In English, I'm leaving covers a remarkable range: leaving a room, leaving a partner, leaving for the airport, leaving forever. French does not. It carves the territory into at least four distinct verbs, each with a different syntactic frame, a different aspectual flavor, and (often) a different register. Picking the wrong one is one of the surest signs of a learner translating from English.
This page lays out each verb's job, drills the syntax that distinguishes them, and ends with the slang options native speakers actually use.
The four-way split
Here is the territory at a glance. Read the table once, then we will work through each verb in detail.
| Verb | Syntax | Core meaning | Compound auxiliary |
|---|---|---|---|
| partir | intransitive | leave (for somewhere); depart | être |
| quitter | transitive (object required) | leave a person, place, or thing | avoir |
| sortir | intransitive (or transitive with object) | go out, exit; take out | être (intr.) / avoir (tr.) |
| s'en aller | pronominal, intransitive | be off, go away (often with feeling) | être |
The clearest difference is grammatical: quitter must take a direct object; partir, sortir, and s'en aller typically do not. Get that one structural fact right and you have already eliminated half of the most common mistakes.
Partir: leave, depart
Partir is the default leave for departures — going from somewhere to somewhere else, or simply going away. It is intransitive: it does not take a direct object. To say where to or where from, use prepositions.
Je pars demain matin à six heures.
I'm leaving tomorrow morning at six.
Le train part dans dix minutes.
The train leaves in ten minutes.
Elle est partie en Italie pour les vacances.
She left for Italy on vacation.
Mes parents sont partis de Lyon en 1985.
My parents left Lyon in 1985.
The construction is partir + à/en/pour + destination or partir de + origin. Note the prepositions: à Paris, en France, pour Tokyo, de Lyon.
In compound tenses, partir takes être — it is one of the canonical maison d'être verbs. The participle agrees with the subject: elle est partie, ils sont partis, elles sont parties.
Elles sont parties tôt pour éviter les embouteillages.
They (fem.) left early to avoid traffic.
Partir does not take a direct object
A constant temptation for English speakers is to say je pars la maison on the model of I'm leaving the house. This is wrong. Partir is intransitive — to leave a specific place, you either drop the place altogether (je pars) or use partir de (je pars de la maison) or use a different verb (quitter, sortir).
❌ Je pars Paris demain.
Incorrect — partir is intransitive.
✅ Je pars de Paris demain.
I'm leaving Paris tomorrow.
✅ Je quitte Paris demain.
I'm leaving Paris tomorrow. (alternative — see quitter below)
Quitter: leave (something or someone)
Quitter is the transitive leave — it always takes a direct object, and that object is the thing or person you are leaving. This is the verb for leaving a job, leaving a city as a permanent destination, leaving a partner, leaving a room.
J'ai quitté mon travail il y a six mois.
I quit my job six months ago.
Elle a quitté son mari après vingt ans de mariage.
She left her husband after twenty years of marriage.
Ne quittez pas votre place avant la fin du film.
Don't leave your seat before the end of the film.
The object can be a person, a place, an institution, a relationship — anything you are physically or metaphorically separating from. The structure is rigid: quitter + direct object, no preposition.
Il quitte le bureau tous les jours à dix-huit heures.
He leaves the office every day at six p.m.
On a quitté Paris pour s'installer à la campagne.
We left Paris to settle in the countryside.
Quitter on the phone — a fixed expression
A useful idiom: Ne quittez pas means Hold on or Don't hang up in phone conversations. Literally, Don't leave (the line).
Ne quittez pas, je vous passe Mme Lefèvre.
Hold on, I'll put you through to Mrs. Lefèvre.
The crucial constraint: no preposition
Quitter does not take de before its object. This is a transfer-error magnet because English leave from and quit from both nudge learners toward inserting a preposition.
❌ Je quitte de la maison.
Incorrect — quitter takes a direct object, no de.
✅ Je quitte la maison.
I'm leaving the house.
Sortir: go out, exit
Sortir has a different shape from partir and quitter. Its core meaning is go out or exit — a movement that crosses a boundary, especially the threshold of an enclosed space. It is the everyday verb for leaving a building, going out for the evening, or stepping outside.
Je sors du bureau à dix-huit heures, on se retrouve où ?
I leave the office at six — where should we meet?
Tu sors ce soir ou tu restes à la maison ?
Are you going out tonight or staying home?
Le chien veut sortir.
The dog wants to go out.
The construction is intransitive, often with sortir de + place to specify origin.
Elle est sortie de la pièce sans dire un mot.
She left the room without saying a word.
Quand on est sortis du restaurant, il pleuvait à verse.
When we left the restaurant, it was pouring.
Sortir as transitive: take out, bring out
Sortir has a less common but very useful transitive sense: take out, bring out, get out. With a direct object, it shifts auxiliary to avoir in compound tenses.
J'ai sorti le chien à sept heures.
I took the dog out at seven.
Il a sorti son téléphone et s'est mis à filmer.
He took out his phone and started filming.
Tu as sorti la poubelle ?
Did you take the trash out?
The auxiliary switch is general: any maison-d'être verb that becomes transitive flips to avoir. This applies to monter (intransitive go up / transitive take up), descendre, rentrer, passer, and others.
Sortir avec — to date
A useful idiom: sortir avec quelqu'un means to be dating someone.
Ça fait six mois qu'elle sort avec un Italien.
She's been dating an Italian for six months.
S'en aller: be off, go away
S'en aller is a pronominal idiomatic verb that means to go away, to be off, to leave (now or imminently). It overlaps with partir but adds a flavor of immediacy or emotional detachment — I'm done here, I'm leaving. Native speakers use it constantly in conversational French.
Its conjugation is unique: it combines a reflexive pronoun (me/te/se/nous/vous/se), the adverbial pronoun en, and the verb aller.
Bon, je m'en vais. À demain !
Right, I'm off. See you tomorrow!
Allez, on s'en va, il est tard.
Come on, let's go, it's getting late.
Tu t'en vas déjà ? Tu viens d'arriver !
You're leaving already? You just got here! (informal)
In the present tense the full paradigm is: je m'en vais, tu t'en vas, il s'en va, nous nous en allons, vous vous en allez, ils s'en vont.
S'en aller in the passé composé
Because s'en aller is pronominal, it takes être in compound tenses, with the participle agreeing with the subject. The placement of en is unusual but consistent.
Elle s'en est allée sans même dire au revoir.
She left without even saying goodbye.
Ils s'en sont allés au petit matin.
They went off in the early morning.
In conversational French, the passé composé of s'en aller is rare — speakers usually substitute est parti(e) or est sorti(e) for past contexts, reserving s'en aller for the present and imperative.
S'en aller in the imperative
The imperative is common and a bit tricky because of the multiple pronouns.
Va-t'en !
Go away! (singular, often angry)
Allez-vous-en !
Go away! (plural or formal)
Allons-nous-en, ce film est nul.
Let's get out of here, this movie's terrible. (informal)
The hyphenation pattern is fixed; learn these three forms as units.
A fifth option: se tirer (slang)
Spoken French has a constellation of slangy, informal verbs for to leave. The most common is se tirer — literally to pull oneself, idiomatically to get out, to bounce. It is informal and should not be used in writing or with people you are not on relaxed terms with, but it is everywhere in casual speech.
Allez, je me tire, j'en peux plus.
Right, I'm out — I've had it. (informal)
On se tire ? La fête est nulle.
Should we bail? The party is awful. (informal)
Other slangy options you will hear:
- se barrer — informal, very similar to se tirer. Je me barre.
- se casser — informal, slightly rougher. Je me casse.
- mettre les voiles — old-school slang, to set sail, meaning to leave. On met les voiles ?
- filer — to dash, to scoot. Less rough than se tirer. Je file, à plus !
These should be in your passive vocabulary — recognize them — but use partir or s'en aller in your own production until you have a strong feel for register.
Decision flowchart
When you want to say to leave, ask:
- Is there a direct object after leave? (a person, a place, a job) → Use quitter.
- Are you exiting a building or going out for an outing? → Use sortir.
- Are you departing for somewhere, or just departing? → Use partir.
- Are you announcing in casual speech that you are leaving now? → Use s'en aller (or, in slang, se tirer).
| English | Best French |
|---|---|
| I'm leaving (general, no object) | Je pars / Je m'en vais |
| I'm leaving Paris | Je quitte Paris |
| I'm leaving the office at 6 | Je sors du bureau à 18h |
| I quit my job | J'ai quitté mon travail |
| She left her husband | Elle a quitté son mari |
| The train leaves at 9 | Le train part à 9h |
| Are you going out tonight? | Tu sors ce soir ? |
| Get out! | Va-t'en ! / Sors d'ici ! |
Common mistakes
These six errors are by far the most frequent.
❌ Je quitte de la maison à huit heures.
Incorrect — quitter never takes 'de.' It is purely transitive.
✅ Je quitte la maison à huit heures.
I leave the house at eight.
❌ Je pars la maison à huit heures.
Incorrect — partir is intransitive and cannot take a direct object.
✅ Je pars de la maison à huit heures.
I leave (from) the house at eight.
✅ Je quitte la maison à huit heures.
I leave the house at eight. (more natural here)
❌ Il a parti à six heures.
Incorrect — partir takes être, not avoir, in compound tenses.
✅ Il est parti à six heures.
He left at six.
❌ J'ai sorti à neuf heures hier soir.
Incorrect — without an object, sortir takes être.
✅ Je suis sorti à neuf heures hier soir.
I went out at nine last night.
✅ J'ai sorti le chien à neuf heures hier soir.
I took the dog out at nine last night. (transitive — avoir)
❌ Je vais m'en.
Incorrect — the pronoun en cannot be left dangling. The full form is je m'en vais.
✅ Je m'en vais.
I'm off.
❌ Sors-toi !
Incorrect — sortir is not a pronominal verb. The angry imperative for 'get out' is va-t'en or sors d'ici.
✅ Va-t'en !
Get out / go away!
✅ Sors d'ici !
Get out of here!
Key takeaways
- Partir = leave/depart, intransitive, takes être. Use prepositions for origin (de) or destination (à, en, pour).
- Quitter = leave (someone/something), strictly transitive — direct object only, no de.
- Sortir = go out, exit; intransitive (être) by default; transitive (avoir) when you take something out.
- S'en aller = informal to be off / go away; pronominal, takes être. Heavily used in conversation.
- The slangy options (se tirer, se barrer, se casser) belong to your passive vocabulary until you are comfortable with French register.
- The single fastest fix to natural sound: never say quitter de. Drill je quitte X until it is automatic.
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Start learning French→Related Topics
- Sortir vs Quitter vs Partir: The Three Ways to LeaveA2 — English 'leave' splits across at least three French verbs: sortir (go out, exit), partir (depart, set off), and quitter (leave someone or somewhere — transitive). Pick the wrong one and the sentence either changes meaning or stops working entirely. This page drills the contrast, the conjugations, and the auxiliary trap that catches every learner.
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