Use of "chez" with a family name?

Question

I have seen this written two ways:

I am going to the Hendersons'.

Je vais chez Henderson.

Je vais chez les Henderson.

I'm pretty sure but I wanted to clarify. The first one means "I'm going to Henderson's house," while the second one means "I'm going to the Hendersons' house." Am I correct?

@StéphaneGimenez I just picked up editing privileges. I feel like I should commemorate the occasion by learning to make the accents. Is there a formatting trick, or do you all just know the alt codes? Also, how do you make the pretty yellow highlighting for examples? — temporary_user_name, Jul 12 '12 at 18:24
Have a look on [meta] to type accentuated characters. As for quotes (yellow highlighting) just put a > at the beginning of the line. — Stéphane Gimenez, Jul 12 '12 at 18:39
@Aerovistae we all have proper keyboards ;) you can try http://french.typeit.org too. — Evpok, Jul 12 '12 at 19:38

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 12 '12 at 18:25

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You are right, Aerovistae. You have the correct answer.

Je vais chez Henderson. = you're visiting someone whom you call Henderson
Je vais chez les Henderson. = you're visiting the Hendersons (i.e. the Henderson family)

edited Jul 12 '12 at 18:25

temporary_user_name

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answered Jul 12 '12 at 18:12

microcosme

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 12 '12 at 21:07

In general case you are right

Chez Henderson means in Henderson's house
Chez les Hendersons means at the Hendersons

But chez Henderson could also mean in the Henderson family, mainly for old people. For example

Comment ils vont chez Henderson ?

means

How are the Hendersons?

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 12 '12 at 17:03

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Short way to distinguish these :

« Je vais chez les Henderson. » would mean that you'll visit the Henderson family at their home.

« Je vais chez Henderson. » would mean that you're going to a shop or a store named like that.

answered Jul 12 '12 at 17:03

Romain Valeri

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Je vais chez Henderson peut très bien signifier qu'on va chez quelqu'un sans pour autant aller voir sa famille… – Stéphane Gimenez Jul 12 '12 at 17:17
Bizarrement, je n'utiliserais pas chez pour un magasin, mais plutôt à/au. J'utiliserais chez pour désigner la chaine de magasins en général et à/au pour un magasin particulier. – Bruno Jul 12 '12 at 19:17
@Bruno, ça peut être une question intéressante: on va bien chez Michou ou chez le coiffeur, mais à la pharmacie ou au supermarché. Va-t-on chez Leclerc, à Leclerc ou encore au Leclerc? – mouviciel Jul 23 '12 at 09:33

Use of "chez" with a family name?

3 Answers3