Welcome back to our weekly blog for French learners. In this edition, we’re hoping to enrich your vocabulary by taking a closer look at the word point.
As it’s the same spelling as the English word ‘point’, it’s worth listening to our audio clip to hear the correct pronunciation in French:
In some respects, the English and French words are very similar – perhaps not in their pronunciation – and some of their meanings overlap very precisely. Just like in English, the French noun point can mean a ‘point’ as in a purpose or subject, a ‘point’ as in moment in time, or a ‘point’ as in a dot. However, you’ll see in our examples that there are some other translations too…
If you see articles such as un or le preceding a word, you can safely bet that it’s a masculine noun, like point. As for turning this singular noun into a plural, you just need to add the letter s to make points.
As this word appears in so many different contexts, the best way of learning about it is to get into the examples:
en tout point in all respects; in every respect; totally
à tel point que to the point where/that
à ce point at this point (in time); to that extent; that much
À quel point vous seriez d’accord avec moi ? To what extent would you agree with me?
Est-ce que vous êtes d’accord avec moi sur ce point ? Do you agree with me on this point?
être sur le point de faire quelque chose to be just about to do something
On était sur le point de partir quand tu nous as appelé. We were just about to leave when you called us.
Je préfère le steak saignant, mais mon copain préfère la cuisson à point. I prefer rare steak, but my boyfriend prefers it cooked medium.
Il faut mettre un point à la fin. You need to put a full stop at the end.
On peut voir des petits points colorés dans les peintures de Georges Seurat. We can see little colourful dots in the paintings of Georges Seurat.
point de vue point of view
point d’exclamation exclamation mark
point de vente point of sale
point d’interrogation question mark
point-virgule semi-colon
point de croix cross stitch
point de départ / d’arrivée point of departure / arrival
mise (f) au point focus (in photography)
Finally, if you’ve read any French literature from the past, you might have encountered point used for negation. Before ne…pas was the most common way of saying ‘not’, a higher register and more archaic way of saying this was ne…point. For example:
point du tout not at all
Il n‘y a point d’autres écrivains comme Balzac. There are not any other writers like Balzac.
Congratulations on adding another word to your ever-growing list of French vocabulary. We hope that you’ll make a point of coming back next week, and all of the weeks ahead!
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.
