près

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French

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Etymology

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From Old French pres (closely), from Vulgar Latin *pressō, from Latin pressus (concise), from premō (to press, push, condense). Cognate with Italian presso and Sicilian pressu.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /pʁɛ/
  • Audio:(file)

Adverb

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près

  1. near (a time or a place); close (to a time or a place)
    J’habite tout près.I live just nearby.
    J’habite près de l’épicerie.I live close to the grocery store.

Preposition

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près

  1. (formal or law) attached to, connects a person or an organisation delegated officially to a setting.
    Synonym: auprès de
    un expert près les tribunauxan expert witness
    les procureurs près les tribunauxcourt-appointed prosecutors
    l’ambassade de France près le Saint-Siègethe French Embassy to the Holy See
    l’ambassadeur près le Saint-Siègethe ambassador to the Holy See

Usage notes

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  • When used as a preposition (before a noun), près must be immediately followed by de (près de). The rare exceptions belong to a very formal register listed above. For everyday speech and writing, près de is to be used to mean "near something".
  • The adverbial phrases de près (closely) and à peu près (approximately) can be used without de after them.
  • près is only used with the embassies and ambassadors connected to the Vatican, as they are actually located outside, in Rome. All the other embassies and ambassadorial titles use common prepositions en, à, au or aux before host nations' names. (See Ambassades de France)

Derived terms

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Further reading

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Anagrams

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Walloon

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Etymology

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Old French pres (closely). See above.

Pronunciation

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Adverb

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près

  1. near

Antonyms

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