voici
French
Etymology
Literally, “look here”. From vois (“see!, look!”), second-person singular imperative of voir (“to see, to look”) and ici (“here”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /vwa.si/
audio (file)
Verb
voici (defective)
- here is
- Voici le fromage.
- Here's the cheese.
Usage notes
- Voici is a defective verb; its only conjugation is in the present indicative tense, even though it can appear in phrases that imply another tense.
- It is used to designate a person or object near the speaker, in contrast to voilà which is mainly used to introduce a slightly distant person or object.
- In face-to-face conversations where both participants can see the subject of the conversation, voici is often replaced by voilà.
Derived terms
- voici que
Preposition
voici
- ago
- Il est parti voici trois jours. ― He left three days ago.
- Synonym: il y a
See also
- revoici
- voilà
Further reading
- “voici”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.