Adjective
sauf (feminine sauve, masculine plural saufs, feminine plural sauves)
- safe (free from harm)
Preposition
sauf
- except, save
Tout le monde parle français, sauf moi.- Everyone speaks French, except me.
2021, Angèle, On s'habitue:On s’habitue toujours à tout, sauf, peut-être, à perdre ceux qu’on aime.- We always get used to everything, except, perhaps, to losing those we love.
- excluding, barring
Usage notes
- If sauf is preceded by and linked to a verb with a complement introduced by a preposition, that preposition must be repeated after sauf.[2] One may use certain adverbs (e.g. peut-être) between sauf and the repeated preposition.
Ça ne sert à rien sauf à compliquer les choses.- That doesn't do anything except complicate things.
Quelques-uns de ces détails échapperont à tous les observateurs sauf peut-être aux plus perspicaces.- A few of these details escaped all of the observers except perhaps the most perceptive ones.
References
Picoche, Jacqueline with Jean-Claude Rolland (2009) Dictionnaire étymologique du français (in French), Paris: Dictionnaires Le Robert