ouvrir at C1 — refined & idiomatic
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Going first, digressions, appetite and confidences.
What opens figuratively
« Ouvrir le bal » is still literal at a wedding: the couple dances first, everyone watches, then the floor fills. In an office only the idea of going first survives, so whoever speaks, presents or sends the first email « ouvre le bal ». « Ouvrir une parenthèse » is its polite twin, because you announce your own digression, and careful speakers immediately add « je la referme ».
« Ouvrir l’appétit » works both literally and figuratively: a walk before dinner, or a first small success that makes a whole team want more. The person is optional there: « ça m’ouvre l’appétit ». « Ouvrir son cœur à quelqu’un » is the intimate one, telling a single person what you tell nobody else. It is warm, slightly literary, and it always needs a human being after « à ».
💡 Focus at this level: Idiomatic — ouvrir le bal, ouvrir une parenthèse, ouvrir l’appétit
👨🏫 How to use « ouvrir » at this level
1. « Ouvrir le bal » = to go first. Literal at a wedding, figurative at work.
2. « Ouvrir une parenthèse » = to digress, while announcing that you are.
3. « Ouvrir l’appétit » = to whet the appetite, at table or not.
🔊 Example sentences
✍️ Practice
Who « ouvre le bal » in a meeting?
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The person who speaks or presents first. At a wedding the phrase stays literal: the couple really does dance first.
In « ouvrir son cœur », can you leave the person out?
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No — « ouvrir son cœur à quelqu’un » always needs someone, and it is always a person, never a thing. « Ouvrir l’appétit » can name the person too, but only as an optional pronoun: « ça m’ouvre l’appétit ».
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🧩 Sentence builder put the words in the right order