Chez = at someone's place (prepositions)

Bonjour Claudia !

Thanks to your feedback, the audio files for this lesson have been updated and much improved :)

Merci beaucoup et bonne journée !

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.

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.

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!

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.