Lesson written by French teacher David Issokson for students who want to learn French online, with audio recorded by Marie Assel Cambier, a professional voice artist and native French speaker.
Level B1 (Intermediate)
The French Word of the Day is aussitôt. It means “immediately” or “right away,” but it’s versatile and appears in several useful structures that we’ll explore below.
✅ Meaning
✅ Pronunciation
✅ Example sentences
✅ Related Words & Expressions
✅ Related lessons
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📘 Aussitôt meaning
Aussitôt is a French adverb meaning “immediately” or “right away.” It comes from aussi (also, as) + tôt (early), originally “as early as,” which gave the modern sense of “immediately” or “as soon as.” While correct and common in writing, aussitôt can sound a bit formal in everyday speech, where you’ll more often hear tout de suite.
Common structures include aussitôt que (as soon as), aussitôt + past participle (as soon as [something] had…), and aussitôt après (immediately after). See examples below.
🎧 Aussitôt pronunciation
Aussitôt is pronounced /osi.to/, like oh-see-toh. The “au” sounds like “oh,” the double “s” is a clear “ss,” and the final “-tôt” rhymes with “toe.”
📝 French and English examples
Aussitôt – immediately
1. Aussitôt as an adverb = “immediately”
Il a répondu aussitôt.
He answered immediately.
2. Aussitôt que = “as soon as”
This structure requires the futur simple tense in both clauses, because the action is projected into the future. In my teaching I’ve called this the “future-future rule”.
Je t’enverrai un message aussitôt que j’arriverai à l’hôtel.
I’ll send you a message as soon as I arrive at the hotel.
3. Aussitôt + past participle = “as soon as [subject] had …”
Aussitôt rentrée, elle a préparé le dîner.
As soon as she came home, she prepared dinner.
4. Aussitôt après = “immediately after”
Nous sommes sortis aussitôt après le dîner.
We went out immediately after dinner.
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🔗 Related words and expressions
- tout de suite — right away, immediately (most common in everyday speech)
- immédiatement — immediately (formal, synonym)
- dès que — as soon as (close in meaning to aussitôt que)
- aussitôt après — immediately after
- sitôt — near-synonym of aussitôt, more literary
- sans attendre — without waiting, right away
- dans l’instant — instantly, on the spot
- aussitôt dit, aussitôt fait — no sooner said than done
- sur-le-champ — immediately, straight away (formal/old-fashioned)
- à peine… que — hardly… when
🚀 Continue building your French vocabulary!
Now that you’ve mastered aussitôt, check out at my lessons explaining both tout de suite (right away, immediately) and dès que (as soon as):
👉 Learn toute de suit here »
👉 Learn dès que here »
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