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You are in the right place to discover everything you want to know about the basic saying “Vouloir c’est pouvoir”.
To be clear, this includes a detailed guide of what it is and how you can use it in a conversation with an audio example. But that’s not all, we also added useful informations like slow pronunciation audio, dialogue example, literal meaning and more!
By the way, you will also find our others sayings guides on this page and the list of all our French words tutorials on this page. Enjoy!
Slow pronunciation
Normal pronunciation
This is one of the simplest and most popular French sayings, claiming that when we really want something, we can reach it.
This popular proverb expresses the idea that a powerful will is all we need to achieve our goals. That the only barrier between us and our goals is how much we want it.
This proverb is mostly supposed to be a personal mantra, a guideline to keep you motivated. But you can also use it during a conversation, for example, to motivate a friend or a relative: “N’oublie pas que vouloir c’est pouvoir” (“Don’t forget that to want is to be able“) or “N’abandonne pas, vouloir c’est pouvoir” (“Don’t give up, to want is to be able“).
We generally attribute this proverb and the variations below to Napoléon Bonaparte. Even though they became so common that we tend to forget it.