There are two ways to say to visit in French: visiter and rendre visite à. Beginner students are often unaware of the difference between the two. In short, visiter means to visit a place while rendre visite à means to visit a person. In this post we’ll examine the two verbs with the help of some example sentences.
Before we go any further let’s a look at the two verbs in the present tense:
VISITER | RENDRE VISITE À |
je visite tu visites il, elle, on visite nous visitons vous visitez ils, elles visitent | je rends visite à tu rends visite à il, elle, on rend visite à nous rendons visite à vous rendez visite à ils, elles rendent visite à |
visiter – to visit (a place).
The verb visiter is used to express visiting a place. This is very straightforward. Here are some examples:
- Nous visitons la France. We visit France.
- Ils visitent Marseille. They visit Marseille.
- Je visite les États-Unis. I visit the United States.
However, we cannot use visit to express visiting a person. For example, saying ‘Je visite Pierre‘, to mean ‘I visit Pierre’. Would be wrong.
‘Aller‘ (to go) is a synonym for visiter. Par example:
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- Je vais visiter l’Italie. I’m visiting Italy.
- Je vais aller en Italie. I’m going to to Italy.
rendre visite à
Rendre visite à is used for visiting people. The grammatical structure is ‘rendre visite + person‘. As shown in the table above, the verb ‘rendre‘ is conjugated and the word ‘visite‘ doesn’t change in any form. Hence, ‘visite‘ is like a non-moving part. Here are some example sentences:
- Pierre rend visite à sa soeur. Pierre visits his sister.
- Je rends visite à mon professeur. I visit my teacher.
- Nous rendons visite à notre famille. We visit our family.
- Ils ont rendre visite à leurs enfants. They’re going to visit their kids.
Again, under no circumstance can ‘vister’ on its own be used for visiting a person. We absolutely must use rendre visite à. So, Quand est-ce que vous me rendez visite? (When are you visiting me?)
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