Reading

Demeurer, restituer, résider: six meanings in a French reading

Read a B2 French text and distinguish six senses of demeurer, restituer and résider. Use subjects and complements to choose the right English meaning.

In short

Read the subject and complement before choosing an English gloss. Demeurer can mean living somewhere or remaining in a state; restituer can mean returning an object or recreating an atmosphere. Résider locates a person’s home, or identifies where a difficulty lies.

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B2 · six contextual meanings

L’album du quartier

Un album prêté

Élise demeure dans une petite maison1 près du canal. Pour préparer une rencontre sur l’histoire du quartier, elle a emprunté un album à sa voisine. Après avoir numérisé les photographies, elle restitue l’album à sa voisine2, accompagné d’une lettre de remerciement. La voisine lui répond qu’elle réside désormais à Tours3 et qu’elle reviendra pour la rencontre.

Ce que les images racontent

Élise écrit un court texte pour présenter les photographies. Son récit restitue l’atmosphère du quartier4 : les conversations devant les maisons, les jeux près du canal et les repas du dimanche. Pourtant, une question demeure ouverte5 : de quelle année date la photographie centrale ? La difficulté réside dans l’absence de date6 au dos de l’image. Élise compare les vêtements et les bâtiments, mais garde son hypothèse au conditionnel. Elle demandera aux habitants de l’aider pendant la rencontre.

Read it in English

Élise lives in a small house near the canal. To prepare a meeting about the neighbourhood’s history, she borrowed an album from her neighbour. After digitising the photographs, she returns the album to her neighbour, with a thank-you letter. The neighbour replies that she now lives in Tours and will return for the meeting.

Élise writes a short text to introduce the photographs. Her account recreates the atmosphere of the neighbourhood: conversations outside the houses, games near the canal and Sunday meals. Yet one question remains open: what year is the central photograph from? The difficulty lies in the lack of a date on the back of the image. Élise compares the clothes and buildings, but keeps her hypothesis in the conditional. She will ask the residents to help her during the meeting.

One word, two entries in your vocabulary notes
Verb and frameMeaning hereUseful alternative
demeurer dans une maisonlive somewherehabiter
demeurer + adjectifremain in a staterester
restituer quelque chose à quelqu’ungive an object backrendre
restituer une atmosphèrerecreate an atmosphererecréer
résider à Tourshave one’s home somewherehabiter
la difficulté réside dans…the difficulty lies in…la difficulté tient à…

The things Élise works with

Keep a separate entry for each sense. Rendre works for giving the album back, but rendre le texte plus clair means making the text clearer; that result construction belongs to another meaning. In the same way, demeure ouverte describes the question’s state, while a house or town points towards residence.

Question 1No account needed
What does demeure mean here?La question demeure ouverte.

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

Remains in a state.. The subject is a question and the adjective describes its continuing unresolved state.

Question 2No account needed
Who receives the object?Élise restitue l’album à sa voisine.

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

Élise’s neighbour.. The phrase after the preposition identifies the neighbour as the recipient.

Question 3No account needed
Choose the meaning of restitue in this sentence.Le récit restitue l’atmosphère du quartier.

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

Recreates or conveys.. The subject is an account and its object is an atmosphere, so the sense is representation.

Question 4No account needed
Which sentence uses résider to identify a difficulty rather than a home?

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

La difficulté réside dans l’absence de date.. The subject is a difficulty and the complement is abstract, selecting the “lies in” meaning.