French Word of the Day: Causer

Why do I need to know causer? 

Because it is not always what it sounds like.

What does it mean?

Causer, pronounced "cause-ey", has multiple meanings in French. 

The first, most obvious meaning to English-speakers, is "to cause".

In this sense, you would use it like this. 

Les grosses précipitations ont causé une inondation - Heavy rainfall caused a flood

Je ne veux pas causer des problèmes - I don't want to cause problems

But a second meaning of causer is "to chat" or "converse informally" with someone. It is a really familiar or slang way of using the word and is something you would generally say aloud rather than write down. 

You can use causer in this sense like this: 

J'ai causé avec mon ami en prenant un café - I chatted with my friend over a coffee

Elles ont causé pendant une heure - They chatted for an hour

Est-ce qu'on peut causer deux minutes? - Can I chat with you for two minutes?

Good to know 

A nifty little expression in French is à cause de, which means because of - when you want to talk about a negative consequence of an action. 

For example:

À cause de la circulation sur la route, j'ai raté mon avion - Because of traffic, I missed my plane

À cause de la pénalité, l'équipe a perdu - Because of the penalty, the team lost

If you want to say "because of" to talk about a positive or fortunate event, you should use grace à, which better translates as "thanks to". 

Grace à mon bon niveau de français, je cause avec pas mal de personnes - Thanks to my good level of French, I speak with a fair number of people

Grace à ses bonnes notes, elle a pu étudié à l'université - Thanks to her good grades, she could study at university