Welcome back, learners, it’s that time again! For this week’s French word blog, we’re looking at accord.
In French, accord is a masculine noun. To hear its correct pronunciation, listen to the audio below:
The main English translations of this noun are agreement and consent. You may already have guessed that the English word accord (meaning an agreement or settlement) is a direct borrowing of the French word into English.
Let’s delve into some examples of phrases using the noun accord:
donner son accord verbal to give verbal consent
signer un accord to sign an agreement
tomber d’accord to reach an agreement
Nous ne pouvons pas continuer sans votre accord. We cannot continue without your consent.
se mettre d’accord to come to an agreement
Je ne vois plus de futur avec lui, on ne se mettra jamais d’accord. I don’t see a future with him anymore, we’ll never come to an agreement.
In spoken French, accord appears in a common phrase that you will need to remember:
D’accord OK; Sure; All right
On its own, it is used as an affirmative in response to an instruction or invitation, and it also appears in other set phrases:
« Tu nous rejoindras chez moi ce soir ? » « D’accord. » “Will you join us at my house this evening?” “OK.”
être d’accord to agree
Je ne suis pas d’accord avec ton avis. I do not agree with your opinion.
Vous êtes d’accord ? Do you all agree?
Notice how we don’t need to add anything to the end of accord in this set phrase, even in situations where the subjects are plural or feminine. You might also hear the very informal usage je suis d’acc or just d’acc, a shortened version of the phrase used in casual contexts or when messaging.
In the context of music, accord can translate as tuning, or simply a chord. It’s much easier to remember this meaning of accord when you consider that it sounds almost exactly like its English translation, a chord!
Les premiers accords de la chanson. The first chords of the song.
un accord majeur/mineur major/minor chord
Finally, it’s also worth knowing about this noun’s related verb, accorder. This can translate as to make agree, to grant or to tune. Accorder is a regular -er verb, our Easy Learning French Grammar has a useful page on forming the present tense of -er verbs. Helpfully, the spelling will always let you know whether it’s the verb or noun in context, as there is no verb conjugation of accorder spelled like accord or accords.
We hope you’d agree that our blogs are helping with your French learning. Thank you for joining us again for word of the week.
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.
