il s’agit de, or S’AGIR DE in its infinitive form, has many translations. Here are some common ones.
to be, to be about
to be necessary
to come to
S’AGIR DE is a defective verb – It doesn’t have all the forms of a regular verb, it’s only conjugated with the neutral IL (no JE, TU, ELLE, ON, NOUS, VOUS, ILS, ELLES). Its structure is a bit different in French. It often involves a DANS.
.
About DE
DE becomes
DU when preceding a masculine noun – du café
DE LA when preceding a feminine noun – de la menthe
DE L’ when preceding a noun starting with a vowel – de l’eau
DES when preceding a plural noun – des thés
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Translate from one language to the other
Français
Dans ce jeu, il s’agit de gagner le plus possible de petits lapins.
De quoi s’agit-il ?
Pour faire des progrès, il s’agit d’écouter le texte plusieurs fois.
Il ne s’agissait pas de nous.
Ce dont il s’agit, c’est de fierté.
English
What is it about?
If you want to make progress, it's necessary to / it comes to listening to the text several times.
It wasn’t about us.
Pride is what it’s about.
This game is about winning as many small rabbits as possible.
une plage – a beach. Can ‘une plage’ be ‘a time slot’? Really?
If you know the word plage, you probably think it means a beach, right? Well, you’re right. However, it also means ‘a time slot in your schedule, your calendar’, ‘a window’ I guess you could say in English.
Chez le coiffeur – At the hairdresser’s
« Auriez-vous une petite plage demain pour un rendez-vous pour des mèches. »
“Would you have a small slot for an appointment tomorrow in your schedule? I need highlights.”
un fou rire – a mad laugh. In everyday French, un fou rire means an uncontrollable laugh, the giggles. It’s used with AVOIR, but also with the verb piquer – to poke, to sting, to prick, to bite. You also hear une crise de fou rire. a crisis of mad laughter.
I really like this French expression. piquer une crise de fou rire – to poke a crisis of mad laughter. It means ‘to have a fit of laughter’, ‘to have the giggles’. I translate it as ‘to giggle your head off’.
« Le serveur a fait tomber son plateau et on a piqué une crise de fou rire. C’était très gênant. »
“The waiter’s tray fell and we started to giggle our heads off. It was very embarrassing.”
les doigts de pied en éventail – French expression
se mettre les doigts de pied en éventail – to laze about – Mot du Jour
se mettre les doigts de pied en éventail – to put oneself the fingers of foot (the toes) in fan. se mettre les doigts de pied en éventail means ‘to do nothing’, ‘to laze around’, ‘to laze about’. SE METTRE is a reflexive verb.
« Je n’ai rien fait de la journée. Je n’ai fait que me mettre les doigts de pied en éventail .»
“I didn’t do a thing all day. All I did is laze about.”
My students often struggle with this question, even at a high-level of French. I designed this worksheet in the hope it will clarify things for you. Let me know by leaving a comment in the post at FrenchHour.
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On a trouvé des pièces du IIIe siècle dans les champs d’un fermier dans le village voisin. Le fermier est ø adepte des fouilles archéologiques. La découverte est une grosse surprise et est survenue quand le fermier a voulu labourer des champs qu’il avait laissés en friche depuis 3 ans. Les fermiers sont surprenants de nos jours. Ils passent du temps à enrichir le patrimoine français.
ø Third-century coins were found in the fields of a farmer in the neighboring village. The farmer is a fan of ø archaeological excavations. The discovery is a big surprise and occurred when the farmer wanted to plow ø fields that he had left fallow for 3 years. øFarmers are surprising these days. They spend ø time enriching the French heritage.
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