🙅🙏🪑

How to Say ‘No thanks, have a seat.’ in French

Non merci, asseyez-vous.

noh mehr-see ah-seh-yay voo

[noh mehr-see ah-seh-yay voo]

💬 Usage Tip: With polite instructions, vous goes after the verb with a hyphen: asseyez-vous. The same pattern gives servez-vous "help yourself".

🇫🇷 In France: A host who turns down your offer to help usually means it. Offer once more at most, then sit down and let them take care of you.

Phrase Breakdown

Non merci,

noh mehr-see

No thank you,

'Non' is nasal, and you don't pronounce the 'n'. 'merci' is 'mair-see'.

Example

Non merci, ça va.

No thank you, I'm fine.

Words in this phrase

Non

[noh]

Used to give a negative response.

Example

Non, je ne veux pas.

No, I don't want to.

merci

[mehr-see]

thanks

A very common polite word meaning 'thanks' or 'thank you'.

Example

Je réponds poliment : Ça va bien, merci.

I reply politely: 'I'm fine, thanks.'

asseyez-vous.

ah-seh-yay voo

sit down.

This is a polite command, said 'a-say-yay-voo'.

Example

Entrez et asseyez-vous.

Come in and sit down.

Words in this phrase

asseyez

[ah-seh-yay]

sit

Formal plural/passive command to be seated.

Example

Asseyez-vous ici, s'il vous plaît.

Please sit here.

-vous

[voo]

yourself

Reflexive pronoun attached to the verb in the command 'sit down'.

Example

Dans « Asseyez-vous. », « -vous » fait partie du verbe pronominal.

In “Sit down.”, “-vous” is part of the reflexive verb.

Guides for French learners

Ordering in French: Cafés, Bakeries and Restaurants (with Menu Vocabulary)How to order in French at a café, a bakery and a restaurant: the phrases, the questions staff ask, and the menu and food vocabulary to understand the answers.Hello in French: Greetings, Good Evening and How to Answer "How Are You?"How to say hello in French, when to switch to good evening, how to ask how are you and what to answer, with tu vs vous and native audio.

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