Mean in French: vouloir dire, signifier and small words

Mean in French is vouloir dire or signifier. Ask what a word means with Que veut dire ce mot ? or Que signifie ce mot ?, and ask “what do you mean?” with Qu’est-ce que tu veux dire ?. This page shows how the two verbs differ, then the small words learners look up most: et, on, en, y and ça. For the question words in those sentences, see French question words. For the pronouns among them, see French pronouns, and for more everyday lines, Common French phrases.

How do you say mean in French?

You say vouloir dire or signifier. Larousse defines vouloir dire in its entry for dire as having in your words the intention of communicating something, and gives the example Je n’ai pas compris ce qu’il a voulu dire (I did not understand what he meant) [1]. Only vouloir changes with the subject and tense. Dire stays as it is [1].

Larousse defines signifier first as having a given sense or definition, and gives Que signifie le mot « fébrifuge » ? [2]. Its second sense is to indicate or imply: Le vent d’ouest signifie qu’il va pleuvoir [2]. The same entry lists vouloir dire as a synonym in both senses [2].

The two questions in the lead are built from those entries. They are not quotations from Larousse.

What is the meaning in French?

The French meaning of a word is its sens. Larousse’s signifier entry opens with avoir tel sens, telle définition, and its dire entry glosses vouloir dire with avoir pour sens [1][2]. The word signification sits beside signifier in Larousse’s list of nearby entries [2]. That is all these entries say, so use sens and signification as the nouns and look the word up before you rely on a finer difference.

What does and mean in French?

And in French is et. Larousse calls it a coordinating conjunction and gives its main jobs [7]:

• Joining two words or clauses. Il faut agir vite et bien.
• Showing a contrast. Tu viens d’arriver et tu veux déjà repartir ?
• Adding feeling at the start of a sentence. Et moi qui ne me doutais de rien !
• Numbers. Vingt et un, with no hyphen around et [7].

The same entry adds a punctuation rule. There is no comma before et when it joins things of the same kind (je l’ai croisée et je l’ai saluée), but a comma appears when it joins two clauses built differently or marks a contrast [7].

What does on mean in French?

on is a subject pronoun, and it is not the English word “on”. Larousse says it is always a subject and lists what it can stand for [3]:

• Someone, people. On a frappé à la porte.
• We, in familiar speech. Nous, on n’y peut rien.
• The speaker and their group. On est tous égaux devant la loi.
• You, with familiarity, play or scorn. Alors, on se promène ?

Larousse says on for nous is very common in unmonitored speech, and recommends nous in careful speech and in writing [3]. When on means nous, an adjective or participle agrees with the people it stands for: on est arrivés ce matin [3].

What do en and y mean in French?

en and y are small words that sit right before the verb. Larousse describes en as an adverb and pronoun standing for something introduced by de [4]. It marks:

• Where a movement starts. Il n’en a pas bougé (from there).
• The object, or the thing talked about. Ce médicament est dangereux, il faut en user avec précaution.
• A quantity. Il en manque deux (two are missing).

Larousse says en comes just before the verb, except in the affirmative command, where it follows it: donne-m’en [4].

Y marks a place or stands for something introduced by à [5]. Larousse gives Ce quartier, j’y demeure depuis vingt ans (a place) and J’y compte bien (something introduced by à) [5]. It also stands for a person with verbs such as penser, croire and se fier: Pensez-vous encore à Jean ? – J’y pense souvent [5]. In a command, it joins the verb with a hyphen and the verb takes an s: vas-y [5]. Larousse also says to drop y before the future and conditional of aller: j’irai, not j’y irai [5].

What does ça mean in French?

ça means “that”, the thing you are pointing at. Larousse labels it familiar and gives four uses: the thing in question (Je n’ai jamais dit ça), a person or people (Les enfants, ça n’a pas de rancune), something vague (Ça sent mauvais ici) and a support word after a question word (Qui ça ? Où ça ?) [6]. It notes that ça replaces cela in unmonitored speech, and recommends cela in writing unless you know the reader well [6].

Several set phrases come from the same entry. Ça va ? is a greeting asking whether all is well, ça y est says an action is done, and c’est ça is agreement, sometimes ironic [6]. That also explains the lead. Ça veut dire is the familiar form of cela veut dire, built from the ça entry and the dire entry [1][6].

Common mistakes

• Conjugating both words in vouloir dire. Only vouloir changes: il a voulu dire [1].
• Using Que signifie … ? for a calm question about a thing that annoys you. Larousse lists it as a way to show annoyance: Que signifie ce chahut ? [2].
• Translating the English “on” as the French on. French on is a subject pronoun meaning someone, we or people [3].
• Saying j’y irai. Larousse drops y before the future and conditional of aller: j’irai [5].
• Writing ça in a formal letter. Larousse recommends cela in writing [6].
• Trusting a dictionary page from a site, including this one, without its date. The official pages change. Check the page’s own date against ours.

Sources