!
That's not bad at all! [or: That's pretty good!]
Caption 21, Actus Quartier - Fête de quartier Python-Duvernois
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But just as often, pas mal is used not as a qualitative assessment, but a quantitative one. Take a look at this example from our video on Paris's Rue des Martyrs:
Y a pas mal de bars dans la rue.
There are quite a few bars on the street.
Caption 42, Adrien - Rue des Martyrs
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Adrien isn't saying that the bars on the street "aren't bad." If he were, he might have said something like, Les bars dans la rue ne sont pas mal. Instead, he uses pas mal to indicate that there are "quite a few" bars on the street. When followed by de (of) plus a noun, pas mal can mean anything along the lines of "quite a few," "quite a bit," or "quite a lot":
C'est quelque chose qui est très important
This is something that has been very important
pour nous depuis pas mal de temps.
to us for quite a bit of time.
Caption 18, Alsace 20 - Grain de Sel: le titre de Maître Restaurateur, c'est quoi?
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When pas mal comes before an adjective, it means "a lot" or "pretty":
Ben c'est sûr que... c'est pas mal plus naturel.
Well, for sure... that's a lot more natural.
Caption 46, Bateau sport 100% électrique - Le Nautique 196 E
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Ce livre est pas mal intéressant.
This book is pretty interesting.
And when referring to a verb, it means "really" or, again, "quite a bit/a lot":
J'essaie de rechercher pas mal le son.
I'm trying to really research the sound [or: I'm trying to research the sound quite a bit].
Caption 12, Phil Cambron - Ses révélations
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Here's an example sentence that contains both senses of pas mal:
Pas mal de nuages mais quand même des éclaircies,
Quite a few clouds but still some sunny spells,
et au niveau des températures, c'est pas mal non plus.
and as far as temperatures go, that's not bad either.
Captions 9-10, Alsace 20 - Météo des Maquilleurs
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But be careful: just because you see the words pas and mal next to each other doesn't necessarily mean you're dealing with the expression pas mal. Namely, when a verb phrase with mal (such as faire mal [to hurt] or le prendre mal [to take it the wrong way]) is negated, the pas mal portion doesn't mean "not bad" or "quite a bit"—it's just part of the negation:
Ça fait pas mal? -Non, non.
It doesn't hurt? -No, no.
Caption 16, Cap 24 - Rasage et Epilation du Visage : Alessandro Di Sarno teste!
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Ne le prends pas mal.
Don't take it the wrong way.
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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)!
As we’ve noted in previous lessons, accent marks are very important in French. Their presence or absence can completely change the meaning of a word, as in cote, côte, and côté or des, dés, and dès. In this lesson, we’ll investigate a more straightforward but no less significant distinction, between du and dû.
You may already know that in French de + le ("of" + "the") is always contracted into du. That’s why, in their introduction to their video on springtime trends (or trends of the springtime), Fanny and Corinne say tendances du printemps:
On va vous parler des tendances du printemps.
We're going to tell you about some springtime trends.
Caption 3, Fanny & Corrine parlent de la mode - Tendances du printemps
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Printemps is masculine, so, to put it mathematically: de + le printemps = du printemps. Note that, in the title, Fanny and Corinne parlent de la mode (talk about fashion). De + la can appear together in French, so no contraction is necessary there. You can find out more about these rules on this page.
When you put a circumflex on du, its pronunciation doesn’t change, but it’s no longer a contraction of de + le. Dû is the past participle of the verb devoir, which means “to have to” or “to owe.” So why does dû require a circumflex? For no other reason than to distinguish it from du! Though the circumflex is only used to distinguish meaning in this case, it can serve some other purposes as well, which you can learn more about here.
Here’s an example of dû used as a past participle, from a video about an electric sporting boat:
Donc, on a dû utiliser deux moteurs.
So we had to use two motors.
Caption 25, Bateau sport 100% électrique - Le Nautique 196 E
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Dû can also be used as an adjective, in which case it means “due,” as in the expression “due to” (dû à):
Peut-être que c'est aussi dû au fait que ma mère aimait beaucoup chanter.
Maybe it's also due to the fact that my mother liked very much to sing.
Caption 16, Mai Lingani - Mai et Burkina Electric
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Dû is the masculine singular form of the adjective, but note that the circumflex disappears in every other form: the feminine singular (due), the masculine plural (dus), and the feminine plural (dues). Remember: in this case, the circumflex is only there to prevent confusion with du.
In this caption from a video on AIDS, dû modifies the singular feminine noun banalisation, so it becomes due:
Une banalisation qui est due d'ailleurs à la trithérapie.
A trivialization which, besides, is due to the tritherapy.
Captions 3-4, Le Journal - Le sida
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Finally, dû can be used as a noun (un dû) to mean “a due,” or something that one is owed:
Je lui paierai son dû.
I will pay him his due.
We hope that we have duly (dûment) demonstrated how much of a difference one little accent mark can make!
If you’ve studied our recent lesson on French numbers, you should theoretically be able to count to a billion (compter jusqu’à un milliard) in French. But since no one has time to do that, let’s focus on some other, more practical uses of the verb compter.
Counting doesn’t always involve numbers. For example, if you’re relying on someone to do something, you’re counting on (compter sur) them, as this Parisian chef is counting on us to visit his restaurant:
À vous aussi de venir ici, on compte sur vous.
Up to you to come here too, we're counting on you.
Caption 42, Cap 24 - Découverte d'un restaurant parisien
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You can also count on a future event to happen (or not happen). Bertrand Pierre is an extremely talented singer-songwriter, but for some reason he doesn’t expect to make it big. He expresses his pragmatism with the construction “compter + infinitive”:
Je compte pas devenir une, une star internationale,
I'm not expecting to become an, an international star,
c'est pas ça que je veux dire.
that's not what I mean.
Caption 25, Bertrand Pierre - Autre Chose
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Sometimes compter refers not to counting numbers, but containing them. If the subject of the verb compter is an inanimate object, it’s most likely describing contents:
Après un peu de lecture,
After a bit of reading,
dans une bibliothèque qui compte quarante mille volumes...
in a library that contains forty thousand volumes...
Caption 39, Canal 32 - Mesnil-Saint-Loup : moines artisans
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Quite a few expressions are based on the noun form of compter, compte, which can mean “count,” “total,” or “account.” If you’re a Yabla subscriber, for example, you have un compte (an account) with us. Un compte can also mean “account” in a more figurative sense, as in the expression prendre en compte (to take into account):
Tous ces éléments-là sont importants aussi à prendre en compte...
All those elements there are also important to take into account...
Caption 19, Le Journal - Grands prématurés
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A very common expression with compte is se rendre compte, which means “to realize” or “become aware” (literally, “to give an account to oneself”). In the latest installment of our Il était une fois episode on Scottish explorer James Bruce, a shipmate reflects on the crew's recent discovery of Abyssinia:
Tu te rends compte, Luigi, nous repoussons les limites de l'inconnu.
You realize, Luigi, we're pushing the limits of the unknown.
Caption 1, Il était une fois - les Explorateurs - 15. Bruce et les sources du Nil
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Don’t forget that se rendre compte is a reflexive expression, and its meaning changes completely when you remove the se: instead of giving an account to yourself, you’re giving an account to someone else, i.e., reporting to them:
On y va? Oui, mais d'abord, on rend compte à Oméga.
Shall we go? Yes, but first we report to Omega.
Captions 24-25, Il était une fois... L’Espace - 3. La planète verte
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We’ll end with a compte expression that deals with endings: en fin de compte (literally, “at the end of the account”), which can be translated as “ultimately,” “at the end of the day,” or “when all is said and done”:
En fin de compte, un bateau qui est propulsé par
Ultimately, a boat that's propelled by
une motorisation cent pour cent électrique.
one hundred percent electric power.
Caption 5, Bateau sport 100% électrique - Le Nautique 196 E
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Compte tenu de (taking into account) all of the different ways of using compter and compte, you might feel overwhelmed when trying to remember them all. But don’t worry if you can’t master them right away: c’est l’intention qui compte (it’s the thought that counts)!
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