Today we’re going to look at how to formulate the notion of expressing interest in something. As is usually the case, French syntax differs from English in ways that might be unexpected and potentially confusing. We will try and demystify this as much as possible and break it down so it’s easier to understand. Let’s go!

There are 5 main syntaxes you need to be aware of when using the verb intéresser.

S’intéresser à qch/qn – to be interested in something/someone

Notice the preposition used here is ‘à’ and not ‘dans’, even though we say ‘interested in’ in English. ‘Intéresser’ is one of the verbs which is employed in the reflexive/pronominal sense (like se promener, se réveiller, s’habiller). While it can also be employed non-reflexively, the meaning changes as with other reflexive verbs. We will explore this later. The interest in ‘someone’ here is used more in the sense of taking an interest in someone, liking someone or having positive feelings towards someone in a kind way.

À l’époque, ma mère s’intéressait aux langues meme si elle n’était pas trop douée – Back in the day, my mother was interested in languages even though she wasn’t very good at them

Tout le monde s’intéresse à Marc parce qu’il est si gentil – Everyone takes a liking to Marc because he’s so kind/nice

When employing pronouns, we use ‘y’ for replacing inanimate entities and a disjunctive pronoun for replacing people (disjunctive pronouns will be the subject of the next post so stay tuned):

Ma mere s’intéresse aux langues (remember ‘aux’ is the result of ‘à + les’) → Elle s’y intéresse (She’s interested in them) (y is used in place of an indirect object pronoun when the noun being replaced is an inanimate object instead of a person or animal).

Tout le monde s’intéresse à Marc → Tout le monde s’intéresse à lui (Everyone likes him)

Intéresser qn (à qch) – to interest someone (else) [in something]

This is the non-reflexive version of the verb. Where ‘s’intéresser’ means to be interested in something oneself, ‘intéresser’ means to interest someone else in something.

Le maître essaie d’intéresser ses élèves aux maths sans succès – The teacher tries to interest his pupils in maths without success (maître refers to a teacher in the lower years, esp. primary school, while prof is used for high school and above)

Il ne l’intéresse pas – He doesn’t interest her/She’s not into him (romantically)

Être intéressé par qch/qn – to be interested by [in] something/someone

This has the same meaning as s’intéresser à but uses passive voice instead of active (think My mother called me vs I was called by my mother; the former is active voice and the latter passive). There are differing opinions about passive voice, and educators generally encourage students to avoid it where possible in favour of active voice. In this context, active voice probably sounds more natural and less contrived than passive (you would more readily say interested in than interested by).

Elle est intéressée par les langues – another way of saying Elle s’intéresse aux langues

Since intéressé is in the past participle and is preceded by être, it needs to agree with the subject (e.g. elle est intéressée, ils sont intéressés)

Ça m’intéresse

This expression is used to mean you like something or something interests you. It uses the indefinite demonstrative pronoun ça to replace an aforementioned thing. It cannot be used to refer to people.

L’équitation, ça m’intéresse – I like/I’m interested in horse-riding

The expression can be tweaked to refer to other people by changing the m’ (which is really me) part to the appropriate direct object pronoun:

Ça ne les intéresse pas – It doesn’t interest them

Ça vous intéresse ? – Does it interest you?

A noun can also be used in place of a DOP:

Ça n’intéresse pas John– It doesn’t interest John (remember DOPs are placed in front of the verb. With this syntax, the noun appears after the verb.)

For a more in-depth discussion of object pronouns, see DOPs and IOPs

Ça m’intéresse de + verb

This is a variation on the expression before it, but involves the use of a verb. In this case, ça is no longer an indefinite demonstrative pronoun but rather a dummy pronoun, which just means it doesn’t replace anything (like the ‘it’ in It rained yesterday).

Ça m’intéresse plutôt de savoir si elle est coupable – I’m rather/more interested in knowing whether she is guilty (alternatively you can use the wording ‘It interests me to…’)