Can the object of “bénéficier de qch” be a person?

Question

“bénéficier de qch” means to “benefit from sth”.

I would like to know how to say for example “I’m benefiting from my new lecturer.”, thus can the object of “bénéficier de qch” be a person instead of qch? I’m unable to get an answer from CNTRL. Could somebody help me with this please?

If the answer is no, how do you say “I’m benefiting from my new lecturer.”

Is it “Je suis au bénéfice de mon nouveau professeur.”?

No "Je suis au bénéfice de" refers to being the recipient of say a rent, or the holder of some title (licence, certificate...etc.). In this case I would for example say "je gagne beaucoup à avoir ce nouveau professeur" or simply "j'apprends beaucoup avec..." — Mogu, Feb 10 '21 at 10:10
@ZéhontéeBonteuse your response is incorrect. It’s written in the dictionary by Oxford Languages that the definition of “benefit” is “to receive an advantage”. So the sentence “I’m benefiting from my new lecturer.” simply means “I’m receiving advantages from my new lecturer.” — Idkidkid, Feb 10 '21 at 16:10
@ZéhontéeBonteuse The advantage of the verb is that you don’t need to specify how. — Idkidkid, Feb 10 '21 at 16:23
@ZéhontéeBonteuse It is if the aim is to be vague for example. — Idkidkid, Feb 10 '21 at 16:28

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 10 '21 at 11:52

1

The object of beneficier is always something, never someone.

If you want to stay close to "I’m benefiting from my new lecturer" and still use bénéficier, you can say:

Je bénéficie des services/des conseils/du soutien de mon nouveau professeur.

answered Feb 10 '21 at 11:52

jlliagre

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Thank you @jlliagre ! Is there another what to say “I’m benefitting from my lecturer.” where the object of the verb is a person? – Idkidkid Feb 10 '21 at 14:23
Je progresse bien grâce à mon professeur, J'apprends beaucoup de mon professeur. – jlliagre Feb 10 '21 at 14:49
Hm... so there’s no french verb which is explicitly to do with “benefitting”? Cool, thank you @jlliagre – Idkidkid Feb 10 '21 at 14:50
By the way, what about “Je suis au bénéfice de mon professeur.”? – Idkidkid Feb 10 '21 at 14:52
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That's a bizarre sentence. That would probably be understood as "I'm at the service of my teacher" or "I'm one of my teacher's assets"... – jlliagre Feb 10 '21 at 14:57
I thought it would mean “I’m in the benefit of my teacher.” – Idkidkid Feb 10 '21 at 15:10
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In the expression être au bénéfice de, the object has a gain thanks to the subject. – jlliagre Feb 10 '21 at 19:49
So then it should “Mon professeur est au bénéfice de moi.” ? – Idkidkid Feb 10 '21 at 20:10
You mean Mon professeur est à mon bénéfice but still very awkward. – jlliagre Feb 10 '21 at 20:14

ninja米étoilé · Answer 2 · 2021-02-10T18:55:54.457

"There is no French verb which has explicitly to do with “benefiting”": that's not accurate.

Je gagne beaucoup à avoir ce nouveau professeur. [it's to my advantage]
J'apprends beaucoup avec ce nouveau professeur. [learn a lot with]

Je progresse bien grâce à mon professeur. [making progress]
J'apprends beaucoup de mon professeur. [learn a lot from]

Je tire bénéfice/parti/profit/avantage des cours avec/de mon nouveau professeur. [draw some benefit from, see links]
Je comprends vraiment mieux avec mon nouveau professeur. [understand way better]
J'obtiens de meilleures notes avec ce nouveau professeur. [getting better grades]

Avoir ce nouveau professeur m'aide. [helps me, generally]
J'obtiens un avantage (quelconque) à avoir/avec ce nouveau professeur. [gain an unspecified advantage]
Le changement de professeur me fait du bien. [the change... does me good]

Can the object of “bénéficier de qch” be a person?

2 Answers2