Planning a trip to France during the summer holidays? Want to read this exciting French novel recommended to you? Or just want to know it as a hobby? Whatever your reason, French is an exciting language to learn. Albeit a bit tough. Spoken and written French can be very different. And as such, following the below pointers can make your learning journey easier!
Tips that can be useful while learning!
If you want to do bon travail or good job in French, while learning French, it would be pretty good to use these two tips:
- Don’t focus on fluency: Mastering any language takes time. And French is no different. You need to keep practicing to get fluent over time. As days pass, you will graduate from Enchanté de faire votre connaissancee. nice to meet you in French to more complex phrases.
- Make mistakes aplenty!: While starting with anything new, mistakes are common. Don’t be discouraged when people laugh at a gender mix-up while pronouncing or with difficult words. You can quickly cover-up by saying Je ne sais pas, or I don’t know in French. Explain to them that you are still learning. Who knows, they may be impressed by your persistence and help you out!
What are the steps to master basic French?
Learn basic pronunciation
While learning French, pronouncing many words can be confusing at first. This is because of one of the basic rules that all vowels in a sentence need to be pronounced. When someone says ‘Passe une bonne journée!’ i.e., ‘Have a great day!’ in French or even no problem in French, you may understand it as it is a pretty common phrase.
But holding an entire conversation with proper pronunciation is a whole different ballgame. Another basic rule is if the next word begins with a silent ‘h’ or vowel and the previous word ends with a consonant, then the vowel joins the previous consonant.
Immerse yourself in French cinema
French movies are a great way to understand French culture, food, and the common French man. Through movies, you can pick up the nuances and talking patterns of colloquial French. You slowly learn the who what where when why of everything French.
Besides, you can start by using subtitles at first and slowly stop as you pick up more words with each movie. You get a good feel of authentic French culture. In time, you may even start thinking in French.
Speak French – and a lot of it
Sometimes, the best way is the all-guns out approach! Directly jump into speaking French with any French-speaking people you find. You can take baby steps and learn, correct and try again as you go.
Online French tutors can be great to speak to and learn. They can correct your pronunciations while using phrases like Je ne sais pas or I don’t know in French. You can even practice high-level phrases like c’est comme ça, or it is what it is in French, which is harder to pronounce.
Another brilliant option is the language exchange program, where you can teach a French person your native language. In exchange, they teach you, French. This is great for those on a budget.
Learn basic French sounds
About 30 percent of English words are borrowed from French. This makes it the easiest language to grasp for native English speakers. French has an additional 3 letters and 10 vowels than English.
However, the tricky part is that some letters have a different accent. Start learning to pronounce these alphabets separately as well as part of words. For example, c’est comme ça, or “it is what it is” in French has two new alphabets ‘c’ ‘ and ‘ç ‘, which have a different way of pronouncing.
Listen to French speech
Written and spoken French is vastly different, which is why only reading French literature will not do. Colloquial French is not very polished and highly accented. So it becomes important to listen to French speech. You can do a bon travail or good job in French-speaking by hearing people speak.
This will help you fluently order in your favorite French restaurant. Or haggle with the local grocer lady for a good price on goodies. There are various sources online to help you with access to spoken French material:
- Listen to the French version of your favorite audiobooks.
- French podcasts like Coffee Break French are great for beginners.
- YouTube is a great source with French tutors as well as French YouTubers. Now, you can learn while watching entertaining videos!
Start reading French literature
While learning a new language, you are eventually bound to explore their literature. Local literature tells you a lot about the who what where when why of French culture and people. But as a beginner, heavy reading can be daunting.
Some light literature suggested for learners are “Le Petit Nicolas” de René Goscinny or the ever famous “Le Petit Prince” de Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. You can also start with reading the French version of English books already read by you, such as “Moby Dick.”
Learn common French phrases & words
There are always some basic words, phrases, or numbers that a person tries to grasp while learning a new language. Phrases that help greet a person o buy things from a store. Some common phrases we can learn first are as below:
‘passe une bonne journée!’ or ‘have a great day!’ in French
‘aucun problème’ or ‘no problem’ in French
‘Bonjour!’ or ‘Hello’ in french
‘ ils sont’ or ‘they are’ in French
Strengthen your basic grammar
Grammar is one of the foundations of any language and must be mastered first. We can form proper sentences only when we are familiar with the syntax rules.
Some of the rules to be learned are the different verb tenses and Verb conjugation.
French has 12 verb tenses that are actively used. The verbs in French change when the position of the subject in a sentence changes. Other rules are the use of “le” for males and “la” for females as prefixes for nouns. But, when the noun starts with a vowel, “l” is used. There are quite a few such rules that have to be learned before going for sentence formation.
Include more French things in life
Try to be around the language as much as possible. While you may not be in France yet, there are still everyday things you can do to achieve this.
- You can change the language of your devices to French.
- Look for any new DIY projects or recipes to cook in French. Try to make your project with those French instructions.
- Watch French series or movies. Even podcasts and French YouTube videos can be great for learning.
Final thoughts
French, as it is famously called, is the language of love. Its sweet-sounding words make it worthy of this title. This also makes it the most sought-after language to learn among people. We hope that the above pointers help guide you in your journey in learning this beautiful language. In a few years, once fluent, you can even move to a lovely, quaint village in the south of France and make a home there.
