se rendre compte

When you realize something in French, the most common and natural way to express it is with the reflexive verb phrase se rendre compte de. This literally translates to 'to render oneself account of', but it’s best understood as 'to become aware of' or 'to realize'.

It's important to remember the preposition de (or d' before a vowel) after se rendre compte when followed by a noun or a pronoun.

For example, if you want to say 'I realized my mistake,' you would say, Je me suis rendu compte de mon erreur.

If you're expressing 'I realized that...', you'll use se rendre compte que (or qu' before a vowel), followed by a clause. For instance, Il s'est rendu compte qu'il était en retard (He realized that he was late).