How to Learn French - gee whizz!

I feel as though I’m developing a bit of a rhythm here with the French letters C and G. Make sure you’re sitting down before reading this next sentence:

It’s starting to make logical sense!

Let me explain.

Recently, we’ve been learning about how the sound of the letter C changes according to which vowel follows it. In cases where a forced change is required, the French use the c cédille (ç).

To summarise:

HARD C SOUNDS
after a, o and u

café
collège
cumin

SOFT C SOUNDS
after e, i and y

cent
merci
cymbales

FORCED SOFT C SOUNDS
use c cédille

ça va
garçon
reçu

After investigating the letter G, it seems there’s a pattern emerging.

HARD G SOUNDS
before a, o, and u

garage
golf
aigu (acute)

See the similarity? Hard C sounds are produced when followed by the same vowels.

SOFT G SOUNDS
before e, i and y

mange
gîte
gynécologue (think you can guess…)

Again, a soft C sound is produced when followed by the same vowels. Intéressant, non*?

Like the verb commencer, which uses a c cédille to soften the pronunciation of certain conjugations (compare je commence and nous commençons, for example), the verb manger also makes a small change in the spelling for the sake of the desired sound. This, by the way, is why these verbs are often called ‘spelling change verbs’. The name says it all and now hopefully you understand why. I don’t know about you, but once I know the “why” I find what I learn is much more likely to stick.

Take a look:

MANGER - to eat
present tense

je mange
tu manges
il/elle/on mange
nous mangeons
vous mangez
ils/elles mangent

Remember, the endings for regular -er verbs are e, es, e, ons, ez and ent, not ‘eons’.

UN PETIT PLUS*

Lastly, and very interestingly, on the subject of hard Gs, you’ll find many words that start with GU have another vowel directly after them. In fact, I’m unable to find a French word (not a loan word) that has a hard G sound where the GU start of the word is followed by a consonant. Here are a couple of examples:

guerre
guide
Guy*

(Note: the Y here is acting as a vowel, not a consonant).

Since French was a spoken language long before it was ever written down, and the words for “war” and “guide” already possessed hard G sounds, a sneaky little U was inserted between the G and the following vowel to preserve the hard sound when those words were transcribed. Clever, don’t you think? It’s as though the U is protecting the G and the other vowel (whether an E, an I or a Y) from getting too close and “ruining” the sound by softening it. Am I the only person to find that absolutely fascinating?

If so, I’ll just let that last sentence hang there and you can judge away. I stand by my feelings!

Interesting, isn’t it? Something extra

How to Learn French - Ça va?

In a previous post I talked about a huge déclic* I had when I learned that the letter C behaves as it does in English, changing sound according to the vowel that follows it. The irony was that I had never considered this in my native language before coming across it in French!

Today we’re going to look at the effect of my second-favourite French accent, the C cedilla (or c cédille, as it’s known in French).

Even if you’re new to French, you’ve almost certainly seen this quirky little mark hanging off the bottom of the letter C, like a number five without its lid.

The c cédille is used when the French want to force a pronunciation change. That is, when they want to soften a hard C. Remember how we spoke about hard C sounds when the C is followed by an A, O or U, as in the words café, collège and cumin? In those instances the soft C sound is created naturally. However, if you want to get autoritaire* with a C sound that precedes one of these three vowels, you’ll need to call in the help of the ç cédille.

Here are some examples, most of which I’m sure you’ve seen before:

ça va
garçon
reçu (receipt or received)

And some more:

façade
leçon
déçu (disappointed)

If you’ve done a bit more French than the average ours* you may have also seen it pop up in certain verbs conjugations. Again its sole purpose is to soften a C sound which would otherwise be hard given the letter that follows it. Here’s an example:

COMMENCER - to start
present tense

je commence
tu commences
il/elle/on commence
nous commençons
vous commencez
ils/elles commencent

This is true for other verbs, such as placer*, lancer* and avancer*, among others. Hopefully that will bring some logic to what often appears as pure caprice* with your conjugation spellings.

Enjoy!

*realisation | *bossy | *bear | *capriciousness

How to Learn French - all at C no longer

It is often said that learning a second language improves your mastery over your mother tongue. A few years ago, and very late in my French-learning, I learned a French pronunciation rule that helped me understand why I pronounced certain English words in the way I did. Ça a fait tilt*, I can tell you!

So here it is. In French, when the letter C is followed by the vowels A, O or U, a hard sound is produced. For example:

café
collège
cumin

However, when a C is followed by the vowels E, I (or Y for that matter), a soft sound results. Like this:

cent
merci
cymbales

The bit that blew me away? It’s exactly the same in English. Think about it:

cat
cotton
cut

but

century
city
mercy

Tell me I’m not the only person who didn’t know this! I suspect I’m not alone.

This also made the function of the c cédille (or c cedilla in English) so much clearer. That is, when the French have a word that has a soft C sound where the C is followed a vowel that usually produces a hard C, they add a ç to soften it. For example:

ça va
garçon
reçu

Ça a du sens*? I hope so.

I think that even if it’s not crystal clear right away, it will become so as you start to notice more and more examples in your workbooks. I hope, too, that as this idea firms up in your head, it will help you to feel more confident in pronouncing French words you’ve not previously seen.

Believe it or not, the rules of French pronunciation are rarely broken (I promise!) so go ahead safe in the knowledge that if you apply the rules above, you’ll almost always be right.

*It clicked | *Does that make sense?

How to Learn French - Tchao for now!

Bonjour* !

In the last How to Learn French post we looked at the sonorous French sound, ‘ch’. A joy to pronounce, we’re lucky that it’s a common sound so you’ll have plenty of practice in perfecting it.

A less common sound in French, though, is a hard ‘ch’ as in the English word ‘cheese’. So rare, in fact, that it doesn’t really exist. It wasn’t until the French started borrwing words from other languages that they even saw the need for such a sound. Since it didn’t exist, they set about inventing it, by popping a ‘t’ in front of the ‘ch’ to mimic the pronunciation of those foreign words.

Though it can look a little strange, don’t be afraid of it. Just ignore the ‘t’ and proceed with a ‘cheese’ sound and you’ll be on your way!

The following words have all been borrowed from other languages. See if you can work out which ones.

tchao
tchèque
tchécoslovaque
tchador
tchadien(ne)
tchat

*Hello

How to Learn French - Champagne?

Bonjour* !

Il y a longtemps*, here at Lingua Franca, we ran a workshop which examined the most beautiful words in French. The research we did for that was an unmitigated pleasure I’ll never forget.

What we found along the way is that while everyone has their own favourite French words, (papillon* sticks in my mind as a bit of a chart-topper), there are particular sounds that seem to have almost universal appeal.

The soft French sound ‘ch’ was high on the list. Many of you would have learned the French word for ‘cow’ (vache) early on in your learning and are likely confident as to its pronunciation, so take that as your anchor word if it appeals.

Somehow (to my ears at least) it feels superior to the English sound ‘sh’ as in shower. They’re very close as far as sounds go, but I’ve just done a very unscientific test as I’m writing this, and I think the French sound does indeed have a touch more panache*, if you’ll forgive me.

When we pronounce the French sound ‘ch’, our lips are more rounded and the jaw moves forward to fully facilitate the sound. Exaggerate your pronunciation of, say, chambre* or mouche* and you’ll see what I mean. Now just rein it in a little, but retain a slight pout, and you’ll be on your way.

The following mots* are an absolute pleasure to pronounce, so enjoy!

Next time, we’ll be focusing on the altogether more Germanic-, English- or even Persian-sounding (as it turns out) sound of tch. Tchao* !

Some of the most beautiful words in French contain the ‘ch’ sound. I’m sure you have your own.

champagne
échantillon
Chantilly
Chouchou
choufleur
chéri(e)
chaleureux
charme

The list goes on. And on…

*Hello | *A long time ago | *butterfly | *flair | *bedroom | *fly | *word | *Bye

How to Learn French - Lamb to the slaughter

Bonjour*!

One of our long-term Chouchous*, Deb, told me of a pronunciation adventure she had while travelling and it has never left me. Granted, she was in Italy at the time, but the lesson she learned that day holds true for le français* as well.

Deb was at a butcher’s and decided she like the look of a cut of lamb. Though her Italian was limited, she did know the word for lamb (agnello) and so, in a communication style known to many of you called the “point-and-utter-the-one-word-you-know” trick, she indicated toward the lamb and said “agnello”. The butcher’s was blindée* with locals jostling to place their orders. The woman behind the counter seemed to not understand Deb’s request, so determinedly, she repeated the word ‘agnello’ pronouncing the word as she’d seen it spelled, with a hard ‘g’ as in ‘golf’.

Still, the butcher wasn’t getting it, so Deb had another go. No luck. Again she tried, this time softer as she was becoming increasingly embarrassed at holding everyone up. Finally, it twigged, and the butcher, loudly and in front of everyone, said “Ah ! Sí ! Agnello ! ” pronouncing the ‘g’ softly, as in the start of the English word ‘nuisance’. Possibly a poor choice of example (sorry, Deb!), but I use it to illustrate that the ‘gn’ sound in Italian, as in French, is pronounced like ‘nye’. Think of how the word champagne is pronounced in French and you’ve got the idea.

Though the butcher could now go about completing the commercial transaction, she wasn’t finished with her linguistic one. “Agnello ! ”, she repeated to Deb, emphasising the soft ‘g’ sound. Deb nodded and smiled, but the Italian woman repeated it again and again, in front of the whole shop, before it dawned on Deb that she wasn’t going to stop until Deb gave it a go herself, which she dutifully did.

The butcher’s face lit up at her refined pronunciation and, as if Deb’s reward was for her to trot out her own broken English, said “Yes! Lamb!”, heartily pronouncing the ‘b’.

Some very useful words contain the ‘gn’ sound. Here is a selection to get you started.

agneau
champagne
champignon
gagner
mignon
Avignon
campagne

So, let’s add our new sound to the table pour voir ce que ça donne*.

Line by line, your French pronunciation is improving. Bravo!

*Hello | *Teacher’s pet | *French | *packed | *Well done

How to Learn French - mind your p's and q's.

Bonjour!

I thought I’d include the sound ‘qu’ in this very short post, as it’s a sound that can be overlooked at times, so bears clarifying.

Where in English we tend to make a ‘kw’ sound for this two letter combination (think ‘quiet’ and ‘equine’), for the French it is a very straightforward ‘k’ sound. Sometimes we hear beginners saying quand as though it’s spelled ‘kwand’, but this is an error that is usually rectified fairly quickly. What you might like to know, though, is that ‘qu’ as a ‘k’ sound in French is one you can count on.

Now for some examples. Remember, be confident in just making a ‘k’ sound. You won’t go wrong, except if you run across an English word the French have borrowed (eg le quiz where they tend to stick to the original pronunciation).

époque
que
inquiet
quartier
qu’est-ce que

What about quoi and pourquoi I am sure I can hear you exclaiming? Although these words make us feel as though we’re using an English ‘kw’ pronunciation, it’s actually the oi that is making a ‘wa’ sound. Tricky, non*?

*Hello | *era | *that | *worried | *suburb | *what | *no

How to Learn French - what the 'ell?

Bonjour!

We’re only going to add one tiny square in this instalment, but once again, it’s an important one.

The pronunciation of words like fille* and famille* is confusing to many, myself included in the earlier years. I remember never being 100% confident even though they’re relatively basic words, and ones that come up a lot.

I can now see why I was so confused. At around the same time, I was learning some other very useful words, such as ville*, mille* and tranquille*, which, as you may know, are not pronounced in the same way as those to which I’ve referred above.

Mais pourquoi pas*? It may surprise you to know that there is a method in this apparent madness. That is, the pronunciation of each of these words can be predicted to a large degree, so it’s best to learn the rule rather than faire à l’arrache*.

This is the default rule for the pronunciation of words containing I-L-L-E. If you’re ever not sure, go with the pronunciation below. I can’t promise you you’ll be right, but you’ll at least have backed the horse with the shortest odds:

the combination of the letters I-L-L-E produces a sound I don’t believe we have in English, but which is a combination of the English letters ‘e’ and ‘y’.

To really nail the sound in French, you’ll need to go back to your anchor word for the letter i, whether that be lit*, ici*, voici* or even something else - maybe merci*?). The tricky bit is that the L-L-E letters that follow it together make a sound akin to an English ‘y’, such as the ‘y’ sound in the word ‘yellow’. So now we have a French i combined with an English ‘y’ sound. If you’re finding that hard to imagine, trying pronouncing the English word ‘key’ and emphasising the ‘y’ sound a little bit. This will get you quite close to the sound we’re after. Imagine then, that instead of saying the word ‘key’, you’re now saying the word ‘fee’ in English. Now pretend there’s a ‘y’ on the end of it. Bravo*! You’ve just made a very good pass at pronouncing the French word for girl, fille.

Now for des précisions*. Be sure to make the i sound of fille very short and tight. Remember, it should rhyme with lit, ici or voici, not the more elongated double ‘e’s of the English words ‘keep’, ‘sleep’ and ‘tree’.

famille
cheville*
Bastille

(*ankle)

Alors voilà*! This is the rule for how the I-L-L-E sound is pronounced. Facile, non*?

Now I know you’d be disappointed if there were no exceptions to this rule, so allow me not to briser ton cœur*. There are. There doesn’t seem to be any rime ou raison*, though, so here are the most common rule-breakers. With these petits rebelles*, remember to sound the ‘l’s (so ville will rhyme with the English word ‘fill’) and you’ll be sur la bonne piste*. 

ville
mille
tranquille
Lille

The rest are better to learn as you go, I think. They’re fairly obscure words and even if someone does correct you, you’ll likely forget by the time you go to use them again, if you ever do (I’m still waiting for my second chance to use bacille*, for example).

By the way, if ever you have any questions about these articles, please feel free to leave a comment below and I’ll do my very best to help you.

*daughter | *family | *city | *thousand | *calm | *But why not | *take a helter-skelter approach | *bed | *here | *here is | *thank you | *Well done | * some details | *So there you go | *Easy, isn't it? | *break your heart | *rhyme or reason | *little rebels | *on the right track | *bacillus

How to Learn French - Rule of thumb

Bref et concis* but a really good précision* for many, today we’re talking about one of the most mispronounced words in French: the word for woman (or wife), femme.

Most often, we hear this mispronounced as rhyming with the English word ‘gem’, rather than the word ‘thumb’, which the sound resembles most closely.

I remember being so surprised when I learned that the e in words containing the combination emm in French was pronounced as though it was a French a sound. If you’ve been following these posts, you’ll know that the anchor word I use for a in French is ça va. And if you’ve done your devoirs*, you’ll also know that sound is very close to the u sound in the English word ‘cup’. Read on for some more illuminations* (hopefully)…

By the way, it’s not just femme that has this English u sound. Here are a few others to ponder.

femme
évidemment
fréquemment
différemment
patiemment

If you’ve been trying out your French on native-speakers for a decent period of time, I am confident you would’ve already been (kindly) corrected on your pronunciation of the word évidemment. I certainly was (more than once, until it clicked), but I thought it must have been an exception. In fact, it’s not, it’s just that the combination of emm in the middle of a word makes that ‘u’ sound we’ve been talking about.

Alors, voilà!* Only one square added this time, but an important one, nonetheless.

*Short and sweet | *clarification | *homework | *lightbulb moments | *So there you go

How to Learn French - same but different

Hopefully since the last post you’ve reflected on the sentence below, which contains all four nasal vowels. A nasal vowel is a vowel followed by an ‘n’ or an ‘m’, as you may remember.

This post is devoted to those nasal vowels followed by ‘m’s, as well as some variations in spelling, for nasal vowels containing both ‘n’s and ‘m’s.

The good news is, there’s really nothing new to learn here, as these nasal sounds are pronounced exactly as those above. You will, see, however, that our grid has a bit more girth these days, which I hope you’ll perceive as a broadening of your pronunciation skills.

The aim today, therefore, is simply to notice this fact, and of course, have fun choosing your anchor words. Allez-y*!

There are very few words containing this sound, but here’s one you likely know.

humble

For those of you with eagle eyes, you’ll have now realised that the following two words are pronounced exactly the same:

non
nom

I hope this is reassuring to you, reducing, as it does, the options for pronunciation.

Here are some other words containing om that you may know:

comptable
ombre
comptoir
plombier

This sound certainly spreads itself around and is found in the following spellings. Remember, all of these sounds are pronounced exactly the same as the in in vin, despite the various ways they appear on the page.

pain
faim
plein
Reims*
syndicat
sympa

Okay, okay, this most particular of place names does break the rules of pronunciation, I admit, but probably not where you think it does. It is just the pronouncing of the final ‘s’ that is unusual. The rest of the word conforms to the rules and is therefore pronounced similarly to the word ‘dance’ in Australian English (that is, if you don’t pronounce it ‘dahnce’. Tu vois*? English is aberrant, aussi*!)

Remember, these nasal vowels rhyme with those found in enfant, which, helpfully, rhyme with one another.

jambon
framboise
champignon
ambulance

exemple
embouteillage
embrasser
température


Et voilà*! I hope you can see the strides you’re making now that we’ve laid the foundations of French pronunciation. See you next month for more!

*Let’s go! | *You see | *as well | *And there you go

How to Learn French - follow your nose

If you’ve become a regular reader of these posts, you may remember we started our pronunciation adventure all the way back with the vowels a, e, i (y), o and u. I hope by now you feel confident pronouncing them and that you know your anchor words off by heart.

If you’re new to the blog, the use of anchor words is a fairly common practice for those learning to pronounce a second language. These are words that you absolutely know how to pronounce and by extension allow you to pronounce a whole host of other words that contain the same sounds. Apart from the exceptions, (bien sûr*). 

I can almost hear you howling from here about French and its plentiful exceptions, but I promise you that on the pronunciation side of things, at least, there are very few exceptions to the rule. Don’t believe me? Follow this blog to the bitter end and you’ll see that the pronunciation table we’re building has a form to it that will satisfy even the most méticuleux* of reader.

Today we’re going to look at nasal vowels, which for me are what makes French sound so…well, French. If you think of a caricature of a French person (say Pepé Le Pew or Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau) their overblown accents are often due to an exaggeration of the four nasals vowels. Read on to find out un peu plus*.

By the way, here are my personal anchor words for the French vowels. Please do not feel hidebound by mine. While you’re welcome to use them, it is a really great exercise for you to find your own.

LES VOYELLES FRANÇAISES - KATRINA’S ANCHOR WORDS

A - ça va
E - je
I/Y - ici
O - tomate
U - tu

Okay, so now let’s take a look at these very special-sounding vowels - les voyelles nasales*.

Step 1…

This (admittedly) very memorable French phrase encapsulates the nasal vowels in one easy-to-understand sentence: a good white wine.

There are officially four different nasal vowels in French, though many French people will say the sounds un and in sounds are exactly the same. While it’s true the difference is très nuancée*, each have separate phonetic symbols so for now at least, we have quatre* to learn. Don’t worry, though, if you can’t hear the difference between the two. In a hundred years or so, there will likely only be three of them and you’ll have been proven right.

Choose your favourite word below to become your anchor word. There are actually very few words that contain un in French. Next post you’ll see that the sound um is exactly the same (see, I told you it’d get easier!) so there’ll be a few more of them to choose from.

un
lundi
quelqu’un
aucun
chacun


MAKE THE SOUND: Try saying ‘un’ as in ‘unhappy’. Now say it again, but don’t say the ‘n’. This sound approximates the sound you want. 

bon
mon
tonton
chanson
oncle

MAKE THE SOUND: Try saying the English word ‘on’. Now say it again but do not pronounce the ‘n’. Your mouth should finish open, not with your tongue on the roof of your mouth. 

cousin
intelligent
fin
lapin
prince

MAKE THE SOUND: Try saying the English word ‘an’ as in ‘an apple’ without finishing the ‘n’ sound. This is quite close to the sound you’re after. 

enfant
enfin
dans
antique
dent

MAKE THE SOUND: The two sounds are identical. Think of the word enchanté, in which it appears twice. 

So, let’s take a look at our pronunciation table after the addition of the nasal vowels. You’ll see we’ve added four extra rows, as the sounds are completely different to all those that have preceded them.

Ne vous inquiétez pas*, though, next post we’ll fill out those new rows in a really satisfying (and hopefully helpful) way.

*of course | *meticulous | *a bit more | *the nasal vowels | *very nuanced | *four | *Don’t worry

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

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

Tricky Words to Pronounce in French

From the exaggerated R to all the unpronounced letters, there’s no denying French pronunciation can be difficult for native English speakers. So, if you find yourself regularly tripping over ta langue*, rest assured you’re far from alone!

To help you gain confidence when reading aloud or conversing, here is a list of 10 everyday, notoriously tricky French mots* with helpful pronunciation tips. 

You can also find many of the same words here, plus some new tongue twisters with pronunciation included.

With a little practice (and a dash of bravado), you'll soon be reciting this list les doigts dans le nez*!

*your tongue | *words |*very easily (with your fingers in your nose)

The 15 Hardest French Words to Pronounce

Learning grammar and memorising vocab are tough. But for many of our chouchous*, the biggest challenge of all is mastering French pronunciation.

It’s a problem shared by language learners and this article, ’The 15 Hardest French Words to Pronounce (with English Translations)’, will make you feel seen. If not entirely heard.

This list is by no means definitive, but ne vous inquiétez pas*. Our teachers are busy compiling une liste* of the words Lingua Franca students find the trickiest, plus some essential tips to help you parlez* like pros. Stay tuned.

*teacher’s pets | *don’t worry | *a list | *speak

Vrais amis

In the very first lesson of our Absolute Beginner 1 course, we introduce you to the idea of cognates: words shared between languages. English has more than 7 500 of these words from French, and c'est garanti* you'd use at least one a day (think 'garage', 'entrepreneur', 'ballet' 'finance' and 'au pair').

As your learning progresses, we also admit there is another phenomenon at play, that of 'faux amis', or false friends (one of our tutors, Josephine prefers to call them 'bad friends' and she's not wrong!) These are words that look like English words, but have a different meaning (attention!*: attendre, journée and préservatifs may not mean what you think they do). But let's focus on the positive and return to the vrais amis*, which offer what all good friendships do - help and support when you need it.

Take a couple of minutes to regarder la liste* which is helpfully categorised into useful adjectives, nouns and verbs.

Be sure to remind yourself that you're reading French as you run your eye down the list. It can be quite a mind-bending exercise. Bonne lecture*!

*it’s guaranteed | *Be careful! | *true friends/cognates | *look at the list | *Happy reading!