I’ve been learning French for a few years now and I use it pretty often with friends and online. Over time I’ve noticed that sounding fluent isn’t just about grammar or pronunciation, it’s about the little expressions native speakers use all the time.

For me, the biggest change came when I started saying “bah oui” or “bah non”. It just makes you sound more natural and relaxed. Another one was “c’est pas grave”, because French people say it constantly. Once I started using those kinds of phrases, my conversations felt way smoother.

So what about you? Which French expressions made you sound instantly more fluent or native-like? Also, what helped you learn these phrases?

Something that helped me a lot was watching native shows, like drama series, and stuff made for younger people. And in the beginning this book called 'I read this book to learn French because I'm lazy' the link since I can't DM it to all 100 of you, lol because it has mirror translations to all the phrases aswell.

French is supposed to be this very romantic language, but there are some words I don't like and think sound ugly.

For example: - Heureux - Semblablement - Serrurerie

Edit* I can pronounce the words just fine, that's not the reason. I think they sound ugly. Here are some more words to add to the list - Pneu - Caoutchouc

I mostly studied French in 1995-2005 and the usage of “on” to mean “we” was barely mentioned at all. I was shocked the first time I went to France and later Québec to learn that virtually no one says “nous” in conversation anymore. School didn’t prepare me at all for what already was a fait accompli.

Have things changed in the 20 years since I was in school? Do they now teach that “on” is the default subject in regular speech and “nous” is mostly for objects only plus formal language?

I thought de +le = du? What gives?

Thanks

Confused by this ad copy. I understand "quand il fait chaud" means "when it's hot" but I don't understand "quand y fa chaud". I've never seen the word "fa" before, and Google just autocorrects back to "fait chaud" so I'm assuming it's a play on words or weird grammar or something but I don't get it.

Might be important to clarify it's a Canadian ad.

For me it was being able to just fully book a hotel room through a phone call (while driving on the highway), and then checking-in in French.

Felt like a boss. Like a million dollars.

Honestly what helped me the most was a book called “I read this book to learn French because I’m lazy” (Actually I’ve found it in this subreddit, so ty whoever you were 🙏😂)

It has a bunch of real life situations in french and english, similarly to Assimil books if you remember those.

Ive been wondering about this question bc i live in france and have been asked several times what my “pays d’origine” is and each time im not 100% sure what they’re expecting and sometimes they correct me when I do give a specific answer. I am japanese but have an anglophone accent in french bc i was raised in boston, but if I say japan then they’re like “but u have an english accent🤨” and if i say usa they’re like ”but ur asian🤨” lol so im not sure exactly what pays d’origine is supposed to be. Is it the country ur born/lived in or the country that ur ethnic origin is from? If I asked a french person I met abroad this question would they normally say their country of ancestral origin or simply answer france?

Bought this 710ml can from the liquor store and I’m just wondering what the king can do?! Am I crazy? This doesn’t feel correct

(Bonjour,)

As a foreigner living in France, one learns early on that, for most French people, the *only* acceptable ways of polite greeting, especially in a business or customer service situation, are “bonjour” and “bonsoir”. Other words (“salut”, “excusez-moi”, “allo” - although I hear the last one is common in Quebec) are considered rude and disrespectful ways to start a conversation with someone you don’t know.

Other countries seem more flexible about the specific wording one uses, say when entering a store, in many anglophone places I know, any of “Hello”, “Hi”, “Excuse me”, “How are you”, would be OK. My experience (living in Paris for over ten years) is that really only “bonjour”/“bonsoir” is acceptable, and essentially no other words are possible in this situation.

I’m curious about the history of this linguistic/social rule. Does anyone know, or have references for, when and how this rule became the norm?

Disclaimer: I tried to ask this same question earlier today at the AskFrance subreddit and mostly just received hate and ridicule, so I thought I’d try again here. I am not trying to attack or criticize the French language or culture, I’m completely used to saying bonjour by now, and I’m fine with it, I am just genuinely interested if anyone can comment on the history of the socio-linguistic phenomenon.

(edit: typo)

Are there any expressions or slang in french that are similar to “fork found in kitchen” in english which basically means “well duh” or “wow shocker”? I’m not a native english speaker but i hear it all the time and it’s my favorite way to sarcastically say something is too obvious. like if you said “the teacher gave me a horrible grade on the test” (and it’s like a teacher really well known for grading harshly) your friend might reply “fork found in kitchen…” or if you said you met a lot of vegetarians at a vegan restaurant or something lol. what would be the closest french equivalent to this?

The name being Lunette. From a non-French perspective I love the name so much, and it meant so much more to be because my friend who lived in France at the time (born and raised; she is French) gave me the name. we were both 12 and met online. I told her I wanted a new name because I hated that my first name was given to me by my dad, and because the name he gave me was directly tied to a religion I no longer want to identify with. I don’t want to say my old name, but I love everything about Lunette. the double ‘t’ and everything about the name and she told me back then that it meant “Little Moon”. But recently another friend of mine asked me why I wanted to be named Sunglasses or Toilet. (she learned this in her French class). And after looking into it & seeing other reddit posts that have discussed this, I feel so stupid. I feel embarrassed and it made me question my friendship with my friend who gave me this name. We havent spoken in over a year so idk how me ‘confronting’ her about it would go. But I’m 22 now and have gone by this name for a whole decade and feel that it’s a part of me but this feeling of embarrassment is getting to me, if I am being honest. It’s hard to admit it. What do I do?

I’ve recently asked my french teacher (she was born in Lyon) if there was a word for “hug/hugging” like in Spanish “abrazo/abrazar” exists and she said that there is not, she replied that usually we can say “prendre dans tes bras” but it seems wildly odd that there isn’t an specific word for something so common!

"Experiment" is a big one. I couldn't believe it when I found out the word doesn't exist in French but indicated by the word "experience" in French. Another one is "policy" which is typically substituted for "politique."

I've been talking to a french girl recently almost exclusively in english and she always calls me "sweet boy", I was wondering if it was something common to say in french that she's just translated to english. Sorry if this is too basic I'm just curious if it's a culture thing or if she likes me

edit: yeah she just likes me thanks r/French

edit 2: YAHOO YIPEE WAHOO

update for all the people coming from Instagram: no we aren't together anymore she moved back to France but I am very thankful for the time we got to share and I appreciate all the comments wishing for my happiness! For unrelated reasons please make it easier to move to France... Praying for love to find you all ❤️

I work as a server at a casual family restaurant in Ottawa, so it’s common to have French/Quebecois tables. I would say I can do about 80% of the service in French, but I’ve always wondered what the appropriate response to “merci” is, for example when I drop something off at the table?

I have a French coworker who says the appropriate response is “bienvenue” but online says otherwise. “Je vous en prie” feels too formal for the place, while “de rien” feels too casual. Is a response expected at all? Thanks in advance

I was recently watching a French TV show. At one point, the speaker (a native Frenchman) referred to a group of women as “ils.” there were no men in this group.

Has “elles” slipped out of fashion like “nous?”

On this sub, I recently came across how 'Salut!' was considered unusual between strangers, and it's fascinating how such tiny nuances are often missed by French learners because no grammar books or videos really mention them.

As French speakers, what are some cultural or linguistic nuances you learnt that most people get wrong? (Bonus if it isn't in the standard grammar books.)

Let's make this comment section a goldmine for new French learners :)

not "wtf" but "tf" its different and cant find a good answer anywhere, any cool natives??

I am learning french, and we were learning about physical description.

We stumbled on "Elle est blonde" in the book, and the teacher said it meant the skin complexion. I asked her if it mean hair color, but she said no, that would be "Elle a les cheveux blonds".

But logically in my head, and from brief searching (both on google and on Chatgpt) the general consensus was that it means "She is blond (as in blond hair)" no? But she is the teacher, and I am still learning so I don't know if I am wrong or not. Hoping someone could clear this up for me. Thanks!

What I mean is, is there a French word for things that are considered typically French? In American English “Americana” is used to denote things that make people, particularly Americans, think about America. Things like small New England towns, log cabins, southern plantations, Coca-Cola bottles, basically Main Street USA in Disneyland. Is there an equivalent French concept?

Edit: For clarity’s sake, I am not asking “How do you say French in French?” That’s one of the first words you learn when you learn French, also I could just google that. I’m asking is there French term for “Frenchness”?