By popular demand, I have recorded a series of episodes to help you learn or recognise common French slang expressions. As you may know, the French you learn in the classroom and the French you hear in the street or in the movies can sometimes sound quite different!

In this episode we’ll go through some expressions meaning “to understand” (and a few more!)

Piger = comprendre

The post FYW 245 : French slang expressions (4) appeared first on French Your Way.

Listener Nancy would like to clarify when “ne” can be dropped in French. When is it possible to deliberately forget this common 2-letter word? Is there any change in the meaning? Listen to find out!

Je n’aime pas quand tu fumes = j’aime pas quand tu fumes.

The post FYW 244 : When is “ne” optional in French ? appeared first on French Your Way.

When students write in French, I often see words spelled with an initial uppercase which shouldn’t be: the English language uses capital letters in more situations than the French language does – typically with days of the week or months of the year. Let’s go through a useful checklist of words that require a capital letter in French.

les Français, les Européens, les Vikings

Get 15% off with the discount code (until Thursday 19th May, midnight Paris time): yes15

The post FYW 243 : When to capitalise a word in French ? appeared first on French Your Way.

Live workshops are back!

More information and bookings open on my events page: https://frenchyourway.com.au/events

If you can’t attend, don’t worry: you will receive the replay video as well as the worksheet and answers.

Upcoming events:

Sunday May 22nd at 9pm Paris time.

Thursday May 26th at 10pm Paris time.

Check out my events page

Subscribe to my newsletter to receive special discount codes for the workshops.

Looking forward to working with you!

Jessica

The post FYW : Live workshops are back! May 2022 appeared first on French Your Way.

As if it were not challenging enough to get to understand French spoken at normal speed, how to understand a French conversation when there is background noise/music, or a piece of French audio that’s not clearly audible? In this episode inspired by a question from Fiona, I will share some tips on how you can work on this and improve and I will also stress the importance to accept that you ARE always going to miss some words (and how to work on that, too).

“C’est une idée très schtroumpfante ! »

« Tu as bien dormi ? Tu as l’air bien schtroumpf aujourd’hui. »

« ça fait longtemps qu’on n’a pas schroumpfé ensemble ! Vendredi, ça te dirait ? »

The post FYW 242 : Understanding French when sound quality is poor or there’s background noise appeared first on French Your Way.

Fiona from Melbourne Australia asked me to explain the difference between the verbs “sentir” and “ressentir” in French. Let’s go through the differences in their use and in the structure of the sentences.

L’odorat (nm)

sentir des fleurs / un parfum / l’odeur de l’herbe coupée.

Tu ne sens pas comme une odeur de fumée ?

Le toucher

Touche ! Sens comme c’est doux / rugueux.

Je sens le soleil / le vent / le froid sur ma peau.

Ça sent le printemps !

Je sens que je vais réussir cet examen.

Calmez-vous les enfants ! Je sens que ça va mal finir !

Sentir / ne pas sentir (une situation, une personne) = avoir une mauvaise impression sur…

Je ne sens pas trop cette fille, elle a l’air malhonnête. Ne fais pas confiance à ce garçon, je ne le sens pas.

Alors, ton entretien pour le poste de représentant ? Tu le sens comment ? Je le sens plutôt bien !

Se sentir (bien / mal / fatigué / en forme / triste / heureux / découragé, motivé…)

Je le/la sens triste. / Je sens qu’il/elle est triste.

Je sens qu’il commence à s’ouvrir / à comprendre.

Je sens la fatigue m’engourdir / la joie l’envahir.

Qu’est-ce que tu ressens ? Comment tu te sens ?

Je me sens triste (je ressens/j’éprouve de la tristesse)

Je me sens frustrée (je ressens/j’éprouve de la frustration)

Je me sens légère (je ressens/j’éprouve de la légèreté)

En entrant dans la maison à vendre, j’ai ressenti beaucoup d’oppression / je me suis sentie très oppressée.

Le ressenti = the perception, the sense (eg temperature)

La temperature réelle est 5 degrés mais la température ressentie est zéro

Quel est ton ressenti sur cette situation ?

le ressentiment = resentment, bitterness, dislike

Elle éprouve encore beaucoup de ressentiment envers sa voisine même après toutes ces années.

The post FYW 241: SENTIR vs RESSENTIR appeared first on French Your Way.

Here’s a selection of 5 mistakes commonly made by English students learning French. Some may be a “simple” refresher (but we really need to drill those in, don’t we!), some of them may be new to you depending on your level of French.

Je vais bien.

Je suis bien.

Comment allez-vous ?

Comment êtes-vous ?

Je compte aller en France (pour) 6 mois en 2023.

The post FYW 240: 5 Common Mistakes in French That English Speakers Make (part 1) appeared first on French Your Way.

This episode was inspired by a question from listener Philip:

“Recently, a thunderstorm damaged my internet connection. The router displayed the error message “réseau non détecté”.

I was surprised, because I would have said “pas détecté”. When should we use “pas” or “non” to mean “not”?”

Let’s see examples and learn about the difference between spoken and written French, what the official rules are and how everyday French bends these rules.

N’entre(z) pas.

(Merci de / prière de) Ne pas entrer.

Ne fume(z) pas dans le train

Ne pas fumer dans le train (interdition de fumer)

Accepter / ne pas accepter les cookies.

réseau non détecté

mise à jour non compatible / non disponible

acquis / non acquis / en voie d’acquisition (acquired / learned)

The post FYW 239: “pas” vs “non” in French appeared first on French Your Way.

By popular demand, I have recorded a series of episodes to help you learn or recognise common French slang expressions. As you may know, the French you learn in the classroom and the French you hear in the street or in the movies can sometimes sound quite different!

Warning : in this episode, I’ve gathered some very familiar, common French expressions around pee, poo and fart. Not appropriate for children’s ears (or if you’re easily shocked).

Emmerder

“Les non-vaccinés, j’ai très envie de les emmerder” (E. Macron)

« Arrêtez d’emmerder les Français » (Georges Pompidou)

Je t’emmerde

Faire chier

(ça) fait chier, j’ai perdu mes clés à la plage. / J’ai pas envie d’aller à ce dîner, ça me fait chier / madame Martin me fait chier avec ces questions débiles.

Chiant,e (adj)

Ma sœur est trop chiante. / C’est chiant de se lever le lundi matin.

Il pleut comme vache qui pisse.

se pisser dessus

n’en avoir rien à péter

péter plus haut que son cul

pété de tunes/thunes : rolling in it, loaded

péter les plombs / un câble : blow a fuse, lose it, go berserk (psycho. Breakdown)

péter la forme / le feu : to be in tip-top form, to be in great shape

se la péter : to show off, to brag

être pété/mort de rire (ptdr, mdr)

If you enjoyed this episode, you may also find my short eBook “How to improve your French conversation skills” useful! It includes a section featuring common differences between French as you know is and as it is actually spoken in real life

Check out my eBook : https://frenchyourway.com.au/improve-french-conversational-skills

The post FYW 238: French Slang Expressions (3) appeared first on French Your Way.

In my last newsletter and YouTube video, I asked for your input/feedback on what you struggle most with in French and I took note of your difficulties (some of which I still need to think about how to best address them.) One aspect of French grammar which came back several times was how to tell whether a noun is masculine or feminine. Listen for my best tips and use the link below for my detailed article AND free downloadable worksheet to test yourself!

The post FYW 237: Telling the Gender of Nouns appeared first on French Your Way.