All about the common French phrase “d’accord”

D’accord is a French phrase that shows agreement. It means “all right” or “okay”. Depending on the context, it could also be translated as “I agree” or “Yes”.

D’accord is a very common phrase that’s used in both informal and professional French. It can be used in some formal situations, as well.

All of this means d’accord is an important phrase to know. So let’s learn all about d’accord, d’accord?

What does d’accord mean?

D’accord means “all right” or “okay” in French. It can be used in many different situations and levels of formality.

In some contexts, it could also be translated as “I agree” or “Yes.”

But note that unlike “all right” or “okay”, d’accord can ONLY be used to show agreement, not the state of something or someone being okay.

This makes sense, since the French word accord itself means “agreement”, or if it’s used in a musical sense, “harmony”.  You’ll often hear it in phrases like: Il faut l’accord des deux parents pour s’inscrire. (You need both parents’ agreement/permission in order to sign up.)

Accord means “agreement” in a grammatical sense, too. Example: Il a fait une faute d’accord entre le sujet et le verbe. (He made a mistake with subject-verb agreement.)

The d’ in front of accord is a shortened form of de (of, from) – the “e” is dropped because it’s followed by a vowel. If you think of it literally, d’accord could be translated as “We are of an accord”. But you can just think of the d(e) as emphasizing the sense of agreement and/or transforming the noun accord into an adjective.

What is the difference between d’accord and okay?

French people do use the word “okay” (also spelled OK, or O.K. in French), too – or, at least most of them do. So, what’s the difference between d’accord and okay in French?

The most notable difference between d’accord and okay is that in French, okay is informal, whereas d’accord can be used in most situations.

You’ll hear okay in everyday French or see it online (where it’s often written OK or O.K.), but in professional or formal situations, it’s best to replace it with d’accord.

There’s also a more subtle, cultural difference between these two words. Okay is borrowed from English, so many traditionally minded French people, especially of the older generation, seem to find it especially informal. In certain cases, like, say, a group discussing French literature, it might even come off as a bit flippant or insulting to use it, especially if you yourself are a native English speaker. It’s as if you can’t be bothered to use the equivalent French word. This may not be a situation you come across often, but if you’re dealing with people in a formal or professional situation, or people who are older, it’s best to use d’accord and stay away from okay, just in case.

How do you use d’accord?

D’accord is a very versatile phrase. It can be a standalone statement or question, or used with other words.

For instance:

– On part dans une heure, d’accord ? (“We’re leaving in an hour, okay?”)

– D’accord. (“Okay.”)

Note that no matter how you use d’accord, it always stays the same. In other words, d’accord doesn’t change to agree with gender or number.

There are a few words or phrases that are often used with d’accord. Let’s look at those in the next section….

Common words and phrases used with d’accord

D’accord works perfectly well as a standalone phrase, but you’ll also see it used with certain words and phrases. The most common of these are:

être d’accord

C’est d’accord

se mettre d’accord

mettre d’accord

Let’s take a look at each of these.

Être d’accord

Être d’accord means “to be in agreement (with)” or “to agree (with)”

It can be used on its own and with or without a preposition.

Examples:

Je suis d’accord. (I agree.)

Je suis d’accord avec ton père, tu ne peux pas avoir un Tamagatchi.(I agree with your father, you can’t have a Tamagotchi.)

Être d’accord can be used with several different prepositions and other words. In the previous example, it was used with avec (with), but here are some others:

Nous sommes d’accord sur ce point. (We agree on this point.)

Tu es bien d’accord que le racisme est répugnant, non ? (You agree that racism is repugnant, right?)

Generally speaking, using prepositions and other parts of speech with être d’accord is fairly intuitive.

There are some that might be little tricky, though. Être d’accord pour, for instance, has a specific meaning: to agree to do something.

For example:

Nous sommes d’accord pour garder votre chat ce weekend. (We agree to watch your cat this weekend./We’re okay to watch your cat this weekend.)

Le vendeur est d’accord pour vous offrir une remise de 10%. (The seller has agreed to offer you a 10% discount.)

You may see the adverb bien inserted between être and d’accord. This is to show emphasis. Depending on the level of formality, être bien d’accord can be translated as “very much in agreement” or “totally agree”.

For instance:

Nous sommes bien d’accord, alors – ce film était nul ! (We’re very much in agreement, then – this movie was bad!/We totally agree, then – this movie sucked!)

C’est d’accord  

C’est d’accord is a common way to use être d’accord. It can be translated as “Then, it’s settled” or “Then, that’s settled.” It can be used on its own in response to a statement, or as part of a sentence.

Example:

C’est d’accord, on ira en Espagne cette été. (Then it’s settled, we’ll go to Spain this summer.)

In informal French, especially spoken French, C’est d’accord followed by pour and then a name or a stress pronoun translates to “That’s okay for/with ___” or “That works for/with ___”

For example:

C’est d’accord pour moi. (That’s okay for/with me.)

C’est d’accord pour Laure et Benoît. (That’s okay for/with Laure and Benoît.)

Again, keep in mind that using C’est d’accord this way is fairly informal.

Similarly, C’est d’accord followed by pour and a time, etc. means “So we agree on ___,” “So we’ve agreed to schedule it on ___”, “So it’s/we’re on for __.”

For instance:

C’est d’accord pour samedi soir. (So we’re on for Saturday night.)

C’est d’accord pour jeudi prochain. (So we’ve agreed to schedule it for next Thursday.)

This type of phrase is more neutral and can be used in professional and some slightly formal situations, as well as in everyday French.

Se mettre d’accord 

Se mettre d’accord means “to come to an agreement (with one another)”.

For example:

Les deux pays se sont mis d’accord sur les termes du traité. (The two countries came to an agreement on the terms of the treaty.) 

Il faut se mettre d’accord pour trouver une date pour la prochaine reunion. (We have to come to an agreement in order to find a date for the next meeting.)

Mettre d’accord

Mettre d’accord means “to make [two or more people] agree”. This phrase is less used then se mettre d’accord, and is often replaced by it, especially in neutral or informal language.

For instance:

J’espère que nous arriverons à les mettre d’accord sur le contrat. (I hope we’ll be able to make them agree on the contract terms.)

Used in the imperative, mettre d’accord can be translated as “Make up your minds”, or “Decide!”:

Mettez-vous d’accord ! (Make up your minds!)

Mettons-nous d’accord ! (Let’s make up our minds!)

How do you make d’accord negative?

The most common way to make d’accord negative is to include it in a negative sentence. You’ll usually see this with être d’accord. For instance:

Je ne suis pas d’accord. (I don’t agree/I disagree.)

Il n’est pas d’accord. (He doesn’t agree/He disagrees.)

Sometimes, you may see d’accord made negative on its own, by adding pas to the end: Pas d’accord. This is much less common than using a complete sentence. Pas d’accord is informal, just like saying “Not okay.” Depending on the context, it can also come off as a bit childish, especially in spoken French.

In written French, on the other hand, sometimes Pas d’accord may also just be short for Je ne suis pas d’accord (I don’t agree), or a way to informally express “(I) Disagree.”. For instance, this online survey asks people to respond with either d’accord or pas d’accord.

The short form of d’accord

D’accord is an extremely common phrase in French, and you could hear just about anyone say it.

But some people prefer to play things extra casual or quick and will say d’acc instead. This is extremely informal and could even come off as rude, so if you use this at all, only use it with friends in an informal setting. You could compare it to “K” instead of saying “okay”.

D’acc is also used in French texting and online conversations. In fact, it’s probably more common to see it written than to hear it nowadays. In informal texts and online messages, you could also see it spelled dak or dac instead. But d’acc is the most common among the general population (as opposed to cool teenagers and such).

There are still some people who will write out d’accord in text messages and online (especially online), but like “K”, d’acc works for quick exchanges. When it’s used this way, it probably won’t seem rude or overly informal the way it might in spoken French. But of course, that depends. If someone writes you something important, it’s probably not the best idea to respond with d’acc.

Examples:

On fait une partie de Fortnite ? D’acc. (Want to play a game of Fortnite? K.)

[In a text message:] tu peux chercher le pain stp ? d’acc (Can you get the baguette, pls? K.)

The corny d’accord

Sometimes, in French TV shows, books, and films, if a character is supposed to seem corny or uncool, you may come across the phrase d’acc-o-dac. Also written dacodac, it’s sort of like “Okey dokey” in English, but even more silly and outdated.

So, be aware of it, especially because if a character in a French show, book, or movie says it today, you’ll understand that this character is not supposed to be cool, or maybe that the setting is in the past when this phrase was okay.

It seems that d’acc-o-dac came about in the mid-20th century. But apparently, it was only cool for a short while. People on this very interesting WordReference thread point out that the word is used in the French translation of A Clockwork Orange in a way that’s sort of mocking and uncool. Since the French translation of both the book and the movie came out in 1972, it seems dacodac’s coolness shelf life was short.

How to practice using d’accord

It’s fairly easy to learn to use d’accord. For one thing, you don’t have to worry about agreeing it with gender or number. It always stays the same! For another, many of its variants are intuitive or similar to how “okay” or “all right” would be used in English. And since d’accord is so common, you’ll come across it often when you read, listen to, or watch things in French .

This all makes for a good foundation. If you want extra practice, a French learning app may be the answer. In the case of d’accord, especially, try to choose one that focuses on everyday conversational French, like the French Together app. You’ll come across lots of examples of it and get to hear it and the phrases and prepositions that go with it used and pronounced by native French speakers. You’ll also get to practice using it, yourself.  

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I hope this article gave you some insights into d’accord and its common variants and that you’ll be able to use them with confidence! ….But please don’t use dacodac unironically, d’accord?