passez l’aspirateur

Question

Hi, one of the examples includes “ passez l’aspirateur”. Presumably this means to use the aspirateur to clean. In English we would not use the direct translation using “pass”. Most often someone would say “do the hoovering”, or possibly “use the hoover” or “use the vacuum cleaner”. I may he wrong, maybe the sentence just means “pass me the hoover (as you are holding it)” but then the example makes less sense. Does passer l’aspirateur mean to use a vacuum cleaner?

Accepted Answer

Hi Stephen, 
Thank you for the question, I have changed the English translation of 'passer l'aspirateur' to the verb 'vacuum or hoover' in that example.
But you are correct 'passer l'aspirateur' is 'to use a vacuum cleaner'.
Bonne Continuation !

Answer

Bonjour Stephen,There have been many posts of this nature before on the Forum.https://progress.lawlessfrench.com/revision/grammar/passer-vs-se-passer-vs-se-passer-de-the-different-meanings-of-passerI think the link above will help you to understand more fully.Hope this helpsBonne journéeJim