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In French, can you say « passer X à côté de Y » to express the idea of "I wanna stay with you forever"?

French Language Asked by Con-gras-tue-les-chiens on January 14, 2021

I would perhaps use « auprès » or « avec »:

Tu es la personne auprès de laquelle je veux passer le restant de mes jours.

But herein lies the question. Can you swap in « à côté » that at least has a similar meaning to the other two?

Tu es la personne à côté de laquelle je veux passer le restant de mes jours.

Or is it better not to couple « à côté » with the verb « passer » in this instance, since the expression might be misinterpreted as the meaning of « rater », for one thing? The direct object « le restant de mes jours » might suggest otherwise, but I wonder if there remains some ambiguity?

3 Answers

In terms of grammar, both sentences are correct, and so is the sentence suggested by Laure.

However, as someone mentioned, there is an expression, written "aux côtés de", that would fit perfectly in this context. This expression is the figurative version of "à côté de". It means "to be at someone's side, but not litterally". In your example, you don't need to be next to your beloved one all the time to be considered as "à ses côtés". This very subtle difference is discussed here.

In my opinion, "aux côtés de" implies a form of permanent support that you give to the other person. It means that whatever happens, you are standing next to him/her, no matter if you are with him/her physically or not. For this reason, this is the expression I would choose in your very context.

Tu es la personne aux côtés de laquelle je veux passer le restant de mes jours.

Correct answer by Reyedy on January 14, 2021

Moi je ne dirais ni l'un ni l'autre, mais :

Tu es celui / celle avec qui j'ai envie de passer le restant de mes jours.

Ceci dit, auprès de laquelle serait le bon choix dans le contexte amoureux. Et dans aucun des cas il ne peut y avoir d’ambiguïté sur le sens de rater.

Answered by None on January 14, 2021

"auprès de" really means "with you"

"à côté de" is more like, standing next to you, or sitting in the train, it's less romantic! It does not really make sense in this sentence in french

Answered by Pyros on January 14, 2021

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