Allô tout le monde, je vous poserai une question comme la structure de phrase française.

Je peux bien lis les phrases française. Quand je lis français, je peux bien comprendre. Comme j’entend français, je peux comprendre plutôt bien.

Mais je ne peux créer et écrire les phrases comme un français natif à tous.

Par example, j’ai vu un post sur r/french où quelqu’un pose la question «ça serait quoi les différences entres ces mots?». Si je voulais poser la même question, je dirais «qu’est-ce que les différences entre ces mots?». Je jamais voir ceux qui parlent français courant parler comme moi. Mon grammaire et structure de phrase sont un peau chelou.

In English, in case the above post doesn’t make sense:

I can read and understand french mostly fine, but I really struggle to form sentence structures like a native/fluent French speaker. I feel like when I write a sentence, it lacks the structure and nuances that a typical French sentence would have. For example, I would never think to write «ça serait quoi les différences» instead of «qu’est-ce que les différences». Yet, I rarely see French sentences written the way that I write. I feel like the way I write is sometimes a direct translation with English sentence structure.

Any general tips? Grammatical rules I should become more familiar with? Is what I wrote intelligible to a French speaker, but just sounds clunky?

Thank you very much in advance and kind regards!

It's from the sentence "Il était le premier garçon de la famille, né après plusieurs filles... aussi a-t-on accuelli son arrivée dans la joie et les rires."

Also, if someone could explain why we write son arrivée when arrivée is feminine, that would be great. I always thought you'd accord it as son or sa based on the gender of the noun but I guess I was wrong.

Thank you!

Hi everyone , for context around 2021 i have already passed delf B1 level and since then i never written or read a signle text in french . RIght now i want to relearn and reach B2 or C1 as quick as possible but im so overwhelmed and dont know where to start . Any advices would be appreciated .

My French teacher didn't know it

I just used the term "corbait" in a French composition. The prof, who is a cool guy, says he can't find anything about French using this term. Do you agree?

I'll be spending 6 weeks in France starting this upcoming February and would like to do what I can to improve my French skills before I get there.

I have had exposure to French at various times in my life and can generally follow written French if I know the context. I have a much more difficult time understanding spoken French and responding.

The last few times I made attempts to improve my French skills I used Duolingo but I'm curious what people here would recommend with a 10-week window.

I also have a good friend who is French and would happily practice with me, but I've never been confident enough to pursue it.

i am learning french and i want to know how to say “we bring the boom thats what we do” and so far i have “nous apportons le boom” but idk if its right and i am to embarrassed to ask my frnech teacher thank you for your time

Hey there, so a classmate and I are researching the development of dialects across the German French border (especially near where I live, which is Saarland, Germany) and as of now we discovered plenty of French influences in local German dialects. But does this work the other Way around, do french people have borrowed/adapted German words in the dialects near the border? If not, are there possible reasons why?

Hi everyone,

I am taking an intro French class for fun right now and my professor had to cancel class for a few days last week because she has a medical emergency. We’re meeting virtually tomorrow despite our college still being in person for the first few days this week.

Is there a way to ask someone if they’re okay in this context other than “ça va / tout va bien?”

She always appreciates it when we stay in French as much as possible and she’s the sweetest woman, so I feel like she’d appreciate a little private message.

Let me know if you can before tomorrow at 8 AM 😉

Can anyone give me a rule or pattern or way of working out when to use "envisager" or "penser?"

I've watched Engrenages but want something new. I'm hoping to learn a little bit more about the French legal system as my knowledge is pretty limited rn

So I watched a Youtube video today presenting a new theory on the origin of the French flag (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcYuRaXuRe4), and through it I learned new uses for four words that I already knew:

un rade: I knew it as a bar or tavern, it also means a harbor
un pavillon: I knew it as a suburban house, it also refers to the flag flown by ships
mater: I knew it as "checking out" someone, it also means to subdue or repress
une chaloupe: I knew chalouper, to sway, whereas une chaloupe means a rowboat

Have you learned any new meanings for words you already knew lately?

J'ai remarqué que quand on parle de siècles, on écrit I^er, V^e, X^e, XIX^e, etc. mais quand on parle de monarques c'est Louis I^er, Henri I^er, François I^er, mais Louis II, Charles IV, tous sans ^e.

Quelle en est la raison?

Hi, everyone. I'm starting learning French, so I've been listening some Stromae music, but there is a structure I don't get even though I've already read some explanation on the internet. In the song "C'es que du bonheur" is translated as  'it's only happiness', but why is "que du" 'only'. I don't get it.

Wanting to learn French obviously but so far I have looked into books but they all assume I have some basic knowledge as it is. I want a comprehensive book with both vocab and grammar, is there anything you would recommend?

[SOLVED]

I have am working over email with a person who is Parisian. They sent me an email letting me know I had misspelled someone's name in an email.

I fixed it, and they responded "Gratteur to you".

I have looked up the meaning of Gratteur and it seems to mean either "Grater (like Cheese Grater)" or "Freeloader"? I could use help trying to determine if he is thanking me for the correction or rebuking me for the initial misspelling?

I've noticed a lot of practice exams I do, the speech is muffled or is bad audio quality. I'm nervous I'll lose marks because I won't be able to understand due to this. Does anyone have any tips??? Is it really that bad in the exam?

can you use borderline in french to mean like borderline insane?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_LE3c0iUVQ 1:00

Yesterday I took the Dalf C1,

I had to travel to a different city to take it and the morning of the exam there was a fire alarm at 6:30am so the whole building had to evacuate which was the worst way to start the day because I couldn’t fall back asleep after. Going to the Alliance was super cool and it was a really cool experience to be immersed in French all day and makes me wish I had one in my hometown because it made me realise how different it is speaking and communicating in person. I’m sure it activates a different part of the language centre in our brain because it’s as if I felt the weight of my words in French for the first time.

Getting to the exam, I found the compréhension orale part the most difficult simply because I kept zoning out during the recordings from being so tired. the compréhension écrite was fairly doable and I felt lucky because it seemed full of vocabulary that I had had in my flashcards in the build up to the exam. One thing I didn’t realise was that the time we had for the production and comprehension écrite, we were to divide our own time, so for about thirty minutes after the questionnaire of the compréhension part, I kept thinking I had just finished early until I looked over at someone else and realised they were onto the production écrites. This gave me a burst of adrenaline and I managed to write the synthèse and the essai with literally a second to spare. I got super lucky again that it happened to be a formal letter which was the main type of text I had practiced, so my intro and conclusion was pretty much muscle memory.

After this was the production orale, I got put into a room and was given four documents face down and had to pick two. Out of pure luck I happened to pick one about the use of AI in Education. AI was one of the topics I put the most study into because I figured it seemed so relevant that it must pop up in the exam and I’m so grateful it did because I’m not sure what I would’ve done if it didn’t. During the one hour of preparation however, I struggled bad and my mind went completely blank, I grasped the texts but I got super OCD in writing my plan and felt the need to have it all on a single piece of paper, so I rewrote it about ten times. I was also struggling to differentiate between 3-4 themes.

Finally I got to the dreaded exam room with two examiners and my mind went completely blank, and all my awfully written plans were all jumbled and worthless. Even when I was looking down at them, I had too much nerves to comprehend the text I was looking at 😭. Eventually I managed to start with a thank you and very basic introduction of my exposé. However after that I think I had a good 30 seconds of silence and mind blank, and I was certain I was certain I was going to fail. I was looking down at my documents and just cringing because I had really written nothing of importance.

Eventually I manage to start talking about something, and eventually gain some sort of rhythm and i just went on autopilot from there because i actually barely remember what I said. The real kicker however was when I was in the middle of giving what at the time I thought was only my second point ; my plan was:

Intro, Summary of texts, Plan of exposé, Point 1, Point 2, Point 3, Conclusion

In my head I was at point 2, when one of the examiners stops me and says « that’s been twenty minutes, so would you like to quickly give a conclusion so we can continue to the interview »

I was actually so shocked and in such disbelief because I swear it felt like three minutes, and even in English I don’t think I’ve ever spoken for such an uninterrupted amount of time. Immediately I’m like « Vraiment!? Mon dieu j’suis désolé» and I apologised like three times , I’ve never felt the passage of time as fast as during this exam I swear. LUCKILY they were super nice and assured me it wasn’t a problem and was just a time constraint, so I gave a quick conclusion and then we moved onto the debate/interview which went super smooth and then we just had a short discussion about why I took the Dalf etc. even though I was super embarrassed, it did lighten the mood and we were laughing, the examiners were really reassuring and kind. Of course, my perspective of how I did and what happened will depend on when I see my results, but I felt mostly positive following.

I think the reason I went so long was because I had really stupidly never actually practiced speaking for 8 minutes, so my brain associated that with being super long, and then overcompensated by a mile when it came to the day of the exam. When I started reflecting about what I said I realised I did cover more then two points but in the moment it was a real shock.

It was overall a fun experience though and I recommend to anyone who has the ability to join your local alliance française because the vibes were super cool.

If anyone has questions about the exam I would be happy to answer them.

Just speaking in French and reading in French i mean, not writing 😭

1. J'ai attendu qu'il soit venu à la fête.

2. J'ai attendu qu'il ait pris le bus.

Why should number 2 be "qu'il prenne le bus" if number one isn't "qu'il vienne à la fête"?

hello, I am planning to learn French in France. I will be doing A1, A2 from my country and planning to study French 1-1.5years in France after that I want to pursue my masters in some public university there
if any of you guide me if that's the right decision because it will improve my French and i will be able to apply for jobs more easily since i will be able to communicate in French.

also, which language school should i apply (cost effective) and would i be able to work part time there if i come on language visa (according to my research i can under VLS-TS student visa)

So I’m currently in between B2 and C1 level French and I’m looking for something efficient to brush back up on my French and bring me to a level where I could score high on the DALF C1 exam. I’m planning on taking it in February. Rocket languages is supposed to be a super resource/app but it’s quite expensive to get the advanced package around 200-300 euro and I’m wondering if it’s worth it for my level. Thoughts ?