voilà
See also: voila
English
Alternative forms
Translations
behold!
References
- Wells, John C. (2008) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd edition, Longman, →ISBN
French
Etymology
From vois (“see!, look!”), second-person singular imperative of voir (“to see, to look”) and là (“there”), literally meaning "look there!".
Verb
voilà
- 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.
- Voilà l’homme tout entier, s’en prenant à sa chaussure alors que c’est son pied le coupable.
- Beckett, Samuel
- Here (it) is.
- Voilà le fromage
- Here's the cheese
- Voilà le fromage
- That is.
- Voilà ce que je lui ai demandé, et voici sa réponse : « ... »
- That's what I asked her and this is her answer: "..."
- Voilà ce que je lui ai demandé, et voici sa réponse : « ... »
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).
Further reading
- “voilà” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
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