In today’s lesson we’ll have a look at the French word le côté, which means “side”. At first glance this masculine noun look very simple. However, many students can get confused when the closely related feminine noun la côte, meaning “coast”, “seashore” or “rib” comes into play. Let’s get straight to the examples!
le côté
side
Word origin
According to Wiktionary.org, the French masculine noun côté comes from the Latin costa, meaning “rib” or “side”. Interestingly, we’ve include “rib” as one of the translations for the feminine la côte below.
Example sentences
Side
For our first two example sentences, le côté simply means “side”.
Le carré a quatre côtés.
The square has four sides.
Je dors sur le côté droit du lit.
I sleep on the right side of the bed.
Next to
The expression “à côté de + noun” means “next to”.
Je dors à côté de mon chien.
I sleep next to my dog.
Nextdoor
In French, the invariable adjective (meaning doesn’t change for the gender of the noun) d’à côté means “nextdoor”. This example sentence uses the preposition envers (towards a person), which we covered in this lesson.
J’aime les voisins d’à côté. Ils sont toujours gentils envers nos enfants.
I like the nextdoor neighbors. They’re always nice to our kids.
La côte
As we mentioned at the top of this post, the feminine noun la côte translate to “coast”.
la côte
coast
In French, the French Riviera (Mediterranean coast of southeastern France) is called la côte d’Azur (literally the Blue Coast).
Nous passons une semaine sur la côte d’Azur.
We’re spending one week on the French Riviera.
In French une côte de bœuf translates to “rib steak” or “prime rib”, with la côte meaning “rib”.
Je voudrais commander une côte de bœuf.
I’d like to order a rib steak.
La côte has yet another translation worth noting: “slope” or “hill”.
Le randonneur monte la côte.
The hiker climbs the hill.
Conclusion
Et voilà ! You now know how to use the masculine and feminine le côté and la côte in French! Now check out our lessons covering two more nouns with multiple meanings: projet (plan, project) and pièce (piece, room, coin).
