Je pense qu’on donne trop d’importance à l’idée de « parler comme un natif ».

Quand on apprend une langue, on entend souvent :

« Il faut avoir un bon accent. » « Il faut parler naturellement. » « Il faut utiliser les bonnes expressions. » « Il faut parler comme un Français. »

Et à force d’entendre ça, on finit parfois par croire que notre objectif est de faire disparaître toute trace de notre langue maternelle.

Je ne suis pas vraiment d’accord avec cette idée.

Bien sûr, une bonne prononciation est importante. Connaître les expressions courantes aussi. Mais parler français avec un accent étranger ne veut pas dire qu’on parle mal français.

Pour moi, le vrai objectif n’est pas de faire croire aux autres qu’on est français.

C’est de pouvoir raconter une histoire, donner son opinion, plaisanter, expliquer quelque chose, défendre une idée… sans passer plusieurs secondes à chercher chaque phrase dans sa tête.

Et surtout, pouvoir le faire sans avoir peur de faire une erreur.

On peut parler un français très naturel sans être natif.

Et peut-être qu’à partir d’un certain niveau, la question ne devrait plus être :

« Est-ce que je parle comme un Français ? »

mais plutôt :

« Est-ce que je peux vraiment m’exprimer comme je le veux en français ? »

Vous en pensez quoi ?

How do you decide between futur proche and futur simple for your sentences?

What would make you say “Je mangerai” instead instead of “je vais manger”

Is there a secret rule that i am not aware of?
Thanks in advance :)

Can someone please tell me if there is a difference between the following two expressions?

Rendre compte (For example, J'ai rendu compt)

Prendre conscience (for example, j'ai pris concience)

Do both of these expressions mean: I realized/have realized? where to use each expression?

Hello, I occasionally hear songs that contract the word "de" even if the next word starts with a consonant because of the rhythm. The line in question is "J'ai arrêté d'compter les années."

Does the /d/ connect to the previous word (like /arɛted/), replace the consonant in the next word (like /dõte/), forced to be pronounced (like /dkõte/ or /tkõte/), or just ignored and unpronounced ?

Thank you, merci beaucoup !

I’m an international student who arrived in France two months ago. In theory, my French level should be around B1, but I still have trouble understanding people most of the time. I’ve decided to focus specifically on listening.

Logically, I know I should start with audio materials designed for learners at my level, but I’m looking for faster progress. So I’ve begun listening to everyday French podcasts and videos, trying to follow along with the French subtitles.

Do you think this is a good approach, or should I stick to listening resources made specifically for learners first?

So for some background, I am a senior in high school, and I am also homeschooled. In order for me to graduate in my state and be "college bound", I need to complete two credits of foreign language. I took French through Rosetta Stone in 10th grade, but I didn't continue it throughout 11th grade. (My junior year I was extremely busy with dual credit classes) Now it is my senior year, and I am expected to graduate in 9 months time (May 2027). So, I need all of my credits to be completed by then.

I didn't want my parents to spend exhorbanent amounts of money on an online french course, and I had also forgotten most of what I learned in 10th grade. I did some research online and found out about Modern States, which creates courses built around CLEP exams. This seemed like a really good thing, especially because it was completely free and seemingly well structured. However, after completing about two units, I feel like I've learned barely anything at all.

I do have some supplemental French booklets (they cover mostly A1 level material) and I also have Busuu downloaded on my phone, however I am not very good about reviewing outside of the time I complete the videos and readings for Modern States, mostly because I am busy with a lot of other things.

I plan to take my CLEP exam in March 2027. That's about 6 months away. Ideally, I'd like to score at least a 58 on my exam, so that way I can log my "French II" credit as an A and keep my 4.0. In order for me to score well though, I will need to reach B1 profiency in six months while also juggling my other courses, social life, hobbies, etc. etc.

Any advice and/or resources to achieve B1 profiency would be greatly appreiciated. Thank you.

Pour contexte, la québécoise, c'est moi!

Donc notre ami congolais nous explique qu'il devait parler en public devant une foule du nord québécois et lorsqu'il est arrivé à dire des chiffres et a dit "nonante", personne ne l'a compris!

Bon, pendant qu'il est vrai que si j'entends quelqu'un utilisé 'nonante', mon oreille va titiller et je vais me dire "Tient? Peut-être qu'il est belge!" Mais je vais comprendre!

Bref, on est trois à parler des chiffres en français et des différences entre pays (c'est là que j'ai appris que le Congo utilise les mêmes appellations qu'en Belgique ce qui fait du sens étant donné qu'ils ont été colonisés par eux).

Notre ami congolais nous dit à quel point quatre-vingt-dix ne fait AUCUN sens, que c'est stressant à utiliser, ect. Alors imaginez ma SURPRISE lorsque j'ai su qu'ils utilisent quatre-ving!

Donc quatre-vingt c'est correct mais quatre-vingt-dix c'est trop? On tire la ligne au dix??? 🤣 Quelqu'un expliquez moi!

Pourquoi pas huitante? Si c'est si compliqué!

Ps: j'ai fait quelques recherches, je pensais même au octante mais j'ai appris que c'est la plus grande illusion de la langue française, personne ne l'utilise mise à part quelques intellectuels du moyen-âge. Et huitante et utilisé en Suisse mais pas en Belgique 🤷🏽.

I'm a fairly advanced French speaker, and was reading a story to my child the other day when we came across the following sentence in a story about a grandmother who goes down a slide with her granddaughter: 'Je n'ai pas descendu de toboggan depuis bien longtemps....'

Even my wife, who is a native French speaker, does not understand why the auxiliary in this sentence is avoir and not être, since the verb 'descendre' is followed by a preposition and means 'to go down' as opposed to 'to take down.' Can anyone explain?

Hello, I have been learning French since March 2026 and I’m planning to do the A2 exam before the end of the year. I self-study, I use Busuu and other materials (youtube, books).
The writing and speaking is very different, for example, in writing it’s “ne… pas”, but in speaking the french drop the “ne”. When I’m doing the oral exam, am I supposed to speak fully grammatically correctly, and pronounce everything like textbook, or is it a problem if I speak more casually, like dropping the “ne”.
Hope this isn’t a stupid question, for me it’s not obvious. Appreciate any help.

I’m really curious about your language learning goals and I want to understand what are the most difficult topics or the most difficult things that block you or block your motivation to learn the French language I intend on someday developing a solution to work around this and I’m just curious from the perspective of a foreign speaker what are the blockers of motivation? What are the barriers in the French language that stop you as a fun speaker from getting fluent?

For example, something I can think of is agreement which is a rule that is constant across the French language where you have to make sure that every thing agrees in gender number with the subject overall. This can be extreme complicated if you are not sure of what words are masculine what words are feminine or sometimes even plural. Another one is the agreement with passe compose with the verb être.

Please don’t give me a genetic answer. Give me as specific answers as possible. What is difficult? What is it that you find the most challenging in terms of topics grammar literature, pronunciation or whatever it is that you find relevant?

Salut! I’m looking for some recommendations for a trip to France to develope my French!

My hope is that I can find a sort of program where they have French classes, but also tours and cultural experiences (dinners, day trips, cooking classes, wine tasting, etc).

I want a mix of learning French language but also enjoying French culture through travel.

(Essentially I don’t want to be stuck in a classroom for 8 hours a day doing conjugations, while paying an arm and a leg to be in France)

je suis prof de français (ainsi que d’espagnol et d’anglais), j’ai obtenu le DALF C1 et j’ai plus de 4 ans d’expérience dans l’enseignement du FLE ( mais je suis pas francophone ).
malheureusement, je n’ai pas encore eu l’occasion d’aller en France ( mes demarches sont en cours ). honnêtement, j’ai peur que les français me cancèlent sur mon léger accent… j’ai une très bonne prononciation, mais quand même…

vous pensez quoi ? est-ce q c’est un problème grave ou un stéréotype ?

merci pour toutes vos réponses 🙏

If this is the wrong sub for this then feel free to point me to the best one.

I saw this post https://www.instagram.com/p/DcTfgIJjTcI/?img_index=1&stkn=bHBneHR5ZHBhcjNl and she briefly mentioned that she’s able to live her nomadic mostly travel, touch of work, lifestyle because of l’interim.

I tried to look it up and got this article https://www.excelliance.fr/cest-quoi-interim-definition-fonctionnement/ but all I really got from it is that there’s a company that pays and employs you but I’m still not sure what you do?

It kinda sounds like contract work? Through what we would call a temp agency? But she said she’s « never had a job » and idk how that equates to mostly traveling 😅

"Je m'appelle" is one of the first phrases taught in every French method, but in real life, French speakers generally prefer "je suis Paul Durand" or "mon nom est Paul Durand" or simply "Paul Durand."

So, I’m a writer and a reader. Books and poetry are actually some special interests of mine. But I was showing my friend (whose first language is French) some of my writings and he was having a hard time following.

Basically, he has damn near perfect comprehension most of the time. Only thing he really struggles with is spelling and grammar, but I know a lot of English speakers who do as well. Only minor pronunciation errors.
Not entirely sure what the mix up is, I think what he tried to explain that he doesn’t understand the idioms- but that the language itself was pretty. If I’m understanding correctly. Something I’ve noticed is that he doesn’t understand when I use less common words in English. I have to really simplify a lot of the time, which I genuinely don’t mind. My question is how to do it better??

**note; we are both autistic so idioms and symbolism might be difficult in general. It is for alot of us.

Since our professor is requiring us to create a full-on french introduction and I don't want to take his advice of using Reverso translation, I advanced my learning and came up with this. I am open for corrections and tips. (I won't include personal infos like name.

Bonjour à tous!

Je m'appelle [name].

Je suis né à [province], mais j'habite à [city], aux Philippines.

J'ai 20 ans.

Mon anniversaire est le 1er Novembre 2005.

Mes loisirs sont de jouer aux jeux-vidèo, regarder des films, et faire la cuisine.

Mon numéro de téléphone est le 0981 108 7675.

Mon ambition est de gagner beaucoup d'argent pour profiter de la vie au maximum.

J'aime la musique, mais je préfère le metal. En plus, j'adore faire la cuisine parce que je cuisine beaucoup pour ma famille et mes amis.

Cependant, je déteste cuisiner les fruits de mer. Je n'aime pas l'odeur et le goût des fruits de mer. En plus, je n'aime pas les endroits très bruyants, les araignées, les poupées, et les gens qui marchent lentement.

Merci à tous !

Hello, I am an English teacher who also speaks French. I just want to make sure I'm not going crazy.

"J'ai une base en anglais" means "I have a basic understanding of English." right? Or is it closer to "I know the fundamentals of English."?

And this person is saying they want to speak English fluently...in 3 months?

Edit: Thank you so much for all of your responses. I think a lot of you are addressing my main point of confusion. Is he saying he has a basic understanding of English or is he saying he has a solid grasp of the fundamentals?

And, yes, I also find it bizarre that someone looking to be fluent in English in 3 months cannot even message me in English.

and i mean it i'm not talkin about imdb top 100, i want to get to know the gems you gatekeep; the ones not mainstream media at all.

I realized i have never heard anyone saying this before or anything that sounds similar to this in french. I mean you could say c’est evident or something but im looking for something more slang or more funny i guess. Are there any equivalent expression to say something is obvious or “goes without saying” in everyday speech?

it's been a while since I spoke French but I remember wondering if there was a quick casual way to say like, "cool, got it." my general impression was that « J'ai compris » was something you'd say at the end of a long explanation but I didn't really know what else to say

Bonjour, je prépare actuellement le DELF B2 et j’aimerais avoir des conseils de personnes qui ont déjà passé cet examen. Quelles méthodes vous ont vraiment aidés ? Et quelle partie vous a semblé la plus difficile : compréhension, production écrite ou orale ? Merci pour vos conseils !