[Originally posted on 03/21/14 on the Duolingo French for English speakers forum by Remy]
“ici”, “là” and “là-bas” are French adverbs.
1) “ici” refers to a place that is at the same place as the person speaking, or very close. It means “here”.
- ex: “Je suis ici.” means “I am here.”
- ex: “Ma clé est ici.” means “My key is here.”
2) “là” can have 2 meanings: “here” and “there”
You have to use the context of the sentence to determine whether is is better to use “ici” or “là”.
- ex: “Je suis là.” means “I am here.” (same meaning as “Je suis ici.”). Here, you can guess that the person speaking is close to the person he is talking to.
- ex: “Mon ordinateur est au bureau. Je sais qu’il est là.” means “My computer is at the office. I know that it is there.” In this case, “là” implies a distance between the person speaking and the object.
3) “là-bas” refers to a place that is far from the person speaking, and means “there”, “down there” or “over there”.
- “There”. Ex: “J’ai un ami à New York. J’aimerais aller là-bas.” means “I have a friend in New York. I would like to go there.”
- “Down there”. Ex: “Du haut de la Tour Eiffel, on voit Montmartre là-bas.” means “From the top of the Eiffel Tower, you can see Montmartre down there.”
- “Over there”. Ex: “Où est l’école ? L’école est là-bas.” means “Where is the school? The school is over there.”
Selected comments on original post
Interesting. I’ve also noticed that sometimes that là is linked to some words such as “dimanche-là”, and I think that also applies to ici or “ci”. I wonder if it changes its meaning in some instances or it always has the same meaning.
Remy [contributor]
When you add “-ci” and “-là” after words, it also gives an indication of closeness (“-ci”) or distance (“-là”). It is the same difference as the one that exists between “this” and “that” in English.
- Ex: “Veux-tu cette pomme-ci (qui est devant toi), ou cette pomme-là (qui est au bout de la table)?” means “Do you want this apple (in front of you), or that apple (at the end of the table)?”
Thanks for clearing that up. I was also wondering what kind of words can you stick it to, is it just any noun, or are there specific requirements for the words?
For example:
- La femme avec laquelle je vis est cette femme-là.
- J’aime cette viande-là.
Would those two be accurate?
Remy [contributor]
Those 2 examples of “-là” after nouns are accurate.
You can also add them after demonstrative pronouns:
“celui” (masc. sing.):
- ex: “Veux-tu celui-ci ou celui-là ?” means “Do you want this one or that one?”
“celle” (fem. sing.):
- ex: “Veux-tu celle-ci ou celle-là ?” means “Do you want this one or that one?”
“ceux” (masc. plur.):
- ex: “Veux-tu ceux-ci ou celle-là ?” means “Do you want these ones or those one?”
“celles” (fem. plur.):
- ex: “Veux-tu celles-ci ou celles-là ?” means “Do you want these ones or those ones?”
Thank you very much for that clarification. “Jrikhal” had already explained this to me from the Spanish version. However, I will send you reports from English because in most of cases the system marks incorrect when I translate “here” for “lá”. For example: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/1688468
Remy [contributor]
You’re welcome 🙂 “Here” is now accepted for the sentence you reported.
Sometimes, it can be a bit tricky to accept both “there” and “here” for “là”, since some sentence tend to have more one signification than the other.
ex:
- “Je suis là.”: it can mean “I am here/there”.
- “Je suis née là.”: it rather means “I was born there.”, than “I was born here.”
Remy [contributor]
“Je suis là” usually means “I am here”. “Je suis ici” usually means “I am right here”.
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