Cactus Language Blog

Common mistakes to avoid when learning French

Posted by simonager under French, Learning a language

French is probably the least difficult language for English speakers to learn, sharing as it does a great deal of vocabulary with English. However there also plenty of aspect of the language that may cause puzzlement and confusion.

Gender
In English we use he to refer to male humans and animals, and she to refer to females. Everything else is referred to as it. In French nouns are either masculine or feminine so things that would be referred to as it in English are referred to as either il (he) or elle (she) in French. Moreover some words have different meanings depending on which gender you give them – the meanings are often related but sufficiently different to lead to potential confusion. Examples include le crème (coffee with cream) / la crème (cream); le livre (book) / la livre (pound); le merci (thanks) / la merci (mercy); le politique (politician) / la politique (politics, policy); and le souris (smile) / la souris (mouse).

When learning French nouns it’s a good idea to learn their gender at the same time. You could do this by attaching the appropriate article: le/un (the/a) for masculine nouns, and la/une (the/a) for feminine ones. This is how the French themselves learn the genders. Another method is to add an adjective after each noun which will indicate the gender: e.g. le possion petit (the little fish – masculine) / la poissonière petite (the little kettle – feminine). Alternative you could avoid the problem by talking about everything in the plural as plural nouns don’t have gender.

The verb to be
Beware of translating things literally from English as some expressions that use the verb to be in English use the verbs to have or to do in French. For example in French you say j’ai soif (I have thirst) but in English you say I am hungry, while the French for “it’s windy” is il fait du vent (it does some wind).

Contractions
In English contractions are optional – you can say I am or I’m, he is or he’s – however in French you have to use contractions whenever you have shorts words like je (I), tu (you) le/la (the) followed by a word beginning with a vowel or a silent h. For example, you say j’aime (I like/love) not je aime, and l’homme (the man) rather than le homme.

False friends
Not all French words that resemble their English counterparts mean the same thing. Examples include assister = to attend (aider = to help); demander = to ask (exiger = to demand); and sensible = sensitive (raisonable = sensible).

About the author
Simon Ager runs a company that provides information and advice about languages mainly via the website www.omniglot.com.

Tags:france, French, grammar, verbs