The French sentence "C'est vrai" revealed

Ready to discover everything you want to know about the basic phrase “C’est vrai”?

This include a complete explanation of what it is and how you can use it in a casual conversation with an audio example. And also the cool things we sprinkled like slow pronunciation audio, dialogue example and more!

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English translation

Audio pronunciation

Slow pronunciation

Normal pronunciation

What does c'est vrai mean?

Definition

The literal meaning is:

  • C’est → It is
  • Vrai → True

This is an expression that we use very often. It means “That’s true / It’s true / That’s right / Indeed“.

How to use it

Let’s start with a simple example, you are asked: “C’est vrai que tu as 25 ans ?” (Is it true that you are 25 years old?) you can answer: “Oui, c’est vrai” (Yes, it’s true) or even just: “C’est vrai“.

Now another use would be if you want to admit/concede something. In this case you can use the structure ‘C’est vrai’ + ‘que’.

For example: “C’est vrai que je n’ai pas été gentil avec elle, mais ce n’était pas une excuse pour agir comme ça” (It’s true that I wasn’t nice to her, but it wasn’t an excuse to act like this)

Synonyms

  • Vrai. (“True“)
  • Absolument (vrai). (“Absolutely (true)“)
  • C’est exact. (“That’s exact“)
  • C’est juste. (“That’s accurate“)
  • C’est la vérité. (“That’s the truth“)
  • C’est avéré. (“That’s recognized“)
  • C’est prouvé. (“That’s proven“)
  • C’est véridique. (“That’s veracious/truthful“)
  • C’est véritable. (“That’s real“)
  • C’est indiscutable. (“That’s indisputable“)
  • C’est certain. (“That’s certain“)

Few antonyms:

  • C’est pas vrai. (“That’s not true“)
  • Ce n’est pas vrai. (“That is not true“)
  • C’est du mytho. (“That’s lies“)(Slang)
  • Mytho. (“Fraud“)(Slang)

Example in a story with translation

Now, let’s see a complete example of this idiom in a story with slow French audio and the English translation below.
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Prendre un taxi
Take a taxi
___
Taxi driver:   Bonjour madame. Où allez-vous ?
Hello madam. Where are you going?
Karine:   Bonjour. Je vais à la gare.
Hello. I’m going to the train station.
Taxi driver:   Très bien. Dois-je mettre votre sac dans le coffre ?
Very well. Should I put your bag in the trunk?
Karine:   Oui, s’il vous plaît.
Yes, please.
Taxi driver:   C’est fait.
It’s done.
Karine:   Merci. Combien de temps pour aller à la gare ?
Thank you. How long does it take to go to the train station?
Taxi driver:   Environ quinze minutes. Vous êtes pressée ?
About fifteen minutes. Are you in a hurry?
Karine:   Oui, je suis en retard.
Yes, I’m late.
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