(a) to come, (emphasising notion of schedule) arrive; ~ à to arrive in, (sometimes more accidentally) arrive at, reach; ~ de/en Belgique to arrive from/in Belgium; ~ à Paris to arrive in Paris, reach Paris; ~ (à la) gare de Lyon to arrive at the gare de Lyon; ~ le premier to get there first, be the first to arrive; (Sport) to come in first; ~ à un point où to reach a point where; ~ jusqu'à (of news) to reach, get as far as; (of plant) to reach, go (up) as far as; en ~ à se demander si ... to reach the stage where one wonders if ...; il faudra bien en ~ là it'll come to that sooner or later; (Infml) on arrive là où c'est plus la peine de le faire you reach the point (or) stage where it's not worth bothering

(b) (with immediacy) to come, be coming, be on one's way; j'arrive! I'm coming!; on arrive! we're coming, we're on our way

(c) to succeed; vouloir ~ to want to get on in life; ~ à to achieve; ~ à faire qch to manage to do sth; ~ à ses fins to get one's way; (sexually) to get one's wicked way (humorous); je n'arrive pas à le faire I (just) can't do it; je n'y arrive pas, (Infml) j'arrive pas I (just) can't (do it); (Infml) j'arrive pas à le comprendre I just don't get it; est-ce que tu arrives à le comprendre? can you understand it?

(d) (Rail) to arrive; "Nous arrivons bientôt en gare de Dreux" "We will shortly be arriving in Dreux. (Dreux is your next station stop.)"

(e) (of event) to happen, occur; ça peut ~ à n'importe qui it can happen to anybody; ~ à qn to happen to sb; ça m'arrive de lire I read from time to time; cela arrive que it is sometimes the case that; (Infml) qu'est-ce qui t'arrive? what's up?