voilà

See also: voila

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from French voilà.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /vwæ.ˈlɑː/, /vwɑː.ˈlɑː/, /vwʌ.ˈlɑː/[1]
  • (US) IPA(key): /(v)wɑˈlɑ/[1]

Interjection

voilà

  1. Lo, there it is; see here; ta-da; presto; behold!

Translations

References

  1. Wells, John C. (2008) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd edition, Longman, →ISBN

Anagrams


French

Etymology

From vois (see!, look!), second-person singular imperative of voir (to see, to look) and (there), literally meaning "look there!".

Pronunciation

Verb

voilà

  1. There (it) is.
    • Beckett, Samuel
      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.
  2. Here (it) is.
    Voilà le fromage
    Here's the cheese
  3. That is.
    Voilà ce que je lui ai demandé, et voici sa réponse : « ... »
    That's what I asked her and this is her answer: "..."

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.
  • 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).

See also

Further reading

Anagrams

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.