Level: B1-B2 (Intermediate)
🎧 Audio by Marie Assel Cambier, a native speaker & professional voice artist from France
The French Word of the Day is autrement, meaning “otherwise” or “differently”. This versatile upper-intermediate adverb will definitely enhance your French conversations.
✅ Meaning
✅ Pronunciation
✅ Example sentences
✅ Related Words & Expressions
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📘 Autrement meaning
The adverb autrement means “otherwise”, “differently” or “in another way” in French. It is often used to show a consequence (otherwise), to suggest another way of saying or doing something (differently), and appears in expressions like autrement dit (in other words) and faire autrement (to do otherwise). See examples below.
🎧 Autrement pronunciation
Autrement is pronounced /otʁəmɑ̃/ in IPA, which sounds roughly like “oh-truh-mahn.”
📝 French and English examples
Autrement – otherwise
Dépêche-toi, autrement tu seras en retard.
Hurry up, otherwise you’ll be late.
Peux-tu expliquer autrement ?
Can you explain it differently?
This sentence uses pouvoir (can, to be able).
👉 See my audio pouvoir conjugations charts here »
Je n’ai pas pu faire autrement que d’accepter.
I had no choice but to accept.
👉 The construction ne pas pouvoir faire autrement que de… (literally: not to be able to do otherwise than…) usually translates as ‘couldn’t help but…’ or ‘had no choice but to…’.
Autrement dit, nous devons trouver une autre solution.
In other words, we must find another solution.
Tu pourrais dire autrement que tu n’es pas intéressé.
In other words, you could say that you’re not interested.
👉 Want another way to say “otherwise”? Check out my lesson on sinon (often “otherwise” or “or else”).
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🔗 Related words and expressions
- C’est-à-dire — That is to say, in other words
- sinon — otherwise, if not
- différemment — differently
- autrement dit — in other words
- faire autrement — to do otherwise
- autrement que — other than
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