Today’s lesson takes an in-depth look at the reflexive verb s’intéresser à, which means “to be interested in”. This verb causes a lot of confusion for students. I provide lots of quick and easy grammatical explanations.
s’intéresser à
to be interested in
Pronunciation: [sɛ̃teʀese a]

S’intéresser à – to be interested in
Explanation
The verb s’intéresser is always reflexive in French. Having an understanding of reflexive verbs would be useful for today’s lesson.
The structure used for this verb is: s’intéresser à + subject you’re interested in. For example, je m’intéresse à la mode (I’m interested in fashion). You cannot say je suis intéresé(e) à la mode.
Example sentences
This first example sentence uses depuis, meaning both for and since.
Je m’intéresse à l’histoire française depuis trois ans.
I’ve been interested in French history for three years.
This second example uses the indirect object pronoun y, meaning both it and there. Y is required for verbs followed by the preposition à.
Tu t’intéresse à l’étymologie. Tu t’y interesses.
You are interested in etymology. You are interested in it.
This example uses s’intéresser in the passé composé, which requires the usage of être as the auxiliary verb.
Je ne m’y suis pas intéressé. C’est très ennuyeux.
I wasn’t interested. It‘s very boring.
In French, ça ne m’intéresse pas can translate to “that doesn’t interest me” or “I’m not interested in it”. The word ça (that) is referring back to a previouly mentioned topic (going to the beach in our example sentence).
Tu veux aller à la plage ? – Non, ça ne m’intéresse pas.
Do you want to go to the beach? No, I’m not interested.
For this example, un prix intéressant means a good or low price. Va is the verb aller (to go) in the imperative mood. Là means “there” and is also used as a filler word in conversation.
Va au marché de puces. Là, tu peux trouver des prix intéressants.
Go to the flea market. You can find very good prices there.