À part is a common French expression used to mean “apart,” “aside,” “except for,” or “separately.” It appears in everyday speech and writing, and its exact sense shifts depending on where it sits in a sentence and what it is paired with. Understanding these different roles helps learners use the phrase correctly and recognise it in context.

Meaning “except for” or “apart from”

One of the most frequent uses of à part is to mean “except for” or “apart from.” In this sense, it introduces something that is excluded from a general statement.

• À part lui, personne n’est venu – “Apart from him, nobody came.”
• À part le prix, tout est parfait – “Except for the price, everything is perfect.”
• Je n’ai rien mangé à part une pomme – “I haven’t eaten anything except an apple.”
• À part ça, comment vas-tu? – “Apart from that, how are you?”

This last example, à part ça, is extremely common in spoken French. It works as a way to change subject or add an extra thought, similar to “other than that” in English.

Meaning “separate” or “separately”

À part can also describe something kept apart, either physically or figuratively. Here it functions more like an adjective or adverb attached to a noun or verb.

• Il vit à part de sa famille – “He lives apart from his family.”
• Mets ça à part, s’il te plaît – “Put that aside, please.”
• Nous avons pris une table à part – “We took a separate table.”
• Ce sont deux problèmes à part – “Those are two separate issues.”

In this use, à part often sits after the noun it describes, functioning much like the English word “separate” placed after a noun for emphasis, as in “a table apart.”

Meaning “aside from joking” or “seriously”

A specific idiomatic use is plaisanterie à part or blague à part, both meaning “joking aside” or “all joking aside.” This phrase signals a shift from a light-hearted remark to a serious point.

• Blague à part, on doit partir maintenant – “Joking aside, we need to leave now.”
• Plaisanterie à part, c’est un bon plan – “Joking aside, it’s a good plan.”

Meaning “unusual” or “in a class of its own”

When à part follows a noun, it can also mean someone or something is unusual, distinct, or stands apart from the rest of a group. This is close to the English phrase “in a league of its own” or “one of a kind.”

• C’est un homme à part – “He’s a man apart,” or “He’s one of a kind.”
• Cette entreprise a un statut à part – “This company has a special status.”
• Elle a un talent à part – “She has a talent all her own.”

Using à part entière

A related and very common phrase is à part entière, meaning “full” or “fully fledged,” used to stress that someone or something has complete status or rights.

• Il est devenu un citoyen à part entière – “He became a full citizen.”
• C’est un métier à part entière – “It’s a profession in its own right.”

Synonyms and alternative expressions

Depending on the meaning intended, several other French expressions can replace à part:

For “except for” or “apart from”:

• sauf – “except”
• excepté – “except”
• hormis – “apart from,” “except for”
• en dehors de – “apart from,” “outside of”

For “separately” or “separate”:

• séparément – “separately”
• isolément – “in isolation”
• distinct / distincte – “distinct,” “separate”

For “joking aside”:

• sérieusement – “seriously”
• trêve de plaisanterie – “enough joking”

For “unusual” or “in a class of its own”:

• unique en son genre – “one of a kind”
• hors du commun – “out of the ordinary”
• exceptionnel – “exceptional”

A note on word order

The position of à part in a sentence often signals which meaning is intended. Placed at the start of a sentence or clause, it usually means “except for” or “apart from”:

• À part le bruit, l’appartement est bien – “Apart from the noise, the flat is nice.”

Placed after a noun, it more often means “separate” or “unusual”:

• Un cas à part – “A special case.”

Recognising this pattern makes it easier to judge which sense applies without relying on a dictionary each time.

Summary

• À part can mean “except for,” “apart from,” “separately,” or “in a class of its own,” depending on context and position in the sentence.
• Placed before a noun or at the start of a clause, it usually introduces an exception.
• Placed after a noun, it often describes something distinct or unusual.
• Blague à part and plaisanterie à part both mean “joking aside.”
• À part entière means “full” or “fully fledged,” as in citoyen à part entière, “a full citizen.”
• Synonyms include sauf, excepté, hormis, and en dehors de for “except for,” and séparément or distinct for “separately.”