s'évanouir
In French, the phrase for passing out is s'évanouir.
The phrase refers to the act of suddenly becoming unconscious for a short duration.
Which one should you use?
While s'évanouir is the standard term used for a medical loss of consciousness, you might encounter other expressions depending on the setting. For example, tomber dans les pommes is used for fainting in casual conversation.
How does it change in a sentence?
The verb s'évanouir is reflexive, so it must be used with a reflexive pronoun such as me, te or se to mean 'to pass out'. When using the passé composé to say someone passed out, such as il s'est évanoui, you must use the auxiliary verb être.
Did you know?
- If you use the colloquialism tomber dans les pommes, you are literally saying 'to fall into the apples'.
- The word évanouir shares a root with the English word 'evanescent', which describes something that vanishes quickly like a vapor.
- French has a separate, more formal term perdre connaissance which literally means 'to lose knowledge' when referring to a blackout.
Examples in context
- Pendant la cérémonie, elle s'est évanouie à cause de la chaleur.During the ceremony, she passed out due to the heat.
- Après l'accident, il a perdu connaissance pendant quelques minutes.After the accident, he lost consciousness for a few minutes.
- Il a vu une souris et est tombé dans les pommes !He saw a mouse and passed out!
- Après avoir mangé trop de bonbons, il a fait un malaise.After eating too much candy, he passed out.
- Elle a peur de s'évanouir.She is afraid of passing out.
- Il risque de s'évanouir à cause de la chaleur.He might pass out because of the heat.
