Skip to Content

Il va de soi (It goes without saying)

Il va de soi (It goes without saying)

Il va de soi is a French impersonal expression meaning “it goes without saying”.

Il va de soi

It goes without saying, needless to say

Il va de soi - it goes without saying, needless to say

Example sentences

Il va de soi que la famille passera Noël à Paris.

It goes without saying that the family will spend Christmas in Paris.

This sentence uses the verb assister, which can be tricky. Assister + person means “to help” and assister à + event means “to attend”.

Il va de soi que nous assisterons à la fête d’anniversaire.

It goes without saying that we’ll attend the birthday party.

Expression origin

The origin of this expression is unkown. Wiktionary gives the the following French definition: La conséquence logique de ce qui a été dit précédemment ; être facilement déductible (The consequence of what was said before; To be easily deductible).

Related lesson

Now that you’ve mastered il va de soi, check our my lesson explaining the synonymous expression il va sans dire, which also means “it goes without saying”.

author avatar
David Issokson Founder & French Teacher at FrenchLearner.com
David Issokson is the founder of FrenchLearner.com, where he’s been helping students master French through vocabulary, grammar, and cultural lessons since 2012.

    David Issokson

    About the Author โ€“ David Issokson David Issokson is an online French teacher and the founder of FrenchLearner.com (established 2012). He has been teaching French online since 2014 and brings over 30 years of experience as a passionate French learner and fluent speaker. Recognized for his native-like mastery of the language, David creates clear, structured lessons with native-speaker audio to help students learn French online confidently. He is a graduate of McGill University in Montreal and has taught hundreds of learners worldwide. ๐Ÿ“˜ About David ยป ๐ŸŒ Davidโ€™s personal site ยป ๐Ÿ‘ Follow on Facebook ยป

    See all posts by