Ils sont chez eux
The audio sounds strange
The preposition chez can be used with a person/name, a stress pronoun (moi, toi, lui, elle...), or with a business/profession's name (dentist,...) to mean to or at [someone]'s place/shop/house :
Nous allons chez Marc.
We're going to Marc's place.
On se retrouvera chez Lucie.
We'll meet at Lucie's place.
It can also be used in a more general sense to express at home or in [someone]'s life.
ATTENTION: Case of à la maison vs chez moi
When used in this context, maison is closer to home than literally house: and just as in English, you would never say I'm going to my home, but I'm going home. Thus, in French, you will never use à ma maison / à ta maison..., but you will use instead the generic à la maison.
Here, you can also use chez moi (at/to my place) as well as à la maison (at home/home):
Here, you can also use chez moi (at/to my place) as well as à la maison (at home/home):
When talking about someone else's home, once again you cannot use à ta maison, à sa maison in French: therefore, the only solution is to use chez :
Learn more about these related French grammar topics
Examples and resources
On se retrouvera chez Lucie.
We'll meet at Lucie's place.
Je rentre chez moi.
I'm going back home.
Je suis passé par chez elle ce matin.
I passed by her place this morning.
Nous allons chez Marc.
We're going to Marc's place.
Il vient chez toi plus tard.
He's coming to your place later.
Jean va chez le dentiste.
John is going to the dentist's.
Je rentre à la maison.
I'm going home.
Je suis chez le coiffeur.
I'm at the hairdresser's.
Ils sont chez eux.
They're home.
broader sense
Tout va bien chez vous?
Is everything good with you?
Faites comme chez vous
Make yourself at home
Q&A Forum 7 questions, 10 answers
Bonjour Claudia !
Thanks to your feedback, the audio files for this lesson have been updated and much improved :)
Merci beaucoup et bonne journée !
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Aurélie va manger chez ses parents.
Can you add an apostrophe and say:
Aurélie is going to eat at her parents'
Asked 4 months ago
John asked:View original
Aurélie va manger chez ses parents.
Can you add an apostrophe and say:
Aurélie is going to eat at her parents'
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rentre not conjugated
I just noticed rentre is the only verb not conjugated in expressions involving chez, in this lesson. This is not confirmed in the lesson. Is that because it translates as to go/return home and is being used in connection with the word for home? Merci.
Asked 7 months ago
Sorry, I just realized that rentre is conjugated but it just looks like it is not conjugated in the Je and Il/elle/on forms.
Yes, that's correct. Note also that the infinitive is rentrer. So, the missing r at the end is an indication that this must be a conjugated form and can't be the infinitive.
Robin asked:View original
rentre not conjugated
I just noticed rentre is the only verb not conjugated in expressions involving chez, in this lesson. This is not confirmed in the lesson. Is that because it translates as to go/return home and is being used in connection with the word for home? Merci.
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Going to my home
"and just as in English, you would never say "I'm going to my home""
I think saying "never" here is incorrect. I can think of situations when I might say this.
Asked 10 months ago
LauraKwiziq language super star
Bonjour Rant,
Thanks for writing. I'm American and would never say "I'm going to my home." Mostly I would say "I'm going home." In rare situations, I might say "I'm going to my house," such as in response to someone offering their house instead, but I honestly cannot think of a single situation in which I'd say "I'm going to my home" - it just sounds weird.
Rant asked:View original
Going to my home
"and just as in English, you would never say "I'm going to my home""
I think saying "never" here is incorrect. I can think of situations when I might say this.
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Regarding the question « I am going to Lucie’s house « from the lesson and the video included in the lesson, I understand chez to mean home and maison
and maison to mean house. So why is my answer nous avons à la maison incorrect in the test? The answer was chez in the test
Asked 11 months ago
Hi Debra,
Just to add to what Chris has just said:
Nous allons chez Lucie = I am going to Lucie's house.
I think what you were thinking of is, "Nous allons à la maison" not 'havons' which makes no sense .
You cannot in this case say "Nous allons à la maison de Lucie" which sounds like what a very young child might say.
Hope this helps!
Hi Debra,
"Nous avons à la maison" is grammatically incorrect, it means "We have at the house." You could say:
Nous étions à la maison. -- We were at the house. Or, as the topic suggests:
Nous étions chez nous. -- We were at our place. (can also mean "at home")
As a rough guideline, whenever you would, in English, say "at someone's place" you use "chez" in French.
"À la maison" is also in common use and means "at the house" or "at home".
Tu es où ? -- Je suis à la maison. -- Where are you? I am at the house (at home).
-- Chris.
Chez is one of those wonderful Fench words that conveys a multitude of meanings.
As well as the meaning cited above (at someone's place) it also has the following uses:
of/with: C'est une conviction fondamentale chez moi - It is a fundamental belief of mine (with me).
in (the works of): Le rôle de la socialisation chez Zola - The role of socialisation in (the works of) Zola.
among: L'hypochondrie est répandue chez les Français - Hypochondria is widespread among the French.
in (possesive pronoun) country : La réligion est sur le déclin chez nous - Religion is on the decline in our country.
There are bound to be more uses that I cannot think of.
Debra asked:View original
Regarding the question « I am going to Lucie’s house « from the lesson and the video included in the lesson, I understand chez to mean home and maison
and maison to mean house. So why is my answer nous avons à la maison incorrect in the test? The answer was chez in the test
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Se retrouver versus rencontrer?
Is there a difference in usage between se retrouver and rencontrer? I think they both mean to meet.
Asked 1 year ago
Bonjour Jennifer,
Peut-être la dictionnaire Collins-Robert vous aideriez:
se retrouver
reciprocal reflexive verb
to meet, to meet up
⇒ Ils se sont retrouvés devant le cinéma. They met up in front of the cinema.
reflexive verb
(= s'orienter) to find one's way around
se retrouver dans qch [calculs, dossiers, désordre] to find one's way around sth
(= finir)
se retrouver quelque part to find o.s. somewhere, to end up somewhere
se retrouver seul to find o.s. alone
se retrouver sans argent to find o.s. with no money
(autre locution)
s'y retrouver (informal) (financièrement) to break even
rencontrer (ʀɑ̃kɔ̃tʀe )
transitive verb
[personne] to meet
(= trouver)
[mot, expression] to come across
[difficultés, résistance] to meet with
Il me semble que les deux sont synonymes.
Bonne chance !
Ron
Jennifer asked:View original
Se retrouver versus rencontrer?
Is there a difference in usage between se retrouver and rencontrer? I think they both mean to meet.
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Tout va bien chez vous
Hi - just a bit confused on this one.
I noticed we have used va and not allez, but we have used vous and not toi (ie va with toi, and allez with vous). Is that because "va" is referring to "Tout" being masculine singular and not the person we are talking to? ie - can you say "tout va bien chez toi" to someone familiar or is this a fixed expression..??
Asked 2 years ago
LauraKwiziq language super star
Bonjour John,
The subject of the verb is tout - tout va bien = everything is going well.
Yes, you can say tout va bien chez toi, tout va bien chez moi, tout va bien chez nous, etc.
Note that if the subect were tu, the correct conjugation is vas: tu vas, il va.
John asked:View original
Tout va bien chez vous
Hi - just a bit confused on this one.
I noticed we have used va and not allez, but we have used vous and not toi (ie va with toi, and allez with vous). Is that because "va" is referring to "Tout" being masculine singular and not the person we are talking to? ie - can you say "tout va bien chez toi" to someone familiar or is this a fixed expression..??
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