Which French words can get you into trouble? When words become sexual.

This week, French President Macron called the Australian Prime Minister's wife delicious, thinking of the French adjective délicieuse, which is perfectly flattering and polite. Except that we don't call people delicious in English; well, not in formal situations. It is very easy to end up in a very embarrassing situation, here are a few French words and expressions to be wary of.

Avoir envie de versus envier:
avoir envie de : to want/to feel like
envier: to envy
If you say J'ai envie de toi instead of Je t'envie, you're saying you want someone sexually instead of saying I envy you. Oups.

J'ai envie d'une glace: I feel like having an ice-cream. This is ok.

Qu'est-ce que tu fais cette nuit? What's wrong with that one, you might think. La nuit in France is from 11pm/12am. In English, we always use tonight for the evening. Asking somebody what s/he is doing cette nuit might get you into an awkward conversation.

Say: Qu'est-ce que tu fais ce soir? Unless you really mean cette nuit...

Baiser versus baisser
Just make sure you pronounce these verbs properly. You don't want to say the wrong one.
's' is like a 'z'
'ss' is a strong 's' like the one in 'Sail', not a 'z' sound.

Je t'aime versus Je t'aime bien:
Love: 
Je t'aime: I love you

Friendship:
Je t'aime bien: I like you
Je l'aime bien: I like him/her
Je les aime bien: I like them

Have you got embarrassing stories because you used the wrong word? Is there a word you always misuse? Which is it? Is there a word you never use because you can't pronounce it right? Please write in the comments.


'London at night' photo credit: Sophie Marette

Confused with 'revenir' and 'retourner'? Read on...

Revenir and retourner create a lot of confusion and mistakes for French learners.

Here are some examples which I hope will help:

Retourner: to go back (not home)

Je voudrais retourner en Thaïlande I would like to go back to Thailand.

L'année dernière, je suis retournée en Grèce, c'était super! J'ai revu mes amis grecs.

Last year, I went back to Greece, it was great! I saw my Greek friends again. 

Revenir : to come back (come home)

Je reviens à Londres mardi I'm coming back to London on Tuesday.

A quelle heure tu reviens ce soir? What time will be be home tonight?

Quand est-ce que tu reviendras ? When will you be back?

Quand est-ce que tu es revenu? When did you come back?

Funny French expressions

Avoir les pieds en éventail: to relax/not to do anything

Poser un lapin: to stand somebody up

Faire un carton : to be successful

Dormir sur ses deux oreilles: to sleep soundly

Monter sur ses grands chevaux: to be on one's high horse

Mettre du beurre dans les épinards: to earn extra money

How to translate 'busy' in French?

The word busy is part of every londoner's conversations. Therefore, its wrong translation is a daily occurence in my routine as a French teacher. This post has been long overdue! Read on. 

Comment dire busy en français?

Il y a du monde: for trains, buses, concerts, shops, anywhere with a lot of people. 

C'est chargé: timetable, agenda, programme, day.

Une journée chargée m'attend. I have a busy day ahead of me. 

J'ai un emploi du temps chargé cette semaine. I have a busy schedule this week.

Occupé: person, phone (engaged), toilets

C'est occupé: it's busy

Je suis occupé(e): I'm busy

 

Top 10 French phrases to know

1.      Il y a/il y aura/il y avait: There is/there will be /there was/were

2.      Comment? How?

3.      Comment on dit... en français? How do you say... this in French?

4.      Comment est-ce que ça se prononce? How do you say it ?

5.      J’ai besoin de ...I need...

6.      Ca te plaît ? Do you like it?

7.      Ca te dit? Do you fancy it?

8.      Tu as envie de...? Do you feel like...?

9.      Je n’arrive pas à m’en souvenir : I can’t remember.

10.  C’est logique : it makes sense.

What are yours? Quelles sont les vôtres?

2018 - Résolutions en français

French practice

How do the French write their resolutions? Here are some examples:

1. Arrêter de fumer/la viande/le gluten/le rhum/le sucre (au choix)

2. Faire 20 minutes d'espagnol par jour (un mélange de lecture/ apprendre 2-5 mots par jour/ écouter 5 minutes d'un podcast/regarder une vidéo/un film dans la langue apprise).

3. Méditer tous les matins

4. Moins/plus voyager.

5. Moins consommer.

http://www.rtl.fr/culture/lifestyle/comment-arreter-de-surconsommer-7787858032

6. Aller au travail à vélo.

7. Devenir vegan après la naissance du bébé.

8. Passer plus/moins de temps avec mes enfants/mon homme/ma femme/mes amis/mon coach/ma prof/mon jardin/tapis de yoga/livres.

9. Aller marcher/courir au moins 10 minutes par jour.

10. Avoir de la gratitude, tous les jours, pour ce qui va bien et toutes ces petites choses qui nous rendent heureux.

Quelles sont vos résolutions pour cette année?

http://www.rtl.fr/actu/bien-etre/un-sourire-peut-il-tout-changer-7791443241

Photo credits; Sophie Marette

French common mistakes for English learners

These are my notes from a lesson I had on Friday with an advanced student, who has such fluency and speed that she can make basic mistakes.

un criminel = un délinquant
Un criminel is someone who has killed somebody

J'espère qu'il n'attend pas....(I hope he's not waiting): I hope he doesn't expect...
J'espère qu'il ne s'attend pas à ce que...+ subjonctif
J'espère qu'il ne s'attend pas à ce que j'arrive demain.
I hope he doesn't expect me to arrive tomorrow.

Dans tout le monde = dans le monde entier

extra = un supplément
On m'a demandé un supplément = I was charged extra.

Contente avec = contente de
Je suis contente de mon choix

Il est un caméraman - there is no article before professions.
Elle est prof
Elle est avocate
Elle est juge

un plan = un projet
un plan = une carte = a map

Elle a pris l'examen = elle a passé l'examen
She took the exam
Elle a réussi/eu l'examen = she passed the exam (school)

Il  n'y a pas de parking = il n'y a pas de place (de parking)
Le stationnement = parking
un parking = a car-park

Goal setting: I want to become fluent in...

As a French teacher and owner of 'Voulez-vous parler', I have lost count of the number of people who told me they want to become fluent in French, Spanish etc. It seems to be the phrase to say. But saying you want to become fluent is probably not what you really want. Keep reading.

Set specific goals. Think what you want to use the language for and decide from there. A personal example:

I'm going back to Japan soon. My specific goals are:

1. Be able to ask room/restaurant related questions in hotels, questions at the car rental office.

2. Vocabulary related to: car: 'unleaded petrol', 'can you fill up the car please?' 'Can you clean the windscreen please?' 'Is it possible to check the tyres please?'

3. Fish, meats - to avoid these foods

4. Train/tube/plane questions involving time, numbers, destinations.

5. Health words and phrases:
I'm hurting...I need...Do you have...?
Some medicine/bodypart words

6. Camera/phone words such as: battery, charger. Whatever you might need or what might crash/break.

7. Post office questions: 'do you have stamps for ....?' 'How much does it cost to send this to...?'

Ideally, ask a friend who speaks the language to write these down for you in our alphabet if it's an Asian language, Arabic or Greek, if you don't know the alphabet.

How will I proceed? 
Set a one film a week in the target language as a goal. Or one episode of a series. 'No second chance', an excellent French series adapted from an Harlan Cohen novel, has just arrived on the UK Netflix if you're learning French.

As the trip gets nearer, I will watch more and more Youtube videos in Japanese related to the above, for example, I will type 'bodyparts in Japanese' or 'GPS in Japanese' and will watch them a few times and then onto the next video. This is very important especially the last 2 weeks before going to the country.

I will make lists of words and phrases and will highlight the ones I think I will need the most often, based on my travelling experience.

I will compare my Japanese phrase books  and take the best one for my needs.

About one week before leaving, I will write the list of essentials on one piece of paper, which will be in my pocket at all times. It has proven very efficient in the past. Remember that people rarely speak English in Japan, and if you plan to travel outside of Paris in France, most people's English isn't great.

I do this for all my almost all my foreign holidays. When a situation happens, we have to be quick. By the time you have your phrasebook out and find the phrase or word you need, your interlocutor might be gone or...already fed up with waiting.

Oups, I forgot my French!

Rendez-moi mon français!! (lexique de survie en bas de l'article)

A few years after I arrived in England, working with English speaking colleagues and sharing my life with an English person and his friends, my English was improving fast, but I started losing my French: it was becoming worse and worse, as I was too lazy to take the time to remember or look up the French words for what I wanted to say. After all, my sister and friends understood all my anglicisms. But I did have to make an effort with my parents who spoke no English at all. As I was teaching French in a school at the time and was also a private tutor, I was quite concerned and decided to get my French back on track.

This is how I did it:

1. Start now. It's not fun, but the sooner the better. You do not want the situation to worsen.
2. Instead of giving up when you can't remember the word or expression you are looking for, pause for a moment and try to imagine you are talking to someone in France who doesn't speak English. Try to 'move' your brain in France for a few seconds and see if it comes.
3. If it doesn't come, look it up online or make a note to do it later.
4. Put a daily reminder in your phone/diary to revise the word or expression.
5. You can also use post-its in the house.
6. When it happens again with another word, do not give up, make the effort to think about it for a few seconds, as if you are giving time to the word/idiom to travel back to the forefront of your brain. You will see, you will get better and better.
   
7. Do not give up, the longer you have been lazy, the longer it will take to get 'back to normal'; it took me a few weeks. It was a real effort at first, but it became easier as weeks went by.
8. Do the same for grammar: check rules, ask a friend if not sure of rules (ask me, I love grammar talks;-)
9. It is worth it. French people especially judge each other's writing, although it is never talked about, we are never impressed by someone who missed 'un accord' (agreement).
10. You will certainly be rewarded by not having these awkward moments we all have when we have been living in the UK for so long and can't remember a basic word. We all behave as if it is ok to feel better, but is it ok that some French people's grammar is worse than a CM2 (Year 6) pupil?
    

Merci à tous (et moi-même, ne nous le cachons pas!) de m'avoir inspirée.

I'm also available for French coaching before presentations, meetings etc. I'm a trained teacher (2002) and translator (MA -2000).

Contactez-moi pour une consultation, nous pouvons préparer ensemble votre présentation en français pour éviter les erreurs/blocages lors du jour J.

Lexique de survie:

to take action: passer à l'action

a goal: un but

a challenge: un défi

a deadline: une échéance

boundaries: limites

body language: langage corporel

to charge: demander/faire payer (pas 'charger', par pitié...)

to prioritise: donner priorité à

brainstorming: pareil, mais si vous allez au Québéc, dites: 'remue-méninges'

to design: créer, concevoir, élaborer

Question: quelles sont les expressions ou mots français que dont vous ne vous rappelez jamais?

J'espère que cela vous aura été utile.

They learnt a foreign language successfully: what do they have in common? Tips on what to do and how to think to learn a language.

I started teaching English as a teenager to earn some pocket money; a few years later, I started teaching French to londoners, and these are observations made over the last 25 years. I have taught and met a lot of language learners over the years, and when I meet someone who is fluent in a language or see my students becoming fluent, I always see patterns, things that are recurrent.

So, what do they do? Is there some magical trick? Are you just born into one category? Or is it up to you? Keep reading.

What is the approach that makes you someone who becomes fluent in another language?

The approach they have:

1. They are not looking for a 6 weeks/months solution. They know and accept it takes years (or a life time) to learn another language properly.

2. They accept it because they enjoy learning the language and it is a new hobby, not a new obligation. See the difference: are you going to enjoy something you resent or are reluctant to do before even getting started?

3. They are excited about this new hobby in their life.

The things they do:

4. They plan activities in their life related to their learning, such as joining meetup groups, watching French films, organize a visit at the French Institute's library/cinema, go to Hyper Japan to be immersed in Japanese culture and meet Japanese people, maybe meet new friends.

5. They read magazines and papers in the target language.

6. They read about topics they are interested in in the language they are learning. It can be reading about sailing, travelling, gardening, cooking. Maybe they'll take cooking lessons in French or sing Italian songs obsessively.

7. They listen to the radio and watch TV/Youtube in the language.

8. They become obsessed with apps such as 'Duo Lingo' (https://www.duolingo.com/), 'French radio', 'French test' etc.

9. They organise trips to places where the language is spoken. One doesn't have to go to France to practise French, nor do I have to go to Japan to practise Japanese. We can all do it from where we live by finding people/groups/Skype/concerts to hear, speak and discover the culture and practise the language.

10. They have no ego issues, meaning they are ok making mistakes and being corrected. They understand that making mistakes is the way to progress, not something to be ashamed about. 

11. They repeat after they have been corrected, to practise and get their mouth used to saying the right word/sentence. For the best results, repeat at least 2/3 times.

12. They spend a lot of time making flashcards, writing their notes neatly again, study their vocabulary, researching grammar points when they don't understand something. They understand one hour a week with their private teacher is not enough, and that they have the learning in their hands, not the teacher's.

13. They take responsability for their learning.

14. They are curious about the language and culture, and will find events, book readings, exhibitions, anything that will put them into contact with the language they are learning. My friends all know I don't need an excuse to go to the Japan Centre, Hyper Japan or conferences about Japan. I'm obsessed! It's good to be obsessed when you're learning a language or a culture. Be proud of your obsession.

15. Before they travel to the country, they get prepared. I advise my students to prepare a list of the most useful words and expressions they will/might need during their trip and write them on a piece of paper which will fit in their pocket. They will be carrying this at all times. It's all very well travelling with books and dictionaries, but we all know that we need these sentences immediately when we are lost or in a shop asking for something. That bit of paper is a great quick tool, I've experienced it myself in Japan and Greece recently, and would add some phrases during the trip.

16. They use their new vocabulary in their daily life talking to themselves or their family/partner.

17. Talking to oneself to the language you're learning is something I recommend (who cares if the others think you're crazy?). During the day, ask yourself: how would I say this? For example, it's 12.30 and you're hungry. How would you say this French? J'ai faim. You arrive at work and your client is late, he hasn't contacted you. you wonder if he is on his way. What would this be in French: Je viens d'arriver au travail. Mon client est en retard et il ne m'a pas prévenu(e). Est-ce qu'il va venir?

I have used examples with French, Italian, Japanese as these are the languages I teach or learn, but the tips are applicable to other languages.

What is your own experience? What has worked for you? What did I forget?

If you have enjoyed this article and think it could be useful to a friend of yours, please share, merci!

Rester is ‘to stay’, but it’s also…

My students are always at a loss when they’re trying to say:
‘How much time have we got left?’ ’We didn’t have time left’ etc.
The structure is very different in French:
Il me restera du temps: I will have time left
Il te restera 2 heures: you will have 2 hours left
Il lui restera 100 euros: he/she will have 100 euros left
Il leur reste 2 billets: they have 2 tickets left
Il nous restera un peu de crème: we'll have a bit of cream left
Il vous restera un peu d'énergie: you will have a bit of energy left.

It always starts with 'il' and depending on who is talking, you amend the pronoun preceeding the 'rester' verb.

A few examples in the past:
Il me restait 1h pour prendre le train. I had 1 hour left to take the train.
Combien il vous restait de temps? How much time did you have left?
Combien il vous restait (d'argent)? How much money did you have left?
Combien il vous restait de kilomètres? How many miles did you have left?

Others examples:
Il te reste de la peinture? Do you have paint left?
Il nous reste 3 exercices à faire. We have 3 exercises to do.
Il vous reste 3 mois à faire. You have 3 months left to do. 
Il t’en reste combien? How many have you got left?
Il nous reste combien de temps? How much time have we got left?
If you hear someone French start a sentence with ‘du reste’, it means: besides/moreover.
And ‘des restes’: means ‘leftovers’. We know the difference because of the articles – ‘du’ and ‘des’ sound very different to a French person.
Last but not least, ‘to rest’ is ‘se reposer’.
At the weekend, I rested: Ce weekend, je me suis reposé(e).
Se reposer is a reflexive verb, hence ‘je me suis…’