Légumes de printemps

Keen gardeners and chefs will know that each season means a different crop of delicious veg to roast, blanch, sauté or grill. With spring in full bloom in the northern hemisphere, here are *des légumes de printemps you might find on *ton assiette in France.

*some spring vegetables | *your plate

Faire le pont

Like all of us, the French love a long weekend. Especially when the calendar allows them to ‘faire le pont’. With the literal translation ‘to make a bridge’, this fun French expression refers to asking HR for an annual leave day to create an extended four-day weekend.

How does it work? If un jour férié (public holiday) falls on a *mardi ou jeudi, it’s common practice to take off the bridging day (Monday or Friday) to create a *plus long weekend.  

And this year, *mai dishes up the perfect opportunity, with *des jours fériés on the 1st, 8th and 29th. All of which happen to fall on a Thursday. *Quelle chance!

*Tuesday or Thursday |*longer |*May | *public holidays| *How lucky!

How to Learn French - Plus ça change...

Today we’re going to inch across a few columns, filling out variations on some sounds you already know well. It is my hope that with each horizontal move, you’ll be reassured that you’re more unconsciously competent at French pronunciation than you may think.

Soyez tranquille*, we’ll be making some more vertical moves in future posts, adding brand new sounds, but for now, let’s just consolidate some of the vowel sounds you already know.

You’ll notice that the additions we make today involve accents, which is to say that in many instances, they make no difference to the pronunciation of vowels at all.

On y va* !

Remember, the aim of the game is to have an anchor word for each principal sound (those in the far left-hand column below). Once you’re confident that you know how to pronounce that sound, you can start to add other sounds, which, though spelled slightly differently, have the same pronunciation.

voilà
là
à la carte
château
gâteau
pâtes

SOUNDS LIKE: A

Lyon
pays
Yves
gîte
île
dîner
maïs
naïve
aïoli

SOUNDS LIKE: I

tôt
hôpital
hôtel

SOUNDS LIKE: O

dû
brûlé(e)
flûte

SOUNDS LIKE: U

So, where does that land us? You’ll see we’ve filled in the vowel sounds quite a lot horizontally. You’re really starting to build up a very good pronunciation cheat sheet, except it’s not cheating at all, since you’re (hopefully) confident with your anchor words, and, by extension, those that follow.

Félicitations* ! You’ve just made further headway in mastering French pronunciation.

*Rest assured | *Let’s go | *Congratulations

Dicton du mois d'avril

Familiar with the English proverb, “April showers bring May flowers”? *Alors, the French have one of their own.

Referring to the fickle April weather, the saying goes, “En avril, ne te découvre pas d'un fil." This is often followed by the second line, "En mai, fais ce qu'il te plaît."

The literal translation is, “In April, don't remove a thread” and "In May, do what pleases you." Or, in other words, don’t risk swapping *tes pulls for summer dresses just yet, as the hints of warmer weather can't be trusted.

In the milder month of May, on the other hand, you’re free to do (and dress) as you like.  

*C’est mignon, non?

* Well | *your jumpers | *It’s cute, right?

How to Learn French - Getting square

I think one of the biggest breakthroughs I had with my French pronunciation was when I realised how many different spellings there were for the same sound.

This realisation helped me to start to synthesise all the different information I had swirling around my head from things I’d heard, been told and read.

As much as I I like to think of myself as a creative soul, I do love a good spreadsheet, so being able to give order to the sounds I was trying to pronounce was a great help.

In the last two posts of How To Learn French, I’ve effectively been opening a new file and working out how many columns and rows I’ll need. In this post, we’re going to take our first look at that grid, so hopefully for the more visual among you it will be very helpful.

Here’s where we were after the first post.

After the second, you could see we were starting to fill in a couple of the rows, demonstrating that there is some order, in fact, to French pronunciation.

Today we’re going to add another couple of very important rows and fill out a column or two, so let’s get to it. On y va* !

Remember, our aim is to set you up with an anchor word that you are confident about pronouncing. This accent produces a sound doesn’t really have an exact equivalent in English. It’s sort of a mix between ay as in hay, and e as in bed. Here are some other options.

étudiant
risqué
étage
préférer
école

This sound is similar to the e sound in egg, or bed. As an anchor word, you may prefer one of the below, or may already have a favourite.

père
après
frère
grève
très

So now, we can fill out our table a little more and hopefully it’s becoming clearer to you just how much crossover there is in the French spelling of sounds (and there’s even more to come).

Have fun playing around with these sounds. I remember it took me ages to get my head around this. Even now, someone will correct my pronunciation or I’ll come across a new word and I really enjoy seeing if I can find a place for it in the grid. I hope you’re finding this helpful.

Bon courage* !

*Let’s go | *Good luck

How to Learn French - Another piece of the pronunciation puzzle

In the last How To Learn French post, I introduced the concept of anchor words as a way of improving your pronunciation. Anchor words are words that students absolutely know how to pronounce. They’ll be different for everyone, but the trick is to start gathering a little stock of your own which you can use to refer to in order to at least have a very good stab at pronouncing new words correctly.

French pronunciation has a reputation for being difficult, but I think this stems from a misunderstanding. Yes, French certainly has sounds that do not in any way resemble English, however, the good news is that they do resemble one another in many cases. That is, there are several ways of spelling the very same sounds in French.

So, to get going, let’s take a look at the ones we covered last time, and then we’ll advance from there. Un petit rappel*, if you’d like to be 100% sure of the pronunciation of any of these words, make the most of this great little website, where you can hear a variety of native speakers saying them. It’s a very good resource and one I still use when I’m faced with a word I’m not entirely certain how to pronounce.

A comme* ÇA VA
E comme JE
I/Y comme ICI
O comme TOMATE
U comme TU

We’re going to tackle dipthongs, which are vowel combinations that create a syllable. Ne vous inquiétez pas*, even if you’ve only been learning French for a very short time, you’ll have come across them already, possibly without realising it. A classic example is found in the word bonjour, where the o and the u produce a particular sound.

You’ll notice that some of the sounds below are exactly the same as the anchor words above. Tu vois*? French pronunciation is already becoming easier.

My hope is that learning how certain sounds are grouped will not only take away the guesswork, but will start to arrange French pronunciation into a grid format in your mind, replacing what may currently look more like you’ve upended a cylinder of pick-up sticks from a great height in a strong wind.

où
douze
voudrais
bouteille 

deux
neuf
heure
sœur

SOUNDS LIKE: E comme JE

trois
poisson
chinois
toilettes 

raisins
treize
seize
retraité 

bureau
château
restaurant
gâteau
australien

SOUNDS LIKE: O comme TOMATE

nuit
huit
oui
huile 

As we continue with growing your collection* of anchor words, you’ll see that many of them start to refer back to our original group. I’d really encourage you to start keeping a little list in the back of one of your notebooks to refer to. I think you’ll be happily surprised by how quickly you’ll discover that French pronunciation is not only beautiful, but also rather orderly and comprehensible. In fact, it’s one of the rare elements of French where exceptions are truly exceptional, rather than the rule. Lâche pas*!

 *A little reminder | *as in | *You see | *Don’t worry | *collection | *Don’t give up

Festive French Vocab

‘Tis the season to perfect your French vocab with this handy list of festive terms. From holiday greetings to the baubles decorating your sapin de Noël*, pop these up your sleeve to spread the holiday cheer like a pro.

*Christmas tree

How to Learn French - Anchors away!

In the last How To Learn French post, I mentioned that there are certain things that seem to trouble most learners, regardless of their level. I named the letters e and i in the French alphabet as particular bugbears.

So for this post, I thought I’d share one of the techniques I learned when it was time for me to really come to grips with French pronunciation. It may surprise you to know that it wasn’t just before my Year 12 exams, or in preparation for moving to Paris many years later. It wasn’t until I started tutoring French upon my return that I realised I’d been approximating many of the French sounds until that moment.

Looking back, I know my accent was okay, but it wasn’t until I sat down with The Good Pronunciation Guide put out by Bien Dire publications (very highly recommended) that it dawned on just how loose a lot of my pronunciation was. In an effort to tighten it up, I pored over the little booklet that came with the CD (yes, it was il y a longtemps*) for many, many hours. As frustrating as it was (at times I wanted to tear my hair out) it was ultimately very illuminating.

With the booklet’s help, I was able to group together combinations of letters and accents that made the same sound. For example, the sound è can be written in a variety of ways: è, ai, ei and ê, to name a few. We’ll get into that in a future post, as I can see I’m already starting to get ahead of myself. Before learning the different spelling combinations for a particular sound, we need to have a fail-safe way of remembering the sound itself. Enter the idea of anchor words.

An anchor word is a word a student already knows how to pronounce and can therefore recall easily. We use these words as a reference point to ensure our pronunciation stays on track and doesn’t drift along in the linguistic tides.

So, let’s get right into by taking a look at the French vowels. I’ve offered up my personal anchor words, but feel free to choose another from the ones I’ve listed, or encore mieux*, come up with your own. I’d really recommend you start a little list in a notebook you can access at all times. I think you’ll be surprised by how reassuring it is and therefore how often you’ll reach for it.

By the way, if you’re not absolutely sure of the pronunciation of my anchor words, you can check on this very helpful little website.

Others you might like:

la
ma
voilà
baguette
chat

Others you might like:

le
me
de
demain
revoir

lit
Lyon
Fifi
midi
Paris

Others you might like:

orange
dos
trop
photo
gogo

Others you might like:

bus
jus
tutu
uniforme
lu

Remember, the more you identify with a word, the more likely it is to come to mind when you need it.

Next time, we’ll look at some vowel combinations (like oi, ui, ou and others) and hopefully you’ll start to see how quickly you can combine the sounds in your anchor words to confidently pronounce words of more than one syllable, and, with a new degree of confidence, even words you’ve never come across before.

Bon courage*!

*a long time ago | *even better | *Good luck

How to Learn French - Easy, tiger!

As a fairly obsessive person in many ways, I can get myself into a bit of a lather from time to time.

It can be a positive (it’s the things I’m passionate about that tend to trigger this character trait in me) but at times it really works against me. I know I’m in its grip when I find my mind racing and my breathing shallow, thinking to myself “how am I going to get there FASTER?”.

Over the years I’ve read dozens of self-help books, studied philosophy and taken up meditation and these practices have undoubtedly helped. However, it’s one simple piece of advice, offered up to me many years ago,  that now has the power to make me take a breath when I can feel myself winding right up.

I joined Qantas as an international flight attendant straight out of university, at the tender age of 23. I’d barely travelled before that point and after six weeks of training was sent on my very first trip. I was beside myself with excitement and fronted up to the briefing room at the jet base in Sydney, groomed to within an inch of my life and proudly wearing my brand new navy blue uniform and regulation pantyhose. I’m surprised I didn’t salute as I went in to meet the rest of the crew, so primed was I to make long-lasting friendships based on extraordinary shared travel experiences.

In those days, trips were allocated on a seniority basis, but because I was brand new, I’d been called out on a trip to a very desirable (and therefore very senior) destination: Tahiti. Where my training class was full of highly excitable, nervous goody-two-shoes like me, desperate to toe the company line by going ‘above and beyond’, my first crew was a ragtag bunch who barely bothered to look up as I awkwardly entered the room.

Relieved I’d decided against the salute, I quietly took a seat at the back and had no choice but to listen in on their off-hand, world-weary exchanges about what they were going to get up to in Tahiti during their slip time. They were all about 20 years older than me and wore their uniforms with an insouciance that would have had them reported tout de suite* in the training rooms upstairs. Sunglasses pushed onto the tops of heads, jackets slung over the backs of chairs, ties undone, skirts riding up to reveal non-regulation (gasp!) stockings… Louche was the only way to describe it and yet I was in absolute awe. How could these people get away with breaking all the rules and be so incredibly cool simultaneously? Remembering back to how naive I was makes me cringe and smile all at once.

Cut to two hours later and we’re ready to greet the passengers as they file onto the aircraft, anticipating their trip to paradise. Without any to-do whatsoever, uniform jackets had been buttoned, sunglasses removed, skirts pulled down to graze the knees and cigarettes stowed within arm’s reach for the minute the no-smoking sign went off (yes…). I watched as my fellow crew members greeted, assisted and gently teased the passengers in that most Australian of ways. “Got ya boardies with ya, mate?” to a young boy travelling with his parents. “Looking forward to your first Mai Tai, doll?” to an older woman who tittered in appreciation. It was a different time, that’s for sure, but the ease with which they dispensed their charm across the entire economy cabin was truly a sight to behold.

Meanwhile, I could barely distinguish one end of the aircraft from the other and yet couldn’t let go of my newly-acquired policies and procedures training, swirling though they were in my head.

Picking out the most approachable-looking of my colleagues, I started peppering him with questions.

“So we do waters pre-take-off and then once the seatbelt sign goes off we start the bar service, is that right? Or do we hand out the menus first? Oh, no, I remember,” I said, answering my own question, as my colleague’s moustache betrayed a small smile, “we do headsets first up, or is that before take-off? Do I get them out myself, or have you already done that? Where are they again?”

“Easy, tiger, it’s a long flight. You don’t want to puff yourself out.”

I wish I could report that those words snapped me out of my self-imposed stress coil, but they didn’t. They did make me laugh, though, and over the next eight hours or so I was able to witness the crew pace themselves in a way that ensured the passengers got what they needed (food, drink, safety) as well as what they wanted: a comfortable flight, a quick chat and a bit of a laugh.

So, why am I meandering down memory lane and how does it relate to learning French?

One of the great things about my job as a tutor at Lingua Franca is that I have the privilege of teaching people who choose to be there. They lead busy, interesting lives, yet find time once a week or more to turn their attention to French. I love watching the French bug bite them and know it’s happened when they start a sentence with : “I was in the shower/car/supermarket the other day and was trying to work out how I’d say…”

This is such a wonderful development and one that should be celebrated.

However, sometimes that passion can spill over into anxiety and I’ve seen people giving themselves a hard time instead of giving themselves a huge pat on the back, which is what they deserve.

If you recognise yourself in this description, I offer you a few observations:

As tutors, we teach many classes across all sorts of levels and we can report with confidence that almost every French learner struggles with the same things. A couple off the top of my head:

• the letters ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘g’ and ‘j’ in the alphabet

• the numbers 14, 15, 40 and 50.

• how to ask for water

It’s not just you, I promise.

It’s a cliché, but there really are no dumb questions. You are literally learning a different language, so of course there’ll be things that just don’t make any sense. As a tutor, I’m always happy when someone says “This may be a dumb question, but…” as it just alerts me to the fact I haven’t explained something clearly enough. And I know that in offering a more careful answer the second time around, I’ll be helping those who didn’t speak up.

You have to be resilient to stick at learning a language. If you’ve been learning for any length of time, you’ll know there are days when things really seem to be clicking. Your mind’s sharp, your conjugations are impeccable and you may even surprise yourself by thinking “What I just said sounded pretty French!” And then there are the other days… Your head’s like cotton wool, you can’t even think of the verb let alone conjugate it and you may wonder why you embarked on this folly in the first place. Try not to be too disheartened. In my experience, it’s usually down to a lack of sleep or a bit of stress, or it may simply not be your day.


Learning French can be an absolute pleasure, but beware of turning it into a chore in your enthusiasm to get to an arbitrary finishing line. Just like my Tahiti crew who built up their skills over a number of years, you’ll one day meet a newbie and think “Easy, tiger. You don't want to puff yourself out.”

*straight away

How to Learn French - fais gaffe !

You may know the French expression faire attention meaning ‘to be careful’. But do you know less formal faire gaffe? It, too, means to pay attention or be careful, even to watch out. and this is exactly what we want you to do with these common faux pax* which are easy to avoid once you’re aware of them.

ABSOLUTE BEGINNER

We’ve spoken about apostrophes before but it bears repeating. Ignore them! Same goes for the letter ‘h’, which is always silent in French.

What we often hear at Lingua Franca: Je habite
What we’d love you to say: J’habite* (sounds a bit like: juh-beet)

BEGINNER

Lingua Franca Chouchous* are a happy lot en général* and often want to tell us they’ve had a good time. Unfortunately a word-for-word translation doesn’t cut la moutarde* in this instance.

What we often hear at Lingua Franca: J’ai eu un bon temps.
What we’d love you to say: J’ai passé un bon moment*.

INTERMEDIATE

The phrase il y a is nothing if not versatile. It can mean: ‘there is’, ‘there are’, ‘is there?’, ‘are there?’ and even ‘ago’ if placed before a time period.

What can be difficult to grasp when you’re first learning is that the ‘a’ in il y a is in fact a conjugation of the verb avoir*. So when you want to use this expression to indicate the past (the imperfect tense, to be exact), you’ll need to conjugate the verb accordingly.

What we often hear at Lingua Franca: Il y était.
What we’d love you to say: Il y avait*.

ADVANCED

Wouldn’t life be so much more simple if we used the verb visiter (to visit) in every situation? No such luck I’m afraid.

Visiter is certainly used in French, but only for visiting places and things, not people. To say that you visited your parents, for instance, you’d need to employ the phrase rendre visite à (literally ‘to render visit to’).

To break it down a bit, rendre is the verb ‘to give back’, ‘to render’, or more colloquially ‘to make’. It’s a regular -re verb and therefore its past participle is rendu.

Please pay special attention to the next word: visite*. In this phrase, it’s not a verb but a noun. Note, too, that it isn’t preceded by a definite or indefinite article (la* or une*). The good news is that, as a noun, there is absolutely no need to change it to suit the person doing the action or, indeed, the tense.

Lastly, remember to add the preposition à (to) and you’re home and hosed.

What we often hear at Lingua Franca: J’ai visité mes parents.
What we’d love you to say: J’ai rendu visite à mes parents*.

*mistake (literally: false step) | *I live | *Teacher’s Pets | *in general | *the mustard | *I had a good time | *to have | *There was/were | *visit | *the | *a | *I visited my parents

Verlan Slang Words

Keen to speak like a true French native? It’s time to master Verlan – a form of French slang created by inverting the syllables (or sounds) in a word. Un exemple*? Try cimer – the cool-kid way to say merci*.

Check out this article on the 15 Verlans words you should know. And be prepared to impress your French amis*.

*An example | *thank you | *friends

La Petite Histoire

If you've ever done a group lesson here at Lingua Franca, you've probably come into contact with La Petite Histoire*. A tale with the very humblest of beginnings, it winds up becoming a rollicking schlockbuster as you move up the levels and your French improves enough to handle the outrageous (some would say impossible) turns of events of the six young friends.

La Petite Histoire is currently only available to our students, however La Préquelle is for everyone’s enjoyment. Below, another instalment of this new series, Chapter 2 of the Advanced 2 level.

*The Little Story | *The Prequel

Après avoir passé quelques heures très agréables à boire du Pimm’s sur la terrasse, Robert est sorti de la cuisine pour nous appeler à dîner. Alors que nous nous installions autour de la grande table en chêne de la salle à manger, je me suis enfin sentie assez détendue pour prendre le temps d’apprécier où j'étais.

J’ai souri en regardant Anouk montrer à Beth ses dessins des canards qu’elle avait tellement aimés à Hyde Park. Beth avait la patience d’un saint, écoutant ma fille babiller dans un mélange de langage bébé en français avec quelques mots d’anglais ajoutés pour faire bonne mesure. De l’autre côté de la table, Amina a gloussé tandis que Michael la taquinait à propos de sa prononciation du mot « sheets » en anglais quand elle est arrivée chez eux il y a des années. Hervé regardait avec fierté, ne suivant pas totalement la conversation mais appréciant sa légèreté et le rire cristallin de sa femme. Robert, grand et élégant, faisait tout un spectacle en découpant le rôti de bœuf, transférant soigneusement les tranches sur les assiettes empilées devant lui et demandant à son fils Michael de les distribuer autour de la table.

Même si les images d’harmonie domestique devant moi étaient indéniablement charmantes, j’ai réalisé que c’était plus un sentiment que la scène elle-même qui me rendait si satisfaite. La chaleur avec laquelle les Proctor nous avaient accueillis chez eux était remarquable, surtout étant donné que leur seule vraie connexion était avec Amina.

Involontairement, mes pensées se sont tournées vers ma propre vie familiale, et j’ai pâli en réalisant que, bien que Jean-Louis et moi puissions facilement reproduire l’image de la famille parfaite, la chaleur et l’attention nécessaires pour compléter ce tableau n’étaient tout simplement pas là. À la place de la chaleur, il y avait de l’oppression, et à la place de l’attention, de la méfiance. Désespérée d’échapper à cette prise de conscience, j’ai levé les yeux et croisé directement les yeux bruns et liquides de Simon, qui a soutenu mon regard pendant un long moment, une expression de douleur traversant son visage avant que Michael n’attire son attention en disant : « Tiens, Si, celle-là est pour Leïla. Sauce à la menthe en extra. Papa pense que ça l’aidera avec son anglais. » Simon a souri à son père avant de me tendre l’assiette : « L’anglais de Leïla n’a pas besoin d’aide, fais-moi confiance. »

« Comment tu le sais, Michael ? » demanda Michael. « Tu es arrivé il y a à peine quelques heures et Leïla n’a presque pas dit un mot depuis que nous nous sommes assis. Vous avez eu une leçon d’anglais secrète dont nous ne savons rien cet après-midi ? »

« Non, bien sûr que non – » a commencé Simon, avant que j’intervienne.

« Je suis désolée, Michael, je m’excuse d’être un peu silencieuse. Je pense que je suis un peu fatiguée, mais je profitais aussi simplement d’un moment de calme après tous nos déplacements des derniers jours. Ça fait vraiment du bien d’être ici, à profiter de ce moment en famille, même si je suis une intruse. »

« Ne sois pas ridicule, » a répondu Robert, en lançant un regard désapprobateur à Michael. « Michael aime juste taquiner son grand frère. Ne fais pas attention à lui. »

« Oui, désolé, Leïla, c’était juste pour rigoler. Tiens, laisse-moi t’en donner un autre pour me faire pardonner, » a dit Michael en me tendant le plat de pommes de terre rôties. « Avant que Simon ne les mange toutes, » il a ajouté, incapable de résister à une dernière pique.

J’ai souri faiblement et commencé à savourer mon rôti, bien décidée à me débarrasser des pensées intrusives qui me hantaient à propos de ma soi-disant vie parfaite à Paris.

After a very enjoyable couple of hours drinking Pimm's on the patio, Robert came out from the kitchen to call us in for dinner. As we settled in around the large oak table in the dining room I was finally relaxed enough to take the time to appreciate where I was.

I smiled as I watched Anouk showing Beth her drawings of the ducks she’d loved so much in Hyde Park. Beth had the patience of a saint, listening to my daughter babble on in a mixture of French baby talk and the odd English word thrown in for good measure. Across the table, Amina giggled as Michael teased her about her pronunciation of the word “sheets” in English when she first arrived at their home all those years ago. Hervé looked on proudly, not entirely following the conversation but enjoying its levity and his wife’s tinkling laugh. Robert, tall and handsome, was making quite a show of carving the roast beef, carefully transferring the slices to the plates stacked in front of him and instructing his son Michael to pass them around the table.
Though the images of domestic harmony before me were undeniably charming, I realised it was more a feeling than the scene itself that made me feel so utterly satisfied. The warmth with which the Proctors had welcomed us into their home was remarkable, especially since their only real connection was with Amina.

Involuntarily, my thoughts turned to my own home life, and I blanched as I realised that though Jean-Louis and I could replicate the picture of the perfect family with ease, the warmth and care required to complete the package was just not there. Instead of warmth was oppression and in place of care was suspicion. Desperate to escape this realisation, I looked up and straight into the liquid brown eyes of Simon, who held my gaze for a long moment, a look of pain passing across his face before Michael caught his attention by saying “Here you go, Si, this one’s for Leïla. Extra mint sauce. Dad reckons it’ll help with her English.”

Simon smiled at his father before passing the plate to me “Leïla’s English needs no help, trust me.”



“How do you know, Michael?” asked Michael. “You only arrived a few hours ago and Leïla’s barely said a word since we sat down. Did you two have a secret English lesson we don’t know about this afternoon?”

“No, course not - “ started Simon, before I jumped in.



“I’m sorry, Michael, I apologise for being a bit quiet. I think I’m a bit tired but I was also just enjoying being still for a moment, after all our moving around the last few days. It feels really good to be here, enjoying some family time, even if I am an interloper.”



“Don’t be silly,” countered Robert, shooting Michael a disapproving look. “Michael just loves to tease his big brother. Don’t pay him any attention at all.”



“Yeah, sorry, Leïla, just teasing. Here, let me give you another one to make it up to you,” said Michael, offering me the dish of roast potatoes. “Before Simon scoffs them all,” he added, unable to resist a final dig.



I smiled weakly and tucked into my roast dinner relish, determined to rid myself of the intrusive thoughts plaguing me about my so-called perfect life back in Paris.

How to Learn French - break it down

We’re going to take a detour this month as a recent trip across the border has given me a fresh perspective on French pronunciation.

A few weeks ago, a group of Chouchous* and I headed south into Northern New South Wales to work on our French. Locked away for a weekend in a beautiful wooden cabin allowed us the time to take a deeper look at the mechanics of French pronunciation.

I say this all the time, but I’m not sure it resonates with beginners particularly: French pronunciation is not that difficult. Granted, French has sounds that we in English do not have (and vice versa - ‘th’ for example), but once you know the rules of French pronunciation it is remarkable how uniformly those rules are applied. It is, in fact, quite rare to encounter exceptions. Even the notoriously-difficult-to-pronounce champagne capital of Reims deviates in only one aspect (the pronouncing of the final ’s’). The rest of the word follows the rules, je te jure*.

I think the problem lies not in my message but in my choice of audience. When people are first learning French, so much is new: different spelling, different sounds, different grammatical structures, different numbering systems (quatre-vingt-onze*, anyone?) that it’s simply a bridge too far for an overwhelmed brain to believe that French pronunciation is arguably much easier than English.

The Chouchous that came to the weekend immersion, however, had been at their French for a little longer and were therefore able to entertain this notion, at least.

We used a series of flashcards to group together different spelling combinations that produce the same sound. An example would be  would be the o in tomate* and the au in australien*. Once we had our groups, we then divided up some of the hardest French words to pronounce by sound. The true test came when we took on the French word for squirrel, écureuil (é / cu / reu / il) and I’m happy to report the Chouchous passed with flying colours.

So when I took a look at the list of words in my notes for the article this month and saw the word lieu*, I decided to take un petit détour*. We’ll look at the top five mistakes intermediate learners make in a future article. For now, I’d really like to show you how you can break down French words into sounds to pronounce them with a lot more confidence.

So, here we go. We’re going to learn two sound groups in order to be able to pronounce the word lieu like a pro.

The letter e in French is pronounced very similarly to the first two letters in the English word earth. Of course, if you know your French alphabet, you’ll already know the exact pronunciation.

Alternatively, we all know how to say the French word je, meaning ‘I’. This is the sound you’re after.

The colours are some of the first French words you learn as a beginner, and the colour blue is usually right at the top of the list. The eu sound is bleu is exactly the same as the e sound in je, and by extension, the ea sound in earth.

By the way, another member of the e sound group is œu. This strange little melding of the letters o and e is called the œ ligature in English and (cutely) l’e dans l’o in French (the e in the o). Think of words like œuf (egg), sœur (sister), bœuf (beef) and cœur (heart), among others.

For pronunciation purposes, it functions as a plain e and therefore the combination of œ and u is the same as the eu in bleu. Facile, non*?

Ici, meaning here, is another word we learn right at the start and je suis confiante* that you all know how to pronounce the i sound properly.

If you need un coup de main*, think of the i sound in the English words ‘big’, ‘lift’ and ‘tip’.

So, if we separate the word lieu into its two sound groups, you’ll have the following:

I’m pretty sure you can take it from here…

Bon courage*!

*Teacher’s Pets | *I promise | | *Easy, isn’t it? | *91 | *tomato | *Australian | *a little detour | *I am confident | *a hand | *Good luck

11 ways to say you're tired (that aren't fatigué)

Looking to spice up your French complaints? *Voici 11 expressive ways to say you’re tired (besides *je suis fatigué(e).)

*Nos conseils? Perhaps go to bed *plus tôt this evening.

*Here are | *I’m tired | *Our advice? |*earlier

How to Learn French - low-hanging fruit.

Nearly every day, I have people telling me they’re good in bed.

While I’m up for a bit of sex positivity in everyday life, I’m not sure I need to hear quite so often what wizards people are entre les draps*.

So how do they come to tell me that? Read on…

It really is the most innocuous question that unleashes the boasting from our Chouchous*:

Ça va* ?

There is a whole host of mild and discreet responses to that enquiry, and yet our keen students seem to default to:

Je suis bon, or
Je suis bonne.

Whether you’re male or female, the message you’re sending is clear. You are good (at it) and it doesn’t take a lot of mental gymnastics to work out what ‘it’ is.

The clue to the best answer lies in the question itself. Ça va literally means how are you going, so stick to the verb aller in your reply. Je vais bien, merci tells the person you’re going well, and that’s probably the limit of what they want to hear about you anyway.

PS, you can also say (among many other options):

Ça va.
Ça va bien, merci.
Bien, merci.
Très bien, merci.

In the last article, we reminded you not to pronounce the ‘s’ on the word ans (years). Now we’re going to ask you to focus on the verb, because unlike English where we ‘are’ our years, the French ‘have’ theirs.

J’ai 28 ans.

Literally: I have 28 years.
Colloquially: I’m 28.

When talking about your daily routine, you may be tempted to say dans le matin for ‘in the morning’. For example:

Dans le matin, je fais de la meditation.

However, you really don’t need the word dans. It’s surplus to requirements as le matin means ‘in the morning’ all by itself. So say instead:

Le matin, je fais de la meditation*.

By the way, this is also true for le soir (in the evening) and l’après-midi (in the afternoon).

When it comes to talking about your weekends, the same rule applies.

No need to ever say sur le weekend thinking it means ‘on the weekend’. Le week-end (note the hyphen in French) will suffice.

Le week-end, j’aime sortir avec mes amis*.

We covered this a little while ago, but it does bear repeating. Once you’ve tamed your response to ça va by answering je vais bien instead of je suis bon(ne), you probably will want to respond in kind by asking the other person how they’re going.

Remember, it’s not:

Et tu ?

It is always:

Et toi ?

Unless you’re speaking to someone in a formal manner in which case it would be:

Et vous ?

Next time, we’ll look at some more advanced errors people make, but I really hope you’re finding it useful to clean up these petite bêtises* along the way.

À très bientôt*.

*between the sheets | *Teacher’s Pets | *How are you going? | *In the morning, I meditate | *On/At the weekend, I like to go out with my friends | *silly mistakes | *See you very soon

La Petite Histoire

If you've ever done a group lesson here at Lingua Franca, you've probably come into contact with La Petite Histoire*. A tale with the very humblest of beginnings, it winds up becoming a rollicking schlockbuster as you move up the levels and your French improves enough to handle the outrageous (some would say impossible) turns of events of the six young friends.

La Petite Histoire is currently only available to our students, however La Préquelle is for everyone’s enjoyment. Below, another instalment of this new series, Chapter 1 of the Advanced 2 level.

*The Little Story | *The Prequel

Un sentiment de panique m'envahit alors que Claire regardait entre nous deux avec impatience. « Désolée, vous vous êtes déjà rencontrés ? Je ne me souviens plus si c’est le cas. »

Je sentais le regard de Simon sur moi tandis que je tordais nerveusement le torchon autour de ma main, espérant paraître détendue.

Finalement, j'ai réussi à dire timidement : « Non, nous ne nous sommes pas rencontrés… Je ne crois pas, » j’ai ajouté faiblement. J’ai vu les sourcils de Simon se lever et j’ai immédiatement rougi.

« Non, bien sûr que non. J'oublie toujours, Leïla, c'est ta première fois ici, non? Eh bien, voici mon charmant beau-frère, Simon. Simon, voici Leïla, la charmante belle-sœur d’Amina, » dit Claire en riant, et la tension est tombée. J’ai poussé un petit soupir de soulagement.

« Enchanté, Leïla, » dit Simon d’un ton raide. « Vous profitez de votre séjour ici ? »

« Oui, beaucoup, merci. C'est ma première fois ici et je me sens si chanceuse de pouvoir enfin rencontrer la famille anglaise d’Amina. J'ai entendu parler de vous depuis si longtemps et tout ce qu'elle a dit est vrai. Je comprends pourquoi elle se sent si bien ici. »

« Et maintenant, tu as enfin rencontré Simon, donc tu connais toute la famille. Je suis sûr que vous vous entendrez très bien. » Finalement, Simon a souri et j’ai senti tout mon corps se détendre. J’ai posé le torchon sur le comptoir.

À ce moment-là, une voiture est arrivé dans l'allée. « Ce doit être eux ! » a dit Claire, « Je vais sortir et les aider à décharger. Vous deux, vous pouvez apprendre à mieux vous connaître.» Claire s’est dirigé vers la porte d'entrée et dès qu'elle était hors de portée de voix, le visage de Simon a changé.

« Pourquoi tu as dit ça, Leïla ? » il a chuchoté furieusement. « Pourquoi tu n’as pas dit à Claire que nous nous connaissons déjà ? »

« Je ne sais pas, Simon. Je ne suis pas sûre. Je pense juste que j’ai paniqué, » j’ai avoué en détournant le regard.

« Pourquoi paniquer ? Qu'est-ce qui pourrait te paniquer ? Ne vois-tu pas que c'est une incroyable coïncidence ? Comment n'avons-nous pas compris le lien ? C'est fou, et maintenant tu viens de mentir à ce sujet ! À quoi pensais-tu ? »

Mon visage m’a trahi lorsque l’image de mon rêve a traversé mon esprit. Nous deux, sous un arbre, si détendus en compagnie l’un de l’autre, la main de Simon effleurant tendrement mes cheveux derrière mon épaule.

Voyant mon visage rougir, Simon a semblé se radoucir. « Leïla, allez. Dis-moi. Pourquoi as-tu compliqué les choses ? Pourquoi n'as-tu pas simplement dit la vérité ? »

« Oh Simon, je ne sais pas ! Je ne suis pas sûre, je sentais juste que je ne devais pas l’admettre. » Je l’ai regardé d’un air suppliant.

« Admettre quoi, Leïla ? Que nous nous connaissons ? Ce n'est pas un crime de connaître des gens, Leïla. »

« Non, je sais, mais ce n’est pas seulement ça. Je suis ici avec ma famille… » Ma voix s’est éteinte alors que je cherchais une manière de m’exprimer.

« Qu'est-ce que ta famille a à voir avec ça ? Nous n'avons rien à cacher, n’est-ce pas Leïla ? »

Je ne pouvais pas croiser le regard de Simon.

« N’est-ce pas Leïla ? Si c’est le cas, je dois savoir ! »

« Maman, je peux avoir un verre d'eau, s'il te plaît ? » a demandé Anouk en entrant dans la cuisine, se frottant les yeux. Je dois te dire, je suis toujours heureuse de voir ma fille, mais cette fois-ci son timing était absolument parfait.

A sense of panic took hold of me as Claire looked expectantly between the two of us. “Sorry, have you met before? I can’t remember if you have.”



I felt Simon’s eyes on me as I twisted the tea towel around my hand nervously, hoping I was projecting a nonchalant air.



Finally, I managed to squeak out: “No, we haven’t…I don’t think,” I added weakly.

I saw Simon’s eyebrows raise and I blushed immediately.



“No, of course you haven’t. I always forget, Leïla, this is your first time here, isn’t it? Well, this is my lovely brother-in-law, Simon. Simon, this is Leïla, Amina’s equally lovely sister-in-law,” with that, Claire laughed and the tension broke. I breathed a small sigh of relief.



“Nice to meet you, Leïla,” Simon said stiffly. “Are you enjoying your time here?”



“Yes, very much, thank you. It’s my first time here and I feel so lucky to finally be able to meet Amina’s English family. I’ve heard about you for so long and everything she’s said is true. I can understand why she feels so at home here.”



“And now you finally get to meet Simon, so you know the whole family. I’m sure the two of you will get along very well.” Finally, Simon smiled and I felt my whole body relax. I placed the tea towel on the counter.



Just then, a car pulled up in the drive. “That’ll be them!” said Claire, “I’ll go out and help them unpack. You two can get to know one another.” Claire walked towards the front door and as soon as she was out of earshot, Simon’s face changed.

“What on earth did you say that, Leïla?” he whispered furiously. “Why didn’t you tell Claire we already know one another?”



“I don’t know, Simon. I’m not sure. I just think I panicked,” I admitted, looking away.



“Why would you panic? What is there to even panic about? Can’t you see this for the incredible coincidence that it is? How did we not figure out the connection? This is crazy, and you’ve now just lied about it! What were you thinking?”



My face betrayed me as the image from my dream flashed into my mind. The two of us, under a tree, so relaxed in one another’s company, Simon’s hand tenderly brushing my hair behind my shoulder.



Seeing my face redden, Simon seemed to soften. “Leïla, come on. Tell me. Why did you make this so complicated? Why didn’t you just tell the truth?”.



“Oh Simon, I don’t know! I’m not sure, I just felt as though I shouldn’t admit to it.” I looked at him pleadingly.



“Admit to what, Leïla? That we know each other? It’s not a crime to know people, Leïla.”

“No, I know, but it’s not just that. I’m here with my family…” My voice trailed off as I searched for a way to express myself.



“What’s your family got to do with it? We’ve got nothing to hide, have we Leïla?”.

I couldn’t meet Simon’s eye.

“Have we Leïla? If we have, I need to know!”


“Mum, can I have a glass of water, please?” Anouk asked as she entered the kitchen, rubbing her eyes. I have to tell you, I’m always happy to see my daughter, but on this occasion her timing was absolutely perfect.

Fun French Expression: Arrête ton char!

Have a friend or family member who can’t help but fib (or raconte des salades*)? Then the French expression “Arrête ton char!” is one to keep up your sleeve.

Directly translated as “Stop your chariot!”, the familiar expression can be used in place of “Come off it!”, “Stop messing around!” or “Give me a break!”. Essentially, it's the verbal equivalent of an eye roll.

Utile, non*?

*lie/ tell tall tales | *Useful, no?

La Petite Histoire

If you've ever done a group lesson here at Lingua Franca, you've probably come into contact with La Petite Histoire*. A tale with the very humblest of beginnings, it winds up becoming a rollicking schlockbuster as you move up the levels and your French improves enough to handle the outrageous (some would say impossible) turns of events of the six young friends.

La Petite Histoire is currently only available to our students, however La Préquelle is for everyone’s enjoyment. Below, another instalment of this new series, the final chapter of the Advanced 1 level.

*The Little Story | *The Prequel

« Au revoir ! Amusez-vous bien ! » Les enfants et moi faisons signe au reste du groupe depuis le jardin devant la maison de Robert et Beth. Les anciens parents d'accueil d'Amina emmènent Hervé et Amina à Stonehenge pour la journée. Finalement, Michael, l'ancien frère d'accueil d'Amina, décide de les accompagner pour faire office de guide non officiel. Comme promis, Claire, la femme de Michael, doit arriver dans environ une demi-heure pour pratiquer un peu d'anglais avec moi autour d'une tasse de thé.

« Allez les filles, à l'intérieur. C'est l'heure de votre sieste du matin. Allez hop. » dis-je en les faisant entrer dans le cottage.

Trente minutes plus tard, la sonnette retentit. « Pile à l'heure, » pensai-je en ouvrant la porte. Claire sourit sur le pas de la porte, un Tupperware à la main.

« Qu'est-ce que c'est ? » demandai-je, grimaçant à cause de mon anglais basique.

« Des scones bien sûr ! On ne peut pas prendre une tasse de thé sans eux. Après tout, tu es en Angleterre, » plaisanta-t-elle en entrant dans le hall.

Quelques minutes plus tard, nous sommes installées à la table de la salle à manger, une tasse de thé à la main.

Notre conversation commence lentement. Je trouve que je peux comprendre la plupart de ce que Claire me dit, mais quand il s'agit de répondre, les mots ne sortent pas comme je le veux. Claire parle très clairement et soigneusement, donc je n'ai pas l'impression que mon cerveau se bloque comme cela arrive parfois pendant nos cours à l'université. C'est plutôt que je me sens si à l'aise en sa présence et que j'ai tellement de choses à dire, mais chaque fois que j'ouvre la bouche, je me rends compte que je ne sais pas comment le dire en anglais. C'est très frustrant.

Claire doit sentir quelque chose, car après quelques minutes, elle me dit : « Leïla, je ne veux pas t'insulter, mais quand j'ai appris l'allemand au lycée, je me souviens très distinctement que notre professeur nous a félicités juste avant nos examens finaux en disant que nous étions maintenant capables de parler allemand au niveau d'un enfant de huit ans. Nous étions dévastés ! »

Je souris à ma nouvelle amie. « Je ne suis pas du tout insultée, Claire, tu es gentille de penser à mes sentiments. J'adorerais pouvoir parler comme un enfant français de huit ans. Ils peuvent dire beaucoup de choses ! »

« Ouf ! » dit-elle. « D'accord alors, voici ce que notre professeur nous a dit. Puisque tu es maintenant un enfant de huit ans, fais semblant de parler à quelqu'un d'encore plus jeune, peut-être à ton petit frère ou ta petite sœur. Cela t'aidera à simplifier ton langage et donc tu seras plus susceptible de trouver les mots. »

« Ça me va, Claire. Merci. » Je suis étrangement soulagée de ne pas avoir à formuler des phrases sophistiquées. Nous parlons de nos familles, de nos lieux de croissance et de nos goûts et dégoûts et, au fil des minutes, je me sens de plus en plus ouverte avec elle. Devoir simplifier mon langage au niveau d'un enfant semble avoir l'effet de clarifier mes sentiments sur ma vie, qui, pendant ce voyage au moins, ont été quelque peu confus. Même ainsi, je suis aussi surprise que Claire lorsque, en réponse à sa question sur ma vie idéale, ma réponse est « voyage, aventure et amour ».

Un peu choquée, Claire dit : « Mais tu n'as pas déjà ça, Leïla ? Je veux dire, tu es ici, non ? »

« Oui, c'est de l'amour dont je parle, » j’ai avoué, les larmes aux yeux.

« Qu'est-ce que tu veux dire ? » demande doucement Claire en baissant sa tasse de thé.

Juste à ce moment-là, la sonnette retentit. « Je me demande qui cela peut être ? » dit Claire en se levant de la table. « Je vais ouvrir, Leïla, mais si jamais tu veux continuer cette conversation, fais-le moi savoir. »

« Ça ira, » dis-je rapidement, « mais merci. Laisse-moi débarrasser ces tasses. »

Je suis entrée dans la cuisine pour rassembler mes pensées, m'agrippant à l'évier et prenant quelques respirations profondes pour essayer de me calmer. Je devais être complètement perdue dans mon petit monde. Quelque chose doit expliquer mon choc total lorsque, quelques instants plus tard, j’ai entendu une voix masculine que j’ai cru reconnaître, suivie immédiatement par Claire entrant dans la cuisine et disant : « Leïla, est-ce que tu as rencontré Simon ? »

“Bye! Have fun!”

The children and I waved goodbye to the rest of the gang from the front garden of Robert and Beth’s house. Amina’s former host parents were taking Hervé and Amina to Stonehenge for the day. In the end, Michael, Amina’s former host brother, had decided to go along, too, to act as unofficial tour guide. As promised, Claire, Michael’s wife, was due to arrive in about half an hour to do some English speaking practice with me over a cup of tea.

“Come on girls, inside. It’s time for your morning nap. Scoot.” I directed as I ushered them inside the cottage.

Thirty minutes later the doorbell rang. “Right on time,” I thought, as I opened the door. A smiling Claire was on the doorstep, Tupperware in hand.

“What is it?” I asked, wincing at my basic English.

“Scones of course! We can’t have a cup of tea without them. You’re in England, after all,” she joked as she stepped into the hall.

A few minutes later we were settled at the dining room table, cups of tea in hand.

Our conversation started off slowly. I found I could understand most of what Claire was saying to me, but when it came time to respond, the words just wouldn’t come out the way I wanted them to. Claire spoke very clearly and carefully, so I didn’t get the feeling of my brain freezing as I sometimes used notice during our lectures at uni. It was more that I was so comfortable in her presence and had so much to say, but that each time I went to open my mouth I realised that I had no idea how to say it in English. It was so frustrating.

Claire must have sensed something, because after a few minutes she said to me. “Leïla, I don’t want to insult you, but when I learned German at high school, I remember very distinctly our teacher congratulating us just before our final exams, saying we were now able to speak German at the level of an eight-year-old. We were devastated!”

I smiled at my new friend. “I’m hardly insulted, Claire, though you’re kind to consider my feelings. I’d love to be able to speak like an eight year old French child. They can say a lot!” 

“Phew!” she said. “Okay then, here’s what our teacher told us. Since you’re now an eight-year-old, pretend you’re speaking to someone even younger, maybe your little brother or sister. It’ll help you simplify your language and therefore you’ll be more likely to get the words out.”

“Sounds good to me, Claire. Thank you.” I was strangely relieved to not have to formulate sophisticated sentences. We covered our families, where we grew up and our likes and dislikes and as the minutes wore on, I found myself opening up to her more and more. Having to simplify my language to the level of a child seemed to have the effect of clarifying my feelings about my life, which during this trip at least, had been somewhat confused.

Even so, I was as surprised as Claire was when in response to her question about my ideal life, my answer was ‘travel, adventure and love’.



Slightly shocked, Claire said: “But don’t you have that already, Leïla? I mean, you’re here aren’t you?”



“Yes, it’s the love part I’m talking about,” I admitted, tears welling in my eyes.

“What do you mean?” Claire asked gently, lowering her tea cup.



Just then the doorbell rang. “I wonder who that is?” Claire said, getting up from the table. “I’ll get the door, Leïla, but if you ever want to continue this conversation, you just let me know.”



“I’ll be fine,” I said quickly, “but thank you. Let me clear these cups.”



I went into the kitchen to gather my thoughts, holding onto the sink and taking a few deep breaths in an effort to calm self. I must have been completely lost in my own little world. Something has to account for my total shock when a few moments later, I heard a male voice I thought I recognised, followed straight away by Claire walking into the kitchen and saying: “Leïla, have you met Simon?”


Olympic Glossary: Fun French Sporting Expressions

Want to sound like a pro discussing the Olympics with your French friends? From ‘envoyer une pizza*’ to ‘prendre un caramel*’ (not as pleasant as it sounds), this fun Olympic glossary will arm you with some weird and wonderful sporting expressions to try out at your next soirée.

*to hit a volleyball in a straight line that’s as flat as a pizza |* to hit the ground hard when tackled

How to Learn French - Another five-minute fix

In writing last month’s article on five-minute fixes, I realised two things:

1. There are plenty more where the first five came from, and

2. Fixing these seemingly small errors can really make a very positive difference in how others perceive your French.

So, let’s get going on another five to further hone your French in a way that is très efficace* !

We breeze right past them in English, yet for some reason we tend to hesitate when faced with an apostrophe in French. Not all of them of course…

For example, very few people skip a beat when they say j’ai*. You likely know that j’ai is a contraction of je (meaning ‘I’) and ai (meaning ‘have’), but I’d bet you don’t pause when you see the apostrophe, do you? You’re so used to saying j’ai that you say it as if it were one word, just as you’ve never dream of making a pitstop at the apostrophe in the English contraction ‘don’t’.

However, with less commonly used words, we find that some students baulk like a showjumper whose horse is afraid of water.

Have you ever had un doute* when it comes to these?:

aujourd’hui (o-zhoor-dwee)
jusqu’à (zhu-skuh)
hors d’œuvre (or-der-vre)
ce qu’il (se-kil)
ce qu’elle (se-kel)

Many have, so ne vous inquiétez pas*. You just need to train yourself to glide right on past the apostrophe, treating it as though it’s just one word. Don’t risk being thrown off, just gather your linguistic reins, squeeze your thighs against your steed and prepare yourself to sail over the word with all the grace and ease of an Olympic champion. Bon courage*!  

Things can start to snowball pronunciation-wise when we see both an apostrophe and an ‘h’ right next to one another. Think, for example, of the word j’habite*, which many of our beginners struggle to master.

However, now that you know to completely ignore any apostrophes you see, you’ve managed to get rid of one barrier at least.

Then when I tell you that in French all ‘h’s are silent, just like that, there goes the other one!

By ignoring both the apostrophe and the letter ‘h’, you’ve effectively rendered it a single word that looks like this:

jabite
(pronounced ‘zhuh-beet’)

Pas si difficile* after all, huh?

Other examples to try:

l’homme = lomme
(pronounced ‘lom’)

l’huile = luile
(pronounced ‘lweel’)

je m’habille = je mabille
(pronounced ‘zhe mubee’)

Having tackled the double whammy now, let’s return to simpler times: the letter ‘h’ by itself. Remember, wherever it may crop up, you have permission to ignore it completely. For example:

heureux
(pronounced eu-reu)

histoire
(pronounced iss-twar)

herbe
(pronounced airb)

What can trip us up à nouveau* is when we see an ‘h’ sitting cheek by jowl with a ‘t’, as in the word théâtre*, for example. So used are we to pronouncing ‘th’ the English way, it can seem counterintuitive to pronounce only the ‘t’, but this is exactly what you must do.

théâtre
(pronounced tay-ahtre)

mathématiques
(pronounced mat-ey-mat-eek)

Édith
(pronounced Ey-deet)

By the way, you may take some comfort in the fact that the French generally find formulating the English ‘th’ sound very difficult. We take it for granted, but try consciously making that lisping sound yourself (or indeed explaining to someone how to do it) and you’ll likely appreciate that no matter the language, there will always be challenges. Surely that’s part of the fun?

This one is relatively easy to fix: fille* rhymes with the English word ‘fee’. Alternatively, if pronouncing the word famille* (fum-ee) is second nature to you, then you may prefer to align fille with that word, since they’re from the same family (poor pun most definitely intended).

The fact that fils (the French word for ‘son’) rhymes with ‘police’ works for me, but if you’re looking for something different, try thinking of the French tennis player, Gaël Monfils.

If you can hear the commentator saying ‘mon-feece’, you’ve got the right idea. By the way, have you ever thought that his surname literally means ‘my son’? Moi non plus* until recently, but there you are.

Pronouncing the ‘s’ on the word ans* when saying your age is a classic error and it’s not confined to absolute beginners. Oftentimes, when students first learn to say their age, they’re so focused on saying j’ai and not je suis*, that the ‘s’ on ans just slips out. If it’s not picked up early on, it can become an unconscious habit, but if you’re reading this now and you realise this applies to you, ça suffit*. You can stop now.

We really hope you’ve found these quick fixes of benefit to you. There may well be a fresh crop next month. By the way, if you think of a quick fix that could be included in a future article, please feel free to let us know in the comments.

*very efficient | *I have | *a doubt | *don’t worry | *Good luck | *I live | *so hard | *anew | *theatre | *girl/daughter | *family | *Me neither | *years | *I am | *that’s enough