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1 Usage note : be
I am tired= je suis fatiguéCaroline is French= Caroline est françaisethe children are in the garden= les enfants sont dans le jardinIt functions in very much the same way as to be does in English and it is safe to assume it will work as a translation in the great majority of cases.Note, however, that when you are specifying a person’s profession or trade, a/an is not translated:she’s a doctor= elle est médecinClaudie is still a student= Claudie est toujours étudianteThis is true of any noun used in apposition when the subject is a person:he’s a widower= il est veufButLyons is a beautiful city= Lyon est une belle villeFor more information or expressions involving professions and trades consult the usage note Shops, Trades and Professions.For the conjugation of the verb être see the French verb tables.Grammatical functionsThe passiveêtre is used to form the passive in French just as to be is used in English. Note, however, that the past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject:the rabbit was killed by a fox= le lapin a été tué par un renardthe window had been broken= la fenêtre avait été casséetheir books will be sold= leurs livres seront vendusour doors have been repainted red= nos portes ont été repeintes en rougeIn spoken language, French native speakers find the passive cumbersome and will avoid it where possible by using the impersonal on where a person or people are clearly involved : on a repeint nos portes en rouge.Progressive tensesIn French the idea of something happening over a period of time cannot be expressed using the verb être in the way that to be is used as an auxiliary verb in English.The presentFrench uses simply the present tense where English uses the progressive form with to be:I am working= je travailleBen is reading a book= Ben lit un livreIn order to accentuate duration être en train de is used: je suis en train de travailler ; Ben est en train de lire un livre.The futureFrench also uses the present tense where English uses the progressive form with to be:we are going to London tomorrow= nous allons à Londres demainI’m (just) coming!= j’arrive!I’m (just) going!= j’y vais!The pastTo express the distinction between she read a newspaper and she was reading a newspaper French uses the perfect and the imperfect tenses: elle a lu un journal/elle lisait un journal:he wrote to his mother= il a écrit à sa mèrehe was writing to his mother= il écrivait à sa mèreHowever, in order to accentuate the notion of describing an activity which went on over a period of time, the phrase être en train de (= to be in the process of) is often used:‘what was he doing when you arrived?’‘he was cooking the dinner’= ‘qu’est-ce qu’il faisait quand tu es arrivé?’ ‘il était en train de préparer le dîner’she was just finishing her essay when …= elle était juste en train de finir sa dissertation quand …The compound pastCompound past tenses in the progressive form in English are generally translated by the imperfect in French:I’ve been looking for you= je te cherchaisFor progressive forms + for and since (I’ve been waiting for an hour, I had been waiting for an hour, I’ve been waiting since Monday etc.) see the entries for and since.ObligationWhen to be is used as an auxiliary verb with another verb in the infinitive ( to be to do) expressing obligation, a fixed arrangement or destiny, devoir is used:she’s to do it at once= elle doit le faire tout de suitewhat am I to do?= qu’est-ce que je dois faire?he was to arrive last Monday= il devait arriver lundi derniershe was never to see him again= elle ne devait plus le revoir.In tag questionsFrench has no direct equivalent of tag questions like isn’t he? or wasn’t it? There is a general tag question n’est-ce pas? (literally isn’t it so?) which will work in many cases:their house is lovely, isn’t it?= leur maison est très belle, n’est-ce pas?he’s a doctor, isn’t he?= il est médecin, n’est-ce pas?it was a very good meal, wasn’t it?= c’était un très bon repas, n’est-ce pas?However, n’est-ce pas can very rarely be used for positive tag questions and some other way will be found to express the extra meaning contained in the tag: par hasard ( by any chance) can be very useful as a translation:‘I can’t find my glasses’ ‘they’re not in the kitchen, are they?’= ‘je ne trouve pas mes lunettes’ ‘elles ne sont pas dans la cuisine, par hasard?’you haven’t seen Gaby, have you?= tu n’as pas vu Gaby, par hasard?In cases where an opinion is being sought, si? meaning more or less or is it? or was it? etc. can be useful:it’s not broken, is it?= ce n’est pas cassé, si?he wasn’t serious, was he?= il n’était pas sérieux, si?In many other cases the tag question is simply not translated at all and the speaker’s intonation will convey the implied question.In short answersAgain, there is no direct equivalent for short answers like yes I am, no he’s not etc. Where the answer yes is given to contradict a negative question or statement, the most useful translation is si:‘you’re not going out tonight’ ‘yes I am’= ‘tu ne sors pas ce soir’ ‘si’In reply to a standard enquiry the tag will not be translated:‘are you a doctor?’ ‘yes I am’= ‘êtes-vous médecin?’ ‘oui’‘was it raining?’ ‘yes it was’= ‘est-ce qu’il pleuvait?’ ‘oui’ProbabilityFor expressions of probability and supposition ( if I were you etc.) see the entry be.Other functionsExpressing sensations and feelingsIn expressing physical and mental sensations, the verb used in French is avoir:to be cold= avoir froidto be hot= avoir chaudI’m cold= j’ai froidto be thirsty= avoir soifto be hungry= avoir faimto be ashamed= avoir hontemy hands are cold= j’ai froid aux mainsIf, however, you are in doubt as to which verb to use in such expressions, you should consult the entry for the appropriate adjective.Discussing health and how people areIn expressions of health and polite enquiries about how people are, aller is used:how are you?= comment allez-vous?( more informally) comment vas-tu?( very informally as a greeting) ça va?are you well?= vous allez bien?how is your daughter?= comment va votre fille?my father is better today= mon père va mieux aujourd’huiDiscussing weather and temperatureIn expressions of weather and temperature faire is generally used:it’s cold= il fait froidit’s windy= il fait du ventIf in doubt, consult the appropriate adjective entry.Visiting somewhereWhen to be is used in the present perfect tense to mean go, visit etc., French will generally use the verbs venir, aller etc. rather than être:I’ve never been to Sweden= je ne suis jamais allé en Suèdehave you been to the Louvre?= est-ce que tu es déjà allé au Louvre?or est-ce que tu as déjà visité le Louvre?Paul has been to see us three times= Paul est venu nous voir trois foisNote too:has the postman been?= est-ce que le facteur est passé?The translation for an expression or idiom containing the verb to be will be found in the dictionary at the entry for another word in the expression: for to be in danger see danger, for it would be best to … see best etc.This dictionary contains usage notes on topics such as the clock, time units, age, weight measurement, days of the week, and shops, trades and professions, many of which include translations of particular uses of to be. -
2 out
out [aʊt]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━1. adverb2. adjective3. preposition4. noun6. compounds━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► When out is an element in a phrasal verb, eg get out, go out, look up the verb. When out is part of a set combination, eg day out, look up the noun.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━1. adverba. ( = not in) Paul is out Paul est sorti• (the ball is) out! (Tennis) (la balle est) out !━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► When followed by a preposition, out is not usually translated.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━b. ( = outside) dehors• out you go! sortez !• come in! -- no, I like it out here entre ! -- non, je suis bien ici !► out there ( = in that place) là-bas► out with it! (inf) vas-y, parle !2. adjectivea. [light, fire, gas] éteintb. ( = available) [model, edition, video] sortic. ( = unavailable) (for lending, renting) that book is out ce livre est sortid. ( = revealed) the secret is out le secret n'en est plus une. ( = unconscious) sans connaissanceg. ( = unacceptable) [idea, suggestion] that's right out, I'm afraid il n'en est pas questioni. ( = finished) before the month was out avant la fin du moisj. ( = striking) out on strike en grèvek. ( = unfashionable) passé de model. (flowers, sun) the roses are out les rosiers sont en fleurs3. preposition► out of━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► When out of is an element in a phrasal verb, eg run out of, look up the verb. When it is part of a set combination, eg out of danger, out of the way, look up the noun.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━a. ( = outside) en dehors de, hors deI was glad to be out of it ( = escaped from situation) j'étais bien content d'y avoir échappéc. ( = through) par• he looked like something out of "Star Trek" il semblait tout droit sorti de « Star Trek »━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► In the following dans describes the original position of the thing being moved.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━e. ( = because of) par• out of curiosity/necessity par curiosité/nécessitéf. ( = from among) surg. ( = without) we are out of bread nous n'avons plus de painh. ( = sheltered from) à l'abri dei. ( = eliminated from) éliminé de4. noun[+ homosexual] révéler l'homosexualité de6. compounds► out-of-date adjective [passport, ticket] périmé ; [clothes, theory, concept] démodé ; [word] vieilli► out-of-doors adverb = outdoors* * *Note: out is used after many verbs in English to alter or reinforce the meaning of the verb ( hold out, wipe out, filter out etc). Very often in French, a verb alone will be used to translate these combinations. For translations you should consult the appropriate verb entry (hold, wipe, filter etc)When out is used as an adverb meaning outside, it often adds little to the sense of the phrase: they're out in the garden = they're in the garden. In such cases out will not usually be translated: ils sont dans le jardinout is used as an adverb to mean absent or not at home. In this case she's out really means she's gone out and the French translation is elle est sortieFor the phrase out of see III in the entry belowFor examples of the above and other uses, see the entry below[aʊt] 1.transitive verb révéler l'homosexualité de [person]2.1) ( outside) dehors2) ( from within)to go ou walk out — sortir
to pull/take something out — retirer/sortir quelque chose
3) ( at a distance)4) ( in the world at large)there are a lot of people out there looking for work — il y a beaucoup de gens qui cherchent du travail en ce moment
5) ( absent)to be out — gen être sorti; [strikers] être en grève
6) ( for social activity)7) (published, now public)to be out — [book, exam results] être publié
8) ( in bloom)to be out — [tree, shrub] être en fleurs
to be fully out — [flower] être épanoui
9) ( shining)to be out — [sun, moon, stars] briller
10) ( extinguished)to be out — [fire, light] être éteint
11) Sport, Gamesto be out — [player] être éliminé
‘out!’ — ( of ball) ‘out!’
12) ( unconscious)to be out (cold) — (colloq) gen être dans les pommes (colloq); [boxer] être K.O.
13) (over, finished)14) GB ( incorrect)my watch is two minutes out — ( slow) ma montre retarde de deux minutes; ( fast) ma montre avance de deux minutes
15) (colloq) ( not possible) excluno, that option is out — non, cette solution est exclue
16) (colloq) ( actively in search of)he's just out for what he can get — péj c'est l'intérêt qui le guide
he's out to get you — il t'en veut à mort; ( killer) il veut ta peau (colloq)
17) (colloq) ( not in fashion) passé de mode3.out of prepositional phrase1) ( from)to go ou walk ou come out — sortir
2) ( expressing ratio) sur3) ( part of whole)4) Lawto be out — [jury] être en délibération
5) ( beyond defined limits) hors de [reach, sight]; en dehors de [city]6) ( free from confinement)7) ( sheltered) à l'abri de [sun]8) ( lacking)to be (right) out of — ne plus avoir de [item]
9) ( made from) en [wood, metal]10) ( due to) par [respect]••I want out! — (colloq) je ne marche plus avec vous/eux etc (colloq)
come on, out with it! — (colloq) allez, dis ce que tu as à dire!
to be out and about — ( after illness) être à nouveau sur pied
to be out of it — (colloq) être dans les vapes (colloq)
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