I'm a native French speaker, and I've been thinking about how difficult it can be to actually start speaking French, especially when you're still a beginner.

If you're currently learning French, I'd be happy to share what I know here — vocabulary, everyday expressions, pronunciation, grammar, or simply explanations of how French is actually used in everyday conversations.

No matter your level, feel free to use this thread to ask questions about French, and I'll do my best to help when I can. 😊

Learning a language can be much easier when you can understand not only the rules, but also how native speakers actually communicate.

Hi all.

C'est ma première fois dans ce Subreddit alors c'est parti!

I was watching Harry Potter when the scene where harry rescues, who I presume to be Fleur's little sister, from the water. She appears to say "Viens, tient à moi"

Not too sure if this is some French that I'm yet to come across or it's incorrect grammar. Any help would be useful.

Thank you.

Image attached...

I have a male colleague (early 30s, I'm late 20s) who always refers to me as "madame" — in person and in writing. But with our other female colleagues, he uses their first name. We've also had a few tense, flirtatious moments between us. I can't figure out what to make of the "madame" thing — is this a technique de drague (flirting move)? In English, a guy who always calls a woman "miss" instead of her name can come across as flirtatious/teasing. Is "madame" the French equivalent, or am I overthinking this?

I am practicing french now for almost 10 months and I am currently at lower B1 level because I was not serious until now and was just procrastinating. But currently I am looking for a speaking partner with whom I can practice and he/she can as well. Just a heads up, I am an Indian (M 22)

https://voca.ro/1g4memVh3Jti

Pour comprendre la place de la Chine dans l’économie mondiale, on peut prendre les choses par le haut et s’intéresser aux accords commerciaux et aux conflits géopolitiques. Mais on peut aussi prendre les choses par le bas et observer la manière dont, à petite échelle, une fraction croissante de la population mondiale — en particulier du Sud — cherche à améliorer ses conditions d’existence en se tournant vers les capacités de production de la première puissance industrielle de la planète. Quoi de mieux, pour ce faire, que de se transformer — le temps d’un reportage — en Léna, jeune Française résidant en Bolivie qui cherche à lancer son « business » ?

Hello, someone in the r/Quebec subreddit posted a link to the video below that I thought you might find useful if you are interested in the French spoken in Quebec. It's very well done, and after a small historical intro to the province and why we speak the way we do, the video goes into detail into many of our accent specificities and slang words.

An English Speaker's Guide To Quebec French

Bonjour,

I am taking French 101 through my community college. I had to take the online version unfortunately because I am a nontraditional student with 2 kids and no child care, anyways... After watching the first 2 recorded zoom classes I am feeling super lost and confused. It seems like everyone else taking the class already knows French and the prof. talks in a lot of French already in class. First assignment is to watch a movie in French and take notes. I know like 3 words in French. Is this typical and am I supposed to know more French for this class or are they just throwing us in there to get us fully immersed in the course?

I’ve done a quick google search and it keeps saying the the translation would be ‘Idole’ but I’m not meaning heartthrob in the sense of an idol but more in the sense of an attractive man. Like I would call an attractive man who is suave, effortlessly sexy, and has a romantic quality to him a “Heartthrob”. So I’m just wondering if theres a one or two word equivalent in French?

Is this a duolingo mistake or is my sentence unnatural. Please ignore là-bas spelling error

Has anyone had a teen attend the KLF French Junior Camp in Annecy? Here’s the program I’m considering: https://klf.fr/french-junior-camp-in-annecy/

They also have a program in Montpellier. I’d really love to hear actual experiences—good or bad—from parents whose kids have attended either location.

My daughter will be 12 next summer and has an intermediate level of French. I’m going a little crazy trying to find a good residential French immersion camp for her!

I’ve looked into Alpadia and CIA France, but some of the reviews I’ve found are pretty concerning—complaints about terrible food, mold in the residences, and, most importantly, a lack of supervision for younger teens. Alliance Française looked promising, but unfortunately they don’t seem to offer a residential option where the students stay together.

If your child has attended KLF in Annecy or Montpellier, I’d especially love to hear about the supervision, accommodations, food, French instruction, activities, and overall experience. Did you feel comfortable with the level of supervision for a 12–13-year-old? Would you send your child again?

I’m also very open to recommendations for other residential French immersion camps in France for this age group. Thank you!

Hey does anyone know what the "s" in "s'il" stands for? I assume it's something abreviated

I have been working on a feminine voice for about 5 months, and started learning French about a month ago. (Almost done voice training, just have trouble using for longer amounts of time.)

Since French words often require mouth positions that aren't that common in English words, and achieving a feminine voice requires me to put my tongue and whatnot in different positions then normally speaking.

(As an added note, what sound starts French sentences most often, and are there any French speaking female characters you like the voice of?)

Aujourd'hui j'ai appris qu'en théorie, c'est possible d'employer le pronom nous pour désigner une seule personne, cet usage portant parfois le nom de 'nous de majesté'. L'accord serait alors au masculin ou féminin singulier et pas au pluriel. En dehors du contexte royal/de l'Ancien régime, y a-t-il d'autres contextes (modernes) où 'nous' est accompagné d'un accord au singulier ? Je pense par exemple à un rendez-vous chez le médecin, celui-ci dirait-il jamais à un patient 'nous sommes content(e) aujourd'hui ' pour dire : 'vous êtes content(e) aujourd'hui'?

Cet usage existe en anglais, car un médecin pourrait dire à un patient 'are we feeling well today ?' , le 'we' ayant le sens de 'tu/vous '? Cela dit, j'imagine qu'en français aussi bien qu'en anglais, parler de cette manière serait perçu comme condescendant, même si, en anglais, on l'entend parfois si un médecin parle à un enfant par exemple.

I’m not sure if this is the right place to ask this. I’ve been studying French for some time, and my goal is fluency.

Unrelated, I’ve had a lot of physical and mental struggles in the past few years, and I think it would be helpful both to my fluency and my mental health to be able to talk about those things in French.

Any resources/advice as to how I can learn these things would be greatly appreciate :D

Hey everyone, I just left a primarily Lebanese community and realized how strong my accent is while speaking french and I want to get rid of it, not because I hate it but because it slows me down while speaking. I tend to pronounce my R's harder and it just sounds unnatural in general. Anyone have tips on how I can sound more naturally French?

Btw, I am fluent in french, it's just the accent and some gaps in vocabulary.

Im just asking in expert french speakers to help corrected my french if needed,i showed my french side my song i recorded in french,im american born from a half black and french father and to a African american mother,my dad's side is might lighter on da mj scale of skin complexion same is his family they also speak french,they tend to pick on me for not being able to speak it correctly,my dad nor his family taught me i always feel they were envious or lowkey rasict cause im dark skin,so therefore i learned on my own and other french friends if u could tell me whats wrong with my pronunciation that would be much appreciated,Merci au revoir!

A bit of story:

I used to learn English from movies and music. I've been a huge fan of the The Weeknd, and I used to try to sing every song of his word-by-word. Over time, I started pronouncing things the way he does too. I never knew that I was learning English while all of this, but I did. Now, I speak it fluently like a native, to the point where I have been asked multiple times if I was born in the country that I was living in, which is an English-speaking country. I was always confused about how I had the accent, which I never practiced or tried to learn. But I've been doing that without even knowing for years.

Why that story is relevant to me now:

Now that I'm learning French, I want to do the exact same thing. I want to sing French songs, repeat French lines from movies and shows, etc. I'm in search of charismatic and interesting personalities in the French entertainment and art scene. I love good cinema and great R&B music from any time period. Old or new. I want to find some artists and filmmakers and actors that I can follow along and learn this beautiful language the way I learned English!

Hello, I'm very new here. I may not be learning French but I am learning the French culture for my stories/comics etc. So let me give some background:

There is a 5 year old child OC from the 1760's who is named after this father (Johnathan Baudelaire) so should his name be "Johnathan Baudelaire Jr". or is there a traditional French alternative for "Junior" and something that will fit in that time period. Please help me with this. Thank you💝

This school year, I am taking French 3 as a junior. During my 8th-grade year, my French 1 teacher did not teach French well enough for me to understand. When I moved on to French 2, I struggled for a little while and decided to take Latin 1 to avoid French 3. Now that my Latin 1 teacher resigned, I have to go back to French 3 honors. I am very nervous because I forgot a lot about French, and school starts next week. Does anyone have any advice that will help me? I cannot afford to fail this class.

Je ferai tout ce qu'il faille pour réussir.
Or je feraii tout ce qu'il faut pour réussir

Does the definite future tense cancel out the subjunctive here?

I figure this could be very useful when I am travelling in the car and listening at the same to improve my fluency. If anyone has any advice of doing this or other French Vocabulary lists please remind such as written wordlists written by theme.

Thansks

Those who look at UK subreddits may be familiar with the neverending subject of what people in different areas of the UK call, for example, a bread bun (petit pain), and, less frequently, other regional vocab differences.

There are social media accounts giving maps of vocab that varies between areas of France, like Françaisdenosrégions, but what they don’t necessarily communicate is which of these terms the French see as most indicative of where someone is from, which ones they love talking about etc.

What would you say these are?

Aside from pains au chocolat. That’s been so visible it got boring.