Today we’ll have a look at the reflexive verb s’occuper, which has many translations including “to take care of”, “to look after”, “to deal with” and “take responsibility for”.
s’occuper
to take care of
Word origin
Occuper in Modern French comes from occupare (to take before others) in Latin.
In the non-reflexive form, the French verb occuper means “to occupy” or “to take up”. For example, “Mon travail occupe ma journée“ (my work fills my day) or “L’ennemi occupe le territoire” (the enemy occupies the territory). The adjective occupé(e) means “busy”.
Example sentences
The grammatical stucture for s’occuper is: s’occuper de + noun, meaning “to take care of + noun”. For this first example sentence, I could have used “to look after” in my translation.
Je m’occupe du chien de mon voisin.
I take care of my neighbor’s dog.
For this sentence, I could have also used “to deal with” in my translation.
Ne t’inquiète pas. Je m’occupe des détails.
Don’t worry. I’m taking care of the details.
Another loose translation for this final sentence is: “Jean does a good job looking after his family”.
Jean s’occupe bien de sa famille.
Jean takes good care of his family.
Conclusion
Et voilà ! Now you know how to use s’occuper in French! Now check our lesson on another useful reflexive verb Se méfier (to be wary of).
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