Why You Should Never Say "Néanmoins" in Spoken French (Improve Your Fluency!)
Do you sometimes struggle to understand or be understood in French? It’s important to understand that spoken French isn’t simply written French read aloud. In fact, actual spoken French is almost a completely different language than technical written French, which is what you were taught in schools.
For example, adverbs like “néanmoins” are perfect for school essays, but they’re far too formal for everyday French conversations. Using them might make you sound like a robot… or, at least, a non-native French speaker.
In today’s lesson, I’ll explain some of these differences and introduce you to some vocabulary you can use instead to sound more authentically French.
0:00 - Intro
0:24 - Written French Adverbs and Conjunctions
2:00 - Informal alternatives: “mais”, “par contre”, and…
6:32 - Practice with me!
8:40 - Story Time!
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At Comme une Française, we specialize in everyday spoken French. We focus on three unique aspects that are different from school French, self-study books, Duolingo, etc:
1. We focus only on the specifics of speaking/understanding/being understood in everyday French and have unique ways to help you learn it properly & faster.
2. We focus on shortcuts to help you make progress faster, which also means we tell you exactly what you can stop learning to prioritize what’s really important.
3. We use French culture as the subject to make it fun and interesting for adults.
Take care and stay safe.
😘 from Grenoble, France.
Géraldine
Je suis française, je ne suis pas du tout en accord avec vos propos. Les mots que vous semblez bannir à l’oral ne sont pas du tout rares. Ils ne sont pas réservés à l’écrit, ils sont même recommandés dans le contexte professionnel (en tout cas dans le secteur tertiaire). Vous confondez les niveaux de langues avec l’écrit et l’oral. Selon les locuteurs, tous les niveaux de langage peuvent être utilisés à l’écrit comme à l’oral. « De surcroît » est d’un niveau de langage soutenu, mais pas « cependant » qui est assez courant. Ce qui crée un sentiment d’étrangeté et de malaise, c’est d’utiliser un niveau de langue inadapté aux circonstances et aux interlocuteurs.
gulps.... I'm French trilingual (equivalent french and english proficiency fairly good Spanish as well from having lived in the US and Argentina as a kid) currently living in France and I use those 4 words every now and then depending on circumstances, and I don't get weird looks from my "entourage" (which is a varied group going from barely literate to highly educated as is to be expected in my neck of the woods)
When you did ‘Pourtant’ I immediately thought of Charles Aznavour’s song.
Excellent lesson! Hard, but AWESOME.
Merci ❤ Je pense que retrouver l'elegance de la langue Française ça serait un Merveilleux point de départ pour l'actuel changement de oaradigme qui s'opère sous nos yeux, pour nous et avec nous ❤
Ça dépend des français avec qui l’on parle. Il y a des français qui parlent d’une manière plus soutenue et élégante qui utilisent tels mots.
Merci beaucoup pour pouvoir enseigner et pouvoir expliquer cette nouvelle et superbe thème du début de samedi pouvoir pouvoir comprendre mieux la belle langue française
Merci Geraldine !
Excellent lesson!!!!!
Dans un cadre professionnel, surtout avec des juristes, un langage soutenu ne pose aucun problème. Bien au contraire.
A part "de surcroit", qui est vraiment rare.
A nice bite sized chunk of knowledge - thank you!
Vous nous conseillez bien toujours. Il faut vous faire savoir que le mot anglais « but » n'est pas un adverbe. C'est une conjonction.
I visited France years ago after having studied and read French as an English speaker. I was at a vineyard conversing, and I happened to use "néanmoins", suspecting it was a bit much, but I used it "nevertheless", while speaking to the patron and his crew. There was a bit of an amused uproar as a result, indicating I had used an impressive and big 50 cent word. It definitely stood out in casual conversation. Too bad, I kinda like the word.
merci
Hmmm..... I think there's an important difference between the demotic version of any language and the way educated people prefer to speak. In English, as an Oxford-educated person, I commonly utilize a quotidian vocabulary of around 10,000 words. The typical US speaker uses 500 while the typical Brit uses 3,700. I've found that precision and elegance in speech translates into significant advantage within certain business and social contexts. One should be able to adjust one's patterns of speech to fit circumstances, rather than "dumb down" permanently.
There goes another word I like; Néanmoins, néanmoins.
Very useful. I live and work in Montréal as an instructor in English, so I am not supposed to use any French at work (they have English courses; you must speak French!). Your videos are fantastic and I am going to continue using them, mais je suis fatiguée ce soir... ;)
Je n'ai jamais entendu "de surcroît" durant mes études. Celui là m'a surpris!
Vous n'avez pas fait les bonnes études.
Utter nonsense! There's no such thing as "real" French. What you call "real" French is a language taught abroad to foreigners and that's how the French can tell them apart so easily. There exist many levels of French used by different people in different contexts and they're all very real. From top to bottom: - Literary/diplomatic mostly used in writing but also in spoken form amongst the upper classes as a sign of good education, which includes words such as néanmoins, cependant, etc. - Formal, mostly used in professional settings such as banking for instance, by intellectuals, or when addressing your would-be in-laws to show your worth. - Familiar, used with relatives and friends. - Street French, used at school, in bars, in the army, etc. - Vulgar French, mostly used by the uneducated. - Slang, originally used in jail to keep wardens from understanding conversations. - North African French, imported by migrants and used nowadays as a form of suburban slang. What you describe as real French actually is similar to familiar French but shouldn't be used in all contexts, for fear of sounding like a tourist if misplaced. Y'a pas d'quoi.
I want a croissant!!
❤❤❤🎉
Merci pour vos conseils ! Une question : est-ce que "toutefois" est également utilisé dans le français quotidien ?
is it me or are these not adverbs? something like conjunctions?? Otherwise the content is great.. but someone told me not to say "par contre" but "en revanche".. and I guess you'll have to do a video on "du coup" !
Total désaccord avec le titre et autres réductions de l'expression orale.
Yes. Spoken French is all Greek to me.
Oh yeah. Cut that out
Je souhaite que tu ne parles que le français. Écoutons l’anglais ne m’aide pas du tout.