Published June 26, 2024 • Updated July 16, 2026 — By French teacher David Issokson with native audio by Marie Assel Cambier
“Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir ?” meaning and pronunciation
“Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir ?” means “Do you want to sleep with me tonight?” In this expression, “sleep with me” has a sexual meaning. The phrase is grammatically correct, but it sounds unusually formal because vous is combined with a very intimate and direct question. It is best known from the song “Lady Marmalade” rather than from ordinary French conversation.
The IPA pronunciation of “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir ?” is /vu.le vu ku.ʃe a.vɛk mwa sə swaʁ/, which sounds like “voo-lay voo koo-shay ah-vek mwah suh swahr”.
What does each part mean?
The expression can be broken down as follows:
- voulez-vous – do you want
- coucher – to sleep or go to bed
- avec moi – with me
- ce soir – tonight
Here, coucher avec quelqu’un means “to sleep with someone” in the sexual sense.
Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir ?
Do you want to sleep with me tonight?
How “Voulez-vous” works in real French questions
The phrase is a great textbook example of inversion, a formal way to form questions in French by switching the conjugated verb and the subject pronoun.
Because Voulez-vous simply means “Do you want?”, you can use it in everyday, practical scenarios. Here are two examples showing how to use vous voulez naturally to ask questions:
Voulez-vous un café ?
Would you like a coffee?
Qu’est-ce que vous voulez manger ?
What do you want to eat?
👉 How to ask questions in French »
Present Tense Conjugation: Verb Vouloir (To Want)
To use this structure to build your own questions, you need to know the present tense forms of the irregular verb vouloir (to want).
| Pronoun | Conjugation | Meaning |
| Je | veux | I want |
| Tu | veux | You want (informal) |
| Il / Elle / On | veut | He / She / One wants |
| Nous | voulons | We want |
| Vous | voulez | You want (formal / plural) |
| Ils / Elles | veulent | They want |
👉 Vouloir conjugation chart – all tense »
The Cultural Impact: Lady Marmalade
While the phrase has older roots, the music industry made it a global phenomenon. Most people know it from the famous 2001 Moulin Rouge! soundtrack featuring Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mya, and P!nk. The track’s catchy hook is the sole reason this bizarre question became famous worldwide.
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