👉 See also: Quant à, meaning “as for” or “with regard to” »
Level: B1 (Intermediate)
🎧 Audio by Marie Assel Cambier — native speaker & pro voice artist from France
The French Word of the Day is cependant, meaning “however.” You’ll often see it in writing and hear it in more formal speech — but what does it really mean, and how do you use it naturally in conversation?
✅ Meaning
✅ Pronunciation
✅ Example sentences
✅ Related Words & Expressions
✅ Related lessons
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📘 Cependant meaning
Cependant is an adverb and conjunction meaning however, yet, or nevertheless. It shows contrast with what was just said. It’s common in writing and in more formal spoken French, but less frequent in casual conversation where people use mais or pourtant. See examples below.
🎧 Cependant pronunciation
Cependant is pronounced /sə.pɑ̃.dɑ̃/ in IPA, roughly “suh-pahn-dahn.” The ce is “suh,” and both -pen- and -dant end with the nasal /ɑ̃/ (no final t).
📝 French and English examples
Cependant – however
Il gagne bien sa vie et cependant il s’inquiète pour l’argent.
He makes a good living and yet he worries about money.
J’aime beaucoup cet auteur ; cependant ses derniers romans ont baissé en qualité.
I like this author a lot. However, the quality of his latest novels has declined.
Il n’a pas de temps libre, cependant il va au café pour voir ses amis.
He doesn’t have any free time but nevertheless goes to the café to see his friends.
Il fait mauvais, cependant je sors me promener.
The weather is bad, yet I’m going out for a walk.
👉 See also: Sortir conjugation chart (to go out) »
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🔗 Related conjunctions
- pourtant — yet, however
- toutefois — however, nevertheless (formal)
- néanmoins — nevertheless, nonetheless (formal)
- mais — but
- or — yet, but (literary/formal)
- en revanche — on the other hand
- par contre — on the other hand (informal)
- malgré tout — despite everything
🚀 Expand your French vocabulary!
Now that you’ve mastered cependant, check out my lesson on pourtant — a closely related conjunction meaning “yet”, “still”, or “however.”
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