voilà
English
Pronunciation
Synonyms
- See Thesaurus:lo
Translations
behold!
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References
- Wells, John C. (2008) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd edition, Longman, →ISBN
French
Etymology
Literally, “look there”. From vois (“see!, look!”), second-person singular imperative of voir (“to see, to look”) and là (“there”).
Verb
voilà (defective)
- there (it) is
- 1953, Samuel Beckett, En attendant Godot:
- Voilà l’homme tout entier, s’en prenant à sa chaussure alors que c’est son pied le coupable.
- There is man in his entirety, blaming his shoe when his foot is guilty.
- here (it) is
- Voilà le fromage.
- Here's the cheese.
- Voilà ce qu’on va faire ensuite.
- Here's what we are going to do next.
- that is
- Voilà ce que je lui ai demandé, et voici sa réponse : « ... »
- That's what I asked her and this is her answer: "..."
- expresses something completed
- Voilà qui est fait.
- That's done/That's over with.
- expresses the unexpected or abrupt nature of an event
- Comme nous étions à la promenade, voilà qu’une ondée vint à tomber.
- As we were taking a walk, a huge rainshower suddenly began to fall.
Usage notes
- voilà is a defective verb. Its only conjugation is in the present indicative tense, even though it can appear in phrases that imply another tense.
- As a verb, it can take direct object pronouns:
- La voilà! ― There she is!
- It can also occur in relative clauses:
- l’homme que voilà ― the man who is there/that man (right) there
- It is mainly used to introduce a slightly distant person or object, in contrast to voici which is used to designate a person or object near the speaker.
- In face-to-face conversations where both participants can see the subject of the conversation, voilà often supersedes voici (thus its additional definition: Here is).
Derived terms
Further reading
- “voilà”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Polish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /vwaˈla/
- Rhymes: -ala
- Syllabification: voi‧là
Further reading
- voilà in Polish dictionaries at PWN
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