French word of the week: assez

It’s that time again – welcome back to our word of the week blog. Today we’re going to look at the word assez, which is a French adverb.

To hear how to pronounce it, you can listen to our audio clip below:

In case you’re not quite sure what an adverb is, think of it as ad- from adjective, a describing word, plus verb, a doing word. These combine to create adverb – a word describing a verb or an adjective. For more information, you can read our Easy Learning Grammar pages on French adverbs.

Now for the English translation. Assez is a word we come across often in both written and spoken French. While it can be used in different ways to convey a wide range of meanings, its main translations are quite or enough. Let’s have a look at some examples that use both of these translations in turn.

Where assez translates as quite:

Il fera assez beau demain. The weather will be quite sunny tomorrow.

Mon frère est très grand, mais ma sœur est assez petite. My brother is very tall, but my sister is quite small.

J’ai les cheveux assez longs. I have quite long hair.

Rochelle aime assez ce vin espagnol. Rochelle quite likes this Spanish wine.

Where assez translates as enough:

Est-ce que vous avez assez mangé ? Have you had enough to eat?

Ce steak n’est pas assez cuit. This steak isn’t well done enough.

assez de quelque chose enough of something

Nous n’avons pas assez de place pour tout le monde. We don’t have enough room for everyone.

Je n’ai pas assez d’argent sur moi… tu peux m’acheter cette chemise ? I don’t have enough money with me… can you buy this top for me?

Assez ! ; En voilà assez ! Enough! ; That’s enough!

You may also encounter set phrases involving the word assez. This one in particular has an unusual structure involving the word en, so it’s best to know it by heart:

en avoir assez de quelque chose to have had enough of something; to have had it up to here with something; to be sick and tired of something

Nous en avons assez de vos plaintes. We’ve had enough of your complaints.

J’en ai assez ! I’ve had enough!

We hope that you’ve enjoyed this week’s blog, but that’s quite enough for today! Come back next week to learn another French word and improve your vocabulary.

Written by Holly Tarbet, freelance copywriter and editor.

All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.