ça a l'air bien
In French, "that sounds good" is expressed as ça a l'air bien.
The phrase is used to show agreement with a suggestion or to indicate that a plan seems appealing. In English, one might say an idea "sounds" good, but French speakers use an expression meaning that an idea "looks" or "seems" good to convey the same sentiment.
How does it change in a sentence?
The phrase is grammatically fixed with the singular demonstrative pronoun ça. Because of this, you cannot change bien to a plural form, even if the suggestion refers to multiple things.
Did you know?
- While ça a l'air bien is used for ideas, French speakers use ça sonne bien only when talking about the actual acoustic quality of a sound or the rhythm of a sentence.
- In some contexts, ça a l'air can be used sarcastically to imply that something looks fake or suspicious, the opposite of a genuine agreement.
- The word bien in this phrase shares an ancient ancestor with the English word 'well'. Both descend from the Latin 'bene', meaning 'well' or 'good'.
Examples in context
- Ça a l'air bien !That sounds good!This example shows how to use the phrase ça a l'air bien to express excitement.Tatoeba #2155767 by Dreamk33, translation #2155165 by freddy1
- Cela semble bien, merci beaucoup pour votre travail acharné.That sounds good, thank you very much for your hard work.
- Ça me dit bien! J'ai également envie de sortir.That sounds good! I also feel like going out.
- Un voyage à la montagne, ça a l'air bien.A trip to the mountains, that sounds good.
- 1 more sentence on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Gabriel and Manon are deciding what to eat for dinner.
- GabrielOn commande des pizzas ce soir ?Shall we order pizzas tonight?
- ManonOui, ça a l'air bien !Yes, that sounds good!
- GabrielJe vais appeler le restaurant.I will call the restaurant.
- ManonD'accord, Gabriel.Okay, Gabriel.
Sources
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries a, bien, ça, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
