# French: Verb "To Sleep"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 29, 2011, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-verb-to-sleep/594548 "2011-08-29T21:59:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-verb-to-sleep/594548/21 "2011-08-30T14:13:18Z")
Vous was used by everybody, not so long ago. Not just servants to masters, but also attendants in stores (still common), two people who (as **matt** says) simply don’t know each other well, etc.; it would be used in any situation where an American with Southern manners would use “sir” or “madam”. The last time I took French in a formal setting, I realized that, since the year I spent using it for real I only got to use toi for any length of time with one person (the agent for my rented flat, who was a woman about my age), I have serious problems conjugating the second person singular form of verbs. My informal encounters in that period (2006, Three-Borders area) moved very rapidly to “uhm… pardonnez-moi, soyez vous espagnol/e?” “¡Leche, sí!” ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-verb-to-sleep/594548/22 "2011-08-30T14:49:56Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > (And of course, as Brother Jack is a monk, Brother James, not Jack. > [@](#): > > he’s clearly not going to _coucher avec_ anyone. Well, in the period leading up to the Reformation, that may not have been a safe assumption…😃 ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-verb-to-sleep/594548/23 "2011-08-30T18:20:32Z")
> [@chacoguy](#): > > It’s like those French people have a word for _everything_! “The trouble with the French economy is they don’t even have a word for entrepreneur!” - actually George Bush did not say this, but it’s not hard to believe he could have. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-verb-to-sleep/594548/24 "2011-08-30T19:01:32Z")
> [@The\_Lurker\_Above](#): > > Or a request for a three(or more)some? That is a _Fromage a Trois._ ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-verb-to-sleep/594548/25 "2011-08-30T19:56:33Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Brother James, not Jack. The traditional English version is “Are you sleeping x2 / Brother John?” So even though _Jacques_ is not “Jack,” the monk of celebrated somnulence is more Jack than James in English. ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-verb-to-sleep/594548/26 "2011-08-30T20:07:27Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Although it may not be quite to the point in this case, I think it might be worth pointing out to the OP that there is nothing at all odd about a language containing synonyms. A synonym of _dormir_ is _roupiller_ (colloquial). ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-verb-to-sleep/594548/27 "2011-08-30T23:16:47Z")
I’ve always rather liked the usage of _se coucher_ to describe the setting of the sun. I remember our French teacher at school telling us that we could remember the correct verb because it was “the sun going to bed”. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-verb-to-sleep/594548/28 "2011-09-01T01:05:33Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > That’s true now, with all the social leveling of the 20th century… but in the old days, when society was more stratified? Vous was used by servants toward masters, wasn’t it? Yes, but it seems to me that the masters would also call the servants “vous.” Certainly the king would call non-royalty “vous.” I could be wrong, though. (There were even times when you would call your parents “vous.” I think pupils would generally call their teachers “vous” and be called “tu” in return, but that had more to do with their being children than hierarchical inferiors.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-verb-to-sleep/594548.md?page=1)