In a recent conversation, a student told me that she had ‘passed’ her holidays in Corsica. To a native English speaker, this sounds incorrect. When French learners of English want to translate ‘passer le temps’ into English, they need to know that there are two translations for the word ‘passer’; when talking about time it can of course mean to ‘pass’ the time, but it can also mean to ‘spend’ time.
So, when do we say ‘pass’ the time or ‘spend’ the time?
To pass time
The expression to ‘pass’ the time is used an activity that you do while you are waiting for someone or something. Here, there is an idea of needing to do something either pleasurable or useful, or both, to ‘fill’ the time and to make it go by more quickly:
To pass the time before the meeting, I sat and checked my emails (meaning – It filled the time while I was waiting for the meeting, and it was also a useful thing to do instead of doing nothing).
- Pour passer le temps avant la réunion, je me suis assis et j’ai vérifié mes e-mails
He listened to music to pass the time while waiting for his train (meaning – waiting for a train can be boring, so he distracted himself with music to make the time go more quickly, instead of doing nothing).
- Il écoutait de la musique pour passer le temps en attendant son train.
Her friend messaged her to say that she would be late, so she decided to pass the time by doing some window-shopping (meaning – she had to wait for her friend anyway, so she did something interesting to make the time go more quickly).
- Son amie lui a envoyé un message pour lui dire qu’elle serait en retard, alors elle a décidé de passer le temps en faisant du lèche-vitrine
To spend time
The expression to ‘spend’ time refers to the time one devotes to activities, both occasional and regular, and which are the principle reason for the use of the time:
When I’m in London, I’m going to spend the time visiting museums and walking in the parks (meaning – these are the activities I choose to do while I am in London – they are the reason for being in London).
- Quand je serai à Londres, je vais passer le temps à visiter les musées et à me promener dans les parcs.
When I’m on holiday, I like to spend the time reading (meaning – one of the reasons for being on holiday is to do this).
- Quand je suis en vacances, j’aime passer le temps à lire.
He likes to spend time with his friends (meaning – one of his priorities is be with his friends. He is not simply doing it while waiting for something else).
- Il aime passer du temps avec ses amis.
I do hope that you have enjoyed spending the time reading this blog and that it might also have helped you to pass the time while waiting for the weekend to begin!
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