Welcome to the first French word of the week blog of 2026! This time, we’ve chosen the word voilà. As this word has made its way into English too, you might have already heard it. Either way, take a listen to the correct pronunciation using the audio clip below:
If you’ve ever taken note of how we might use or understand voilà in English, the meaning is something along the lines of ‘and that’s how you do it’ or ‘and there you go’. We often hear it used at the end of something like a set of instructions. However, while the French word does indeed work for this sort of sentiment, it’s mainly used to mean ‘there/here are’ or ‘there/here is’, as well as giving a reason for something like ‘that’s (why)’ or giving someone an affirmative like ‘that’s right’.
Voilà is a preposition, but originally comes from a contraction of the words vois and là, which together translate as ‘see there’ For more information about prepositions, check out our Easy Learning French Grammar page.
As always, the best way to learn how to use a new word is by looking at examples in context:
Et voilà ! There we are! / There we go!
Voilà l’église. Here is the church.
Voilà les montages. Here are the mountains.
Voilà ce qu’il m’a envoyé hier. Here’s what he sent me yesterday.
Je ne peux pas trouver ma montre… Ah, la voilà ! I can’t find my watch… Oh, there it is!
« Donc ils ne sont pas partis à l’heure ? » « Voilà. » “So they didn’t leave on time?” “That’s right. / Exactly.”
Voilà pourquoi elle ne l’aime pas beaucoup. That’s why she doesn’t like him much.
You might also find this word cropping up in the sense of time and duration:
voilà + [time] [time] ago
voilà deux mois two months ago
voilà + [time] + que [time] since
Voilà dix ans qu’on s’est mariés. It’s ten years since we got married.
Finally, we might use voilà to introduce or point people out in a fairly informal way:
Voilà les enfants. Here are the children.
Voilà ma sœur, elle habite avec nous. Here’s my sister, she lives with us.
Me voilà. Here I am.
Well, there you go! That’s all we have to share about voilà this week. But we’re glad to have you here for another year of French vocabulary – only 51 more words to go…
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.
