Learning French: be careful with the many words for a meeting

Life is full of meetings, and how you express this in French depends on the type of encounter that you are referring to. 

Let us start with a réunion, which is an everyday word in France, so you probably already know that it is not the equivalent of the English word ‘reunion’. 

If an English-speaker talks about a reunion, you picture a gathering of several people that have not seen each other for a while, typically a family reunion or school reunion. 

In French, however, a réunion is more likely to be a business meeting: désolée, elle est en réunion conveys, ‘sorry, she is in a meeting’.

Read more: Ways to apologise in French and how to say ‘pardon, I didn’t hear you?’

Professional and personal terms

Another phrase you might hear is désolée, elle est en rendez-vous, which is likely to be a professional appointment, as with a doctor, lawyer or hairdresser. 

One way to look at it is that a réunion can be with a group of equals, but a rendez-vous usually involves one person who is senior or an expert. 

And while English-speakers ‘make’ an appointment, French speakers ‘take’ an appointment (prendre rendez-vous) or they set one up (fixer rendez-vous).

Read more: Laundry, fresh starts, mistakes: 8 phrases using tourner in French

'To meet'

Interestingly, the verb ‘to meet’ usually refers to a first encounter in English (Happy to meet you! When did you meet? Has she met your parents?), but have you noticed that we add ‘up’ to refer to subsequent events? English speakers tend to say ‘meet up’ or ‘get together’ once we know each other. 

The equivalent for that in French is se retrouver, which is literally to find one another again: on se retrouve au café à 14h?

And finally, if you unintentionally meet up with someone, the French equivalent is to cross paths: je l’ai croisé hier means you ‘bumped into’ him yesterday.

If you would like to tell someone that you hope to bump into them again, try: j’espère avoir l’occasion de se croiser à nouveau.