The word place is very common in French and poses few problems when it's a direct cognate of the English "place." Other times, however, the meanings diverge, and the word place will translate in a variety of ways depending on context. So, let’s go places and explore the similarities and differences in the use of the word place in this lesson.
As we just mentioned, the word place can be used in a similar way in English and in French in some situations. For example, "a place to stay" is une place d’accueil (literally "a place of welcome"). In the video below, welcome centers around France offer des places d’accueil (places to stay) for refugees:
C'est près de deux cents places d'accueil...
It's nearly two hundred welcoming places...
Caption 35, Réfugiés de Calais L’accueil des migrants en Finistère
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Une place does not only refer to a physical place, but also to a figurative one, like the place where you belong in life. That's a tough question for this lost soul in Yaaz’s sad song "La Place des anges," who muses over an uncertain future and wonders where angels truly belong:
Mais la place des anges n'est pas ici
But the angels' place is not here
Caption 7, Yaaz La place des anges
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Sometimes finding the right place is simply a practical matter. In this well-organized restaurant, the staff is ready to se mettre en place (take their places) before the rush of diners:
Eh ben, on se met en place et on fait tout ça.
Well then, we'll take our places and we'll do all that.
Caption 76, 4 Mains pour 1 Piano Médaillon de Homard - Part 2
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The expression remettre à sa place, though, is not so kind, as it means to put someone back in their place:
Le patron l’a remis à sa place.
The boss put him back in his place.
So far, we’ve looked at examples of true cognates. Unfortunately, these only work in a limited context, as une place often means something other than “a place.” But it doesn’t have to be complicated. For example, to book a table, a room, seats, or buy concert tickets, just say réserver une place! In the following video, une place means “a ticket” to a concert:
Dix mille places se sont arrachées en deux jours.
Ten thousand tickets were snapped up in two days.
Caption 13, Alsace 20 Rammstein à Strasbourg
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Une place can also refer to the seating capacity or number of seats in a venue:
Mercredi je joue au Sin-é et... C'est trois cents places.
On Wednesday I'm performing at Sin-é and... It's three hundred seats.
Caption 9, Charles-Baptiste Interview
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Or to the seating capacity in a car, or even the sleeping capacity in a bed:
On dit un lit à deux places et une voiture à cinq places en français.
We say a double bed and a five-seater car in French.
La place can also simply describe the amount of space available for comfort—in other words, “space” or “room”:
Qu'à tes côtés y a plus de place et que je ne peux pas rester
That there's no room left by your side and that I can't stay
Caption 24, Babylon Circus J'aurais bien voulu
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And when there is not enough place (room) because something or someone takes up too much space, you can use the expression prendre toute la place (to take up all the space), like the naughty cat in this video:
Et en plus, elle prenait... et toi, prenez toute la place dans le lit.
And in addition, she took... and you, [you both] take up all the space in bed.
Captions 27-28, Marie & Jeremy Le chat
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Now that we’ve looked at the various uses of the French word place, let’s look at its English counterpart. Again, you will encounter a variety of translations. When referring to a geographical “place” or location, you can’t use the French place anymore. Instead, use un endroit or un lieu (a place). If that place happens to be your home, or “your place," use chez moi (my place). In their video on Parc de la Villette, Amal and Caroline use all three. First, they talk about un endroit:
Je crois que c'est aussi un endroit assez culturel...
II think it's also a pretty cultural place...
Caption 37, Amal et Caroline Le Parc de la Villette
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Then they use a synonym, un lieu:
Ce qui est vraiment intéressant, c'est que tu as plein de lieux pour faire la fête.
What's really interesting is that you have plenty of places to party.
Captions 53-55, Amal et Caroline Le Parc de la Villette
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And earlier on, one of them mentions how close they are to her place:
On est même pas à cinq, dix minutes à pied de chez moi.
We're not even five, ten minutes away by foot from my place.
Caption 7, Amal et Caroline Le Parc de la Villette
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(For more information on chez moi, check out our lesson Chez moi, c’est chez toi.)
Just to confuse matters further, your “place” or “home” might be located on une place, "a square." In the video below, Joanna and Caroline invite us to visit la place Stanislas (Stanislas Square). Note that there is no need to capitalize place in an address:
On a décidé de vous faire visiter la place Stanislas.
We've decided to show you around Stanislas Square.
Caption 4, Joanna La Place Stanislas
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Instead of visiter une place, you may prefer to rester sur place (to stay/remain on site). These refugees are fortunate in that they can stay in the same spot for a few months:
Ces groupes devraient rester quelques mois sur place
These groups should stay on site for a few months
Caption 37, Réfugiés de Calais L’accueil des migrants en Finistère
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Or you may seek another kind of place that has nothing to do with location. Une place can also be "a position” or “a job"—whether an everyday occupation or the prestigious position of honorary president of the Cannes Film Festival:
Madame de Havilland... on vous a proposé en tout cas pour la place de présidente d'honneur à vie de ce festival.
Ms. de Havilland... you were nominated in any case for the position of honorary president of this festival [jury] for life.
Captions 31-33, Interviews au Festival de Cannes Olivia de Havilland
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La place also means "position" in general in expressions such as se mettre à la place de quelqu’un (to put oneself in another person’s position/place):
Faut se mettre à la place d'Obama ; pendant trois ans, il s'était farci...
You need to put yourself in Obama's position; for three years, he had been putting up with...
Caption 26, Alsace 20 Laurent Chandemerle, l'homme aux 100 voix
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On the flip side, the French word une position can mean "rank" or "place." In her video, Nelly ranks her favorite places (lieux or endroits) to visit in France:
En septième position, nous avons les gorges du Verdon.
In seventh place, we have the gorges of Verdon.
Caption 20, Français avec Nelly 10 Places to Visit in France - Part 2
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The word place has so many meanings that il n’y a pas assez de place (there is not enough space) in this lesson to mention them all. Just remember that context is key and feel free to browse through our Yabla videos and notice how often the word place comes up!
In "Dimanche soir" (Sunday Night), the slam poet Grand Corps Malade declares his love for his wife in beautiful lines such as:
Je l'ai dans la tête comme une mélodie, alors mes envies dansent
I have her in my head like a melody, so my desires dance
Caption 17, Grand Corps Malade - Dimanche soir
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If you didn't see the translation, you might have guessed that envie means "envy." And you would have been right!
Vous ne connaissez que l'envie, la hâte, la rage de les tuer.
You knew only envy, haste, the urge to kill them.
Caption 60, Il était une fois... L’Espace - 3. La planète verte - Part 6
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However, besides désir, envie is also the word for "desire." While un désir is a more general desire, envie connotes yearning, longing, or craving:
Il peut rester une envie intellectuelle.
There can remain a mental craving.
Caption 129, Le Figaro - Elle a banni le sucre pendant un an - Part 1
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If you think about it, this double meaning of envie makes a lot of sense, since envy is bound up with desire: if you envy (envier) someone, you covet what they have.
J'envie les caresses
I envy the caresses
Caption 18, Oldelaf - interprète "Bérénice"
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Quitte à en crever de son histoire déçue, de son passé tant envié
Despite wanting to die from her disappointing history, her so envied past
Caption 12, Yaaz - La place des anges
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But envie isn't always so intense. The extremely common expression avoir envie de doesn't mean "to envy" or "yearn for," but simply "to want," "feel like," or "be in the mood for":
Vous avez pas envie de faire la sieste?
You don't feel like taking a nap?
Caption 29, Actu Vingtième - Le Repas des anciens
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J'ai envie d'une limonade.
I'm in the mood for a lemonade.
There's also the expression donner envie (literally, "to give desire"), which means "to make someone want something":
D'avoir des quantités de choses Qui donnent envie d'autres choses
To have things in large quantities That make you want other things
Captions 4-5, Fréro Delavega - Foule Sentimentale
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In English, we have the phrase "green with envy." But in French, one becomes "green with jealousy": vert(e) de jalousie. You can, however, make someone "pale with envy" (faire pâlir d'envie).
Finally, here's a bizarre quirk of the French language: envie is also the word for "birthmark" and "hangnail." What those have to do with envy and desire is an etymological mystery.
In French, there are two different verbs meaning “to find”: trouver and retrouver. Although the two verbs are often interchangeable, the major difference between them has to do with the difference between discovering and retrieving: while trouver usually refers to finding something new, retrouver (which is related to “retrieve”) usually refers to finding something you’ve lost.
If you go to the fantastic food market in Arles, you’ll be overwhelmed by the incredible amount of fresh cheeses you’ll find there:
On trouve les meilleurs fromages de toutes les régions.
We find the best cheeses from all the regions.
Caption 17, Arles - Le marché d'Arles
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On a more emotional note, you might be determined to find a lost love, like the subject of this music video:
Elle a juré de vous retrouver vite
She swore to find you again fast
Caption 11, Yaaz - La place des anges
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“To find” doesn’t only refer to finding a person or a thing. You can also find something intangible, like a concept, feeling, or physical state:
Comme il trouve pas la solution
Since he can't find a solution
Caption 26, Oldelaf - Le monde est beau
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J'ai fait un cauchemar et ne pouvais pas retrouver le sommeil.
I had a nightmare and could not get back to sleep.
In English, "to find" can also be a synonym for “to think,” when expressing an opinion. Likewise, trouver can be a synonym for the standard French words for "to think," penser and croire. Like the person in this video, we at Yabla find foreign language learning to be very important:
Je trouve que c'est très important de...
I think it's very important to...
étudier les langues étrangères.
study foreign languages.
Caption 1, Allons en France - Pourquoi apprendre le français?
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When you make trouver and retrouver reflexive, their meanings become less straightforward. Take a look at this sentence, in which the explorer James Bruce expresses his certainty about the location of the source of the Nile:
Et elle se trouve sûrement là-bas!
And it is certainly over there!
Caption 10, Il était une fois: les Explorateurs - 15. Bruce et les sources du Nil
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Elle se trouve literally means “it is found,” but se trouver can also be translated as “to be located” or simply “to be.” Don’t confuse this with the set expression il se trouve que..., which means “it just so happens that…” or “it turns out that…”:
Il se trouve que j’ai une autre paire de gants.
It just so happens that I have another pair of gloves.
When you make retrouver reflexive, it has the sense of being somewhere again or meeting again:
Les Marseillais
The Marseille residents
ne cachent pas le plaisir de se retrouver.
are not hiding the pleasure of getting together again.
Caption 32, Alsace 20 - Rencontre avec les membres d'IAM
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On se retrouve au café après l'école?
Shall we meet at the café after school?
Se retrouver can also refer to finding oneself in a particular situation:
Je me suis retrouvé le bec dans l'eau.
I found myself with my beak in the water. [I was left high and dry.]
We hope you’ve found this lesson helpful and that you find everything you may have lost!
The French words encore and toujours have a few different meanings, but they share one in common: "still." Because of this shared meaning, it’s easy to confuse these two very common words. Let’s take an in-depth look at both of them to see where they merge and diverge.
In general, when you're using "still" in the sense of continuity (i.e. "to still be doing something"), encore and toujours are interchangeable. For example, "he is still on the phone" could be both il est encore au téléphone and il est toujours au téléphone.
Besides "still," the basic meanings of encore and toujours are:
encore: more/another, again, yet
toujours: always, anyway/anyhow
Let’s start with encore. In their video for "La place des anges" (The Angels’ Place), the Belgian band Yaaz manages to fit two of encore’s meanings into one sad little line:
Elle a encore peur, elle a encore pleuré
She is still afraid, she has cried again
Caption 13, Yaaz - La place des anges
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Hopefully she’ll be feeling better soon! On a different note, encore can also mean "another" or "more" (as in "one more," "two more," etc.), as the band Dahlia uses it in this song lyric:
Encore une fois, encore une autre,
One more time, another one,
et encore une voix, encore un manque
and one more voice, another lack
Caption 25, Dahlia - Contre-courant
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So now do you see why a band’s return to the stage is called an "encore"? It’s because the audience wants to see them once again!
Along these same lines, encore + a noun usually means "more of something," like food at the dinner table:
Vous voulez encore du pain?
Do you want some more bread?
Encore can also mean "yet," usually in the sense of "not yet" (pas encore):
Donc elle est pas encore prête pour la ferme.
So it's not ready for the farm yet.
Caption 8, Agriculture verticale - TerraSphere
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Now let’s explore toujours. Daniel Benchimol uses it as "still" when orienting us on his tour of the Normandy town of Honfleur:
Toujours à Honfleur,
Still in Honfleur,
nous sommes maintenant sur la place Sainte-Catherine.
we are now in Sainte-Catherine Square.
Caption 17, Voyage en France - La Normandie: Honfleur
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And Fred uses it as "always" to describe the perpetually perfect weather in Miami:
Il fait toujours chaud, toujours beau, toujours agréable.
It's always warm, always nice, always pleasant.
Caption 34, Fred et Miami Catamarans - Fred et sa vie à Miami
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You can remember this meaning by breaking the word down: toujours is a combination of the words tous (all) and jours (days), so it literally means "all days."
The final meaning of toujours is "anyway":
Je ne vais probablement pas gagner à la loterie, mais je vais toujours essayer.
I probably won’t win the lottery, but I’m going to try anyway.
Since both of these words have quite a few meanings, context is key when determining which one they’re referring to. So if you receive a text message after a first date that reads, Tu as toujours envie de me voir?, don't freak out! Your potential love interest isn't asking you if you always feel like seeing him or her, but rather if you still feel like seeing him or her. You're just being asked out on a second date! Context is also important when the two words are used in the same sentence:
Il y a encore autre chose que nous t'avons toujours caché!
There is still another thing that we've always hidden from you!
Caption 6, Les zooriginaux - 3 Qui suis-je?
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We could rehash this subject encore et toujours (again and again), but maybe it’s best for you to explore these words on your own by looking out for them in the Yabla French videos. They should pop up quite often!
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