Welcome back! I’s time for another French word of the week. Today, we’re going to delve into the details of the noun place.
As you probably know the English word of the same spelling, take a listen to its pronunciation to hear how it sounds different in French:
As well as having the same spelling as ‘place’, this French word also shares the same meaning – but only sometimes! The French word place can indeed translate as ‘place’, but it can also mean ‘square’, ‘seat’, ‘room’ and ‘space’.
This is almost an example of a false friend – while you might be able to assume one correct translation, knowing that the word place means ‘place’ alone is not enough. You’ll find this feminine noun in lots of different contexts in French, as you’ll see in our examples. And it can be used both figurately and literally.
Remember that feminine nouns follow articles like une or la, or you might notice adjectives in feminine forms around the word. To find out more, check out our Easy Learning French Grammar pages on indefinite articles, definite articles and noun genders.
With plenty of different options for translation, it’s time to look at place in context:
place(de parking) parking space
Ils n’ont pas trouvé une place. They haven’t found a parking space.
place principale main square (like in a town centre)
placede train train seat
Est-ce que tu peux me garder ma place ? Can you save my space/place/seat?
première place au concours first place in the competition.
ranger les choses à leur place to put things back in their place (as in objects)
Je l’ai laissé à la même place. I left it in the same place.
Il n’y a pas assez de place. There’s not enough space/room.
prendre beaucoup de place to take up lots of space
faire de la place à to make room/space for
à la place de instead of; in place of
On va prendre une entrée à la place d’un dessert. We’re going to have a starter instead of a dessert.
For some bonus content, it’s also worth being aware of this noun’s related verb:
placer to place; to put; to seat; to invest
Je vais vous placer à côté de mon grand-père. I’m going to seat you next to my grandad.
placer les économies en quelque chose to invest savings money in something
Thanks for reading. We hope that you enjoyed learning about the word place, but also hope you’ve got plenty of room to add another word to your vocabulary next week! See you then.
