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S’occuper – to take care of

S’occuper – to take care of

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

FrenchLearner Word of the Day lesson: "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.

Word of the Day lessons

French Word of the Day: S'occuper: To take care of, look after, deal with.

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David Issokson
David Issokson is a lifelong language learner and speaks over seven languages. Of all the languages he speaks, he's the most passionate about French! David has helped hundreds of students to improve their French in his private lessons. When not teaching or writing his French Word of the Day lessons, David enjoys his time skiing, hiking and mountain biking in Victor, Idaho.

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David Issokson

David Issokson is a lifelong language learner and speaks over seven languages. Of all the languages he speaks, he's the most passionate about French! David has helped hundreds of students to improve their French in his private lessons. When not teaching or writing his French Word of the Day lessons, David enjoys his time skiing, hiking and mountain biking in Victor, Idaho.

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