vouloir dire
/vu.lwaʁ diʁ/
In French, the verb for 'to mean' (as in signifying a word or concept) is vouloir dire. Wiktionary also lists signifier.
Meaning: of a word: to signify (verb)
Ways to say it
| French | IPA |
|---|---|
| vouloir dire | /vu.lwaʁ diʁ/ |
| signifier | /si.ɲi.fje/ /si.ni.fje/ |
When you want to ask what a word or a statement signifies, you use these verbs. The word moyen is a related adjective used to describe something having the mean as its value. Note that if you are using 'mean' to describe a person's character, you would use different words such as méchant, cruel or the informal phrase pas sympa.
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase vouloir dire literally translates to 'to want to say'.
Which one should you use?
While signifier is a direct translation of 'to signify', vouloir dire is the much more common way to express 'to mean' in everyday conversation.
Related words
How does it change in a sentence?
The third-person singular conjugation of vouloir dire is veut dire.
How do you pronounce it?
/vu.lwaʁ diʁ/
Did you know?
- The verb dire actually shares a common ancestor with the word 'to show' or 'to point out' in Proto-Indo-European. To 'say' something is, etymologically, to point it out to someone.
Examples in context
- Que veux-tu ainsi signifier ?What do you mean by it?This sentence uses signifier to ask about the meaning of a statement.Tatoeba #1564212 by sacredceltic, translation #42964 by Dejo
- Que peut signifier tout cela ?What can all that mean?This sentence uses signifier to ask about the meaning of a collection of things.Tatoeba #4871861 by sacredceltic, translation #2892488 by CK
- Qu'était-ce supposé signifier ?What was it supposed to mean?This sentence uses signifier to ask about the intended meaning of something.Tatoeba #3660008 by sacredceltic, translation #3659751 by Ricardo14
- Paul a été très méchant avec moi ce matin.Paul was very mean to me this morning.
- Ces commentaires étaient vraiment cruels.Those comments were truly mean.
- Elle n'a vraiment pas été sympa avec moi.She really wasn't nice to me.
- 23 more sentences on Tatoeba
Sources
- Wiktionary, “mean” translations and entries vouloir dire, signifier, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries dire, signifier, vouloir, vouloir dire, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
