French word

bien

Pronunciation

IPA/bjɛ̃/

Meaning

  • adverbwell

Example

Il connaît bien la ville.

He knows the city well.

Illustration for bien (well)

More examples

Tu parles bien français.

You speak French well.

Core concept

An action or state running as it should and producing a good result.

Common phrases

  • bien connaître

    know well

  • bien manger

    eat well

  • bien parler

    speak well

Similar words

très: Very; to an exceptionally high degree.
vraiment: Really, with emphasis on truth or certainty.
tellement: So much; to a particularly high degree.
assez: Sufficiently, or to a fairly high degree.

Definition in French

Indique qu'une action ou un état est réalisé de façon satisfaisante ou conforme à l'attente, de sorte que le résultat est bon.

Word origin

French bien comes from Latin bene through Old French and became the adverb for satisfactory or favorable performance.

Usage tips

  • With a conjugated verb, bien usually follows the verb, as in connaît bien, and in a compound tense it commonly follows the auxiliary.

Other meanings

  • veryadverb
  • properlyadverb

Opposites

Related words

Word lists with this word