l'
/ɑ̃/
Translation
year
Word origin
From Latin annus ('year'). The same root gives English 'annual' and 'anniversary'.
- Origin
- Latin
- Root
- annus
- English cognates
- annual, anniversary
Grammar
Examples
.
He is twenty years old and already speaks three languages.
' ' .
It has been two years since we last saw each other.
l'.
She spent three years studying abroad.
douze collège .
My daughter is twelve and starts secondary school this term.
, paysage numérique .
In ten years, the digital landscape will have completely changed.
An is the bare unit-of-time noun for "year", masculine. Its plural ans is one of the highest-frequency noun forms in spoken French because of the two everyday constructions it carries: ages (avoir X ans, to be X years old) and durations (pendant X ans, for X years; dans X ans, in X years). The distinction with année is the one French learners always ask about: an is the neutral unit of time, année insists on the duration lived or qualified (une belle année, cette année-là).
Bon an, mal an (taking one year with another, on average) is older but still literary. Les ans in a poetic register stands for the passing of time. The familiar avoir X ans bien sonnés (to be a solid X years old) is slightly humorous and worth knowing.
Used in
Stories
(6)Grammar articles
(46)French Adjective Agreement: Gender, Number, and Position Rules
French Adjective Position: Default, BAGS, and the Meaning Shifts
French Advanced Grammar (C1-C2): The Constructions That Sound Native
Comparing French Adverbs: plus vite, le mieux, and the Irregulars
French Adverbs of Manner: Forming -ment Adverbs
French Articles: Definite, Indefinite, Partitive, and the Article English Speakers Drop
French Grammar Cheatsheet: The Essentials, One Page
French Comparatives: plus, moins, aussi and the Three Irregulars
Conjugating French -er Verbs in the Present Tense
Conjugating French -ir Verbs in the Present Tense
Conjugating French -re Verbs in the Present Tense
French Verb Conjugation: The Complete Rules with Examples
French Demonstrative Pronouns: celui, celle, ceux, celles
Reported Speech in French: Tense Backshift (dit que, a dit que)
French Imparfait: One Stem, One Set of Endings, One Irregular
French Imperative: tu, nous, vous Commands and the Three Irregulars
French Impersonal Verbs: il y a, il faut, il fait and the Dummy Subject 'il'
French Intermediate Grammar (B1-B2): The Things That Stop You at the Plateau
French quel and lequel: Which and Which One
French Negation Beyond pas: ne... que, ni... ni, aucun
French Negation: ne... pas, jamais, rien, personne and the Colloquial ne-Drop
French Noun Gender: Why Every Noun Is Le or La, and the Endings That Give It Away
French Noun Plurals: Add -s, Say Nothing - the Article Does the Work
French Object Pronouns: me, te, le, la, lui, nous, vous, leur and the Preverbal Position
The French Present Participle and Gerund (le participe présent et le gérondif)
French Partitives and 'de': du, de la, des and the Negation Rule
Passé Composé vs Imparfait: How to Choose Between the Two French Past Tenses
French Passé Composé: avoir or être + Past Participle and the MRS VANDERTRAMP Set
The French Pluperfect (le plus-que-parfait): The Past Before the Past
French Possessive Pronouns: le mien, le tien, le sien, le nôtre, le vôtre, le leur
French Possessives: mon, ma, mes and the mon-Before-Vowel Trap
French Prepositions: à, de, en, dans, sur, chez and the Mandatory Contractions
French Pronouns Y and EN: there, some, of it, of them
French Reflexive Verbs: se laver, se lever, s'appeler and the Singular Pronouns
French Relative Pronouns: qui, que, dont, où and How to Glue Clauses Together
French si Clauses: The Three Types of Conditional Sentence
French Stressed Pronouns: moi, toi, lui, elle, nous, vous, eux, elles
The French Subjunctive After Conjunctions
The French Subjunctive After Doubt, Emotion and Opinion
The French Subjunctive After Necessity and Will
The French Present Subjunctive: How to Form It
French Superlatives: le plus, le moins, and the Irregulars
French Time Expressions: depuis, pendant, il y a and pour
Venir de + Infinitive: the French Recent Past (to have just done something)
The French Passive Voice (la voix passive)
French Word Order: SVO, the Object Pronoun Inversion, and Six Rules That Cover 90% of Sentences
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Go to my review queueThis word is part of lesson 3.