Meeting

[Jean Dervin]

<I met him yesterday.>  By chance, or for the first time?  <Je l'ai rencontré hier> ou <J'ai fait sa connaissance hier>?

<We have a meeting next week.>  Is that a rendezvous or a réunion?

I have some thoughts on the matter, but would be most interested in the views of others about the possible translations of "meeting".

[Grégory]

'Je l'ai rencontré hier' : by chance or for the first time, no restriction 

-J'ai rencontré ma mère hier dans la rue (ok)

-J'ai rencontré mon mari à l'université quand nous avions 20 ans (ok)

'J'ai fait sa connaissance hier' : only for the first time (so it works only once for the people involved)

-'J'ai fait la connaissance de ma mère hier' grammatically well-formed  but it means that I met my mother yesterday for the first time of my life

'Rencontrer' =  no special interaction requested, just seeing each other is enough to use "rencontrer" because it's chiefly a question of presence in the same place ('J'ai rencontré mon voisin dans la rue mais on ne s'est pas parlé' (ok))  

'Faire la connaissanc de qqn' = interaction requested, specially verbal interaction, because it's a question of relationship  ('J'ai fait la connaissance de mon voisin mais on ne s'est pas parlé' (not logical))

'réunion' :

-for formal situations only

-not for personal issues 

-no focus on the gathered parts 

'rendez-vous' :

-no restriction for the situation

-there are two parts : me with you / me with them / him with him / them with them, etc. / it presents the meeting as something very dialogical

[alan gould]

I recently learned that connaître is used for "to meet" when speaking of the beginning of a relationship with a spouse in the sense of “to get to know.”  Would this be preferable to "rencontrer" which you used?

"J'ai rencontré mon mari à l'université quand nous avions 20 ans."

[Jean Dervin]

"You" presumably refers to Alan Gould, with whose comments I agree.  I would find that "connaître", in this context, had an unfortunate connotation similar to the biblical English use of "know".  But maybe that's because I am more English than French these days.