bienvenue à
The English phrase "welcome to" is translated into French as bienvenue à.
bienvenue à is a greeting used to welcome someone to a specific place or organization.
How does it change in a sentence?
In the greeting bienvenue à, the word bienvenue is a feminine noun rather than an adjective. When welcoming someone to a place that is a masculine noun, the preposition à contracts with the article le to form bienvenue au. When welcoming someone to a plural noun place, the preposition à contracts with the article les to form bienvenue aux.
What mistakes should you avoid?
English speakers often mistakenly follow bienvenue à with a person. In French, bienvenue à is used to welcome someone to a place. If you wish to use the word as an adjective to describe a person being welcome, you would use the form bienvenu.
Did you know?
- In parts of Canada, you might hear bienvenue used to mean 'you are welcome' after someone says 'thank you', a usage that mirrors the English expression.
- To say 'you are welcome' as a polite response to 'thank you' in France, speakers use the phrase je vous en prie or de rien instead of bienvenue.
Examples in context
- Bienvenue à Kyïv !Welcome to Kyiv!This example shows how to use bienvenue à to welcome someone to a city.Tatoeba #13028328 by Rovo, translation #13026386 by rul
- Bienvenue à notre premier cours en italien.Welcome to our first class in Italian.This example uses bienvenue à to welcome someone to a specific class.Tatoeba #3787498 by Danquebec, translation #3786129 by AlanF_US
- Bienvenue à Tatoeba, tequila, sexe et marijuana.Welcome to Tatoeba, tequila, sex and marijuana.This example uses bienvenue à in a humorous or stylized way to welcome someone to a list of things.Tatoeba #955988 by U2FS, translation #955964 by Spamster
- Bienvenue chez nous !Welcome to our home!
- Soyez les bienvenus dans notre établissement !Be welcome in our establishment!
- Nous sommes ravis de vous accueillir dans notre belle ville !We are delighted to welcome you to our beautiful city!
- Salut ! Bienvenue chez moi pour la fête !Hi! Welcome to my place for the party!
- Salut ! Comme ça fait plaisir de te souhaiter la bienvenue chez nous !Hi! How nice it is to welcome you to our place!
- 12 more sentences on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Lucas is greeting Manon at her new workplace.
- LucasBienvenue à la banque, Manon.Welcome to the bank, Manon.
- ManonMerci beaucoup, Lucas.Thank you very much, Lucas.
- LucasTu vas beaucoup aimer ton travail.You are going to love your job.
- ManonJe suis très impatiente de commencer.I am very eager to start.
Sources
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries bienvenue, à, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
