Spoken French Vocabulary: French People Would Never Say These 5 Words
Are the words you’re using actually used by French people? Let’s find out, so you can improve your fluency (and sound less like a tourist.)
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0:00 - Intro
0:30 - 1) Real words that we never use: Sacrebleu and more
3:56 - 2) Words and expressions that don’t exist: Jour de la Bastille
5:35 - 3) Words and expressions that aren’t used this way: “Bien fait.”
7:23 - 4) False friends (“les faux amis”): La chair
9:04 - 5) Fake “French” stuff: “French doors”
11:00 - Recap & Practice
Many of my students want to learn more and more French vocabulary. And it’s true that expanding your vocabulary will help you better express yourself, improve your comprehension, and even be better understood when speaking French. But what happens if the words you’re learning aren’t used by French people?
Using fake French words, or words that aren’t really used, is a sure way to sound more like a tourist and less like a sophisticated, knowledgeable French speaker. In today’s lesson, I’ll introduce you to 5 types of words that you should scrap from your vocabulary if you want to sound more authentically French in your everyday conversations.
Take care and stay safe.
😘 from Grenoble, France.
Géraldine
On the point of correct grammar; in English we don't 'use something wrong', we use it 'wrongly' (it is an adverb and as with many, albeit not all, adverbs, it takes the adjective and adds 'ly')
Merci, encore, Geraldine!
Merci Geraldine! A great video
I remember using préservtive for preservative and a french lady said to me, "I think, monsieur, that is what you cal the French letter." Whoops.
Merci pour cette video ❤🎉😊
Merci beaucoup pour enseigner et expliquer cette nouvelle thème du debut de fin de semaine et très splendide samedi dans le matin
Sacré Bleu may be archaic, but people in Quebec still love to say Sacrement!
Pronounced « sacrAment ». Not an elegant word.
Tabernacle!
Sacrebleu! What surprising info! 😃
Chére Géraldine, mil mercis por tout tes vidéo, Amicalement
Merci!
I am a Frenchman and I say « comme-ci comme-ça ». Two faux amis : sensible is in French sensé and sensitive is in French sensible . Decade 10 days in French and 10 years in English.
une quinzaine is also really a quatorzaine !!!
SUPER!
I've heard foreigners using archaic English too, as in using slang and expressions out of the 1940s or 50s.
Balderdash and poppycock!
As an English speaking senior citizen I have become aware that many young people are convinced that I use archaic vocabulary when in fact my grammar and word usage date from a time when grammar, word usage and enunciation were drilled into all grade school pupils. We were discouraged from using slang because slang is limited both geographically and in terms of its lifespan although some very useful terms (24/7) do become standard. Watching old movies can be very amusing when old slang does crop up.
@@georgesotiroff5080 Not 'arf!
The one i was waiting for is "ooh la la" used to indicate something special, terrific. In French "oh la la la la" is more like OMG or something..almost the opposite of how Americans use it.
They do say "Bon matin" in Quebec- it's particularly charming with their diphthong...
Quebeckers do sometimes say « bon matin » but it is criticized by many. Unfortunately it has been difficult to eradicate because there is a brand of sliced white bread whose name is Bon Matin.
@@qalam96 We use a lot more powerful words in Québec to express anger, merde is very mild in comparaison, it's almost polite. We also have a lot more colourful expressions like ''j'ai mon voyage!!'' and for those who criticize our way of speaking saying it's not ''real'' French, I'm thinking of a popular expression right now.
It’s regularly used on the French speaking Belgian radio La Première.
Bon matin used in Québec is the typical way French Canadians, somehow translate directly from English instead of simply finding out if in fact there’s already a real French word like : Bonjour. Many, yes many, and many more examples: Melon d’eau ( watermelon ) in French: pastèque. Bienvenu ( you’re welcome ). Bleuet ( blueberry ) myrtille. Arrêt ( Stop ) well that one indeed sounds perfectly French, but it’s internationally recognized as “ STOP “ Anyway, I remember when auto parts were: un windshield, un whipper, un muffler, un steering……….. “ they came a long way “
"Sacrebleu" is indeed a very old-fashioned expression that nobody uses nowadays - or as a joke for sounding like 200 years ago. "Zut alors"... though it sounds a bit precious, you can still occasionally hear it, as a polite way of swearing. "Comme ci comme ça" has a modern French version, "couci couça". I'd be very careful with "mon ami" as it has become an old-fashioned and condescending expression if wrongly used. You can use "mon ami" when talking of a friend to a third person, but NEVER use it when talking to your friend - or anybody - directly, as it sounds like a master talking to a servant then. This is probably why many French people use "un ami à moi" when speaking of a friend.
Bonjour.. Super vidéo. Merci . Pour comme si comme ça .. Même on angalis, en dit pas so -so, plutöt 'ok'.. Je dis, pas mal ou moyen..
Merci Geraldine! A great video. A question: Is Hercule Poirot wrong to say “Mon Ami” to his friend Hastings in the Agatha Christie novels?
Yes, no one actual calls their friend “mon ami” except as a joke. It might possibly have been a thing, say, in the 19th century, but it was already very antiquated-sounding when Christie was writing her books.
Poirot is Belgian though? I wonder if that makes a difference.
@@ericamacs3875 As a Belgian I can tell you that we wouldn't call anyone "mon ami" except maybe in an ironic or humouristic way.
@@TheEstampe but what about at the time it's set? I mean Poirot is quite the character so maybe she means it to be an affectation. I feel like she was so clever and well travelled that it would be odd for her to get it so wrong..
Bon matin sacrebleu ! Si le jour de la Bastille on mange trop de frites et qu'en plus on repose sa chair sur la chair, on se retrouver avec le popotin rond et bien fait !
The Little Mermaid takes place in the early 19th Century, so the expression “sacrebleu” was period-appropriate in that clip.
Couple of years ago was very surprised to hear a waitress in a Brussels cafe proclaim Zut Alors, hadn't heard it since my school days
It was quite common in the 60ies and 70ies in Belgium though. I’ll try to reintroduce it 😅
Perhaps the waitress had picked this expression up from foreign customers trying to speak French 😀
My husband is French Canadian and he seems to say sacrebleu, or hhe did when he was young.
Apparently, swearing in Quebec often involves "sacre." There is a wikipedia page about it, "Quebec French profanity"
such a pity about "Zut!" It just rolls of the tongue just right... 😛
You can still use ‘zut’ but ‘zut alors’ will be an outdated expression used as a joke.
I think a good example of a non-existent French phrase that's used in English, that you left out in the video, is cul-de-sac, meaning a dead-end street, which I'm told the French don't use any more.
And I'm told another one is nom-de-plume, meaning a pen-name or writer's pseudonym. It's a very "English French" expression!
Cul-de-sac est toujours utilisé en français.
@@marcya3582 Merci. A l'école on m'a dit qu'il faut dire "impasse" maintenant.
@@Shalott63 On peut dire les deux. Mais c'est vrai que dans le code de la route ou sur les plaques des noms des rues "Impasse" est utilisé car c'est un mot qui fait un peu plus sérieux. Mais dans une conversation courante "cul-de-sac" peut être utilisé sans problème. Après selon les régions de France ou l'âge des interlocuteurs certaines expressions sont moins utilisées que d'autre. Bon courage pour votre apprentissage du Français.
@@marcya3582 Merci beaucoup encore. Ces indications sont bien intéressantes.
Je regrette Geraldine, moi j'utilise zut alors...(et bien sur merde alors). Mais je suis d'accord: je le fais avec ironie.
De bleu de bleu est courant à Genève.
Sacré Bleu, your accent is gorgeous
Lomogrammaton - Wrong, mate, wrong! You should've said: "Your accent is sooo sexyyy!!!" Sort of crap I've had to put up with, as a French female, during those 40 odd years I spent in the U.K. (and my command of English is fairly convincing). Which means, coming from a man: assuming all French women are terrific in bed (whoever spread that rumour), "you turn me on (to put it politely) but I can't give an XXX about what you have to say:. And coming from a (heterosexual) woman: assuming that all French women, etc... " I wish I could sound like you and turn men on. But I can't give an XXX about what you have to say". Still a lot of progress to be achieved, I'm afraid.
@@marie-claudeguegan3219I read what you had to say and I stand by my original ☝️ 😊
@@Lomogrammaton Original... Really?
@@marie-claudeguegan3219oui, my original comment
I think a lot of false friends are common in Latin languages. "Preservative ” is condom. "Bien fait" ("bem feita" in Portuguese is probably best translated as "It serves you/him/her... right".
un autre exemple "pas de chance", utilises par les etrangers pour "Cela ne risque pas", alors que pour nous, pas de chance=unlucky.
Can you clarify, the word bof, I thought was meant to mean like "OK", "not bad", so in your example "ouais, bof, moyen" I took to mean yeah, OK, not bad, or something like that. But the clip you showed which had the English translation translated it as "not great", which is a different meaning altogether. How is it used?
«How did you sleep?» «Bof...» meaning I slept, but not all that well. «Did you like the film?» «Bof» meaning it was OK but I'd rather have gone for a pint!
Bonjour @Subsbench, Indeed, "bof" will be used to express a certain degree of indifference just like in "meh" or "nah." I hope this helps. Fabien Comme une Française Team
"So-so" sounds like an equivalent to me.
Je suis Belge et mon ex vivait a Bruxelles (ce qui n'a aucune influence sur mon histoire) et elle a décidé de s'acheter une cafetière à piston chez Ikea puisque le site était en anglais le produit était listé comme "french press" du coup j'ai toujours appelé ca une cafetière française (et franchement quand j'en parle aux gens autour de moi certains ont l'air de savoir de quoi je parle) peut etre est-ce un autre cas d'anglicisation de la langue que est plus marqué en dehors du territoire français 🤷
Elle dit souvent n’importe quoi quant à l’usage des mots.
bah je trouves pas. C'est un peu plus simplifié que du français courant mais ça peut encore bien coller à l'idée que je me fais du français@@metphmet
check out the difference between Wrong and wrongly. " Use something wrong is incorrect.
As an FYI « Bon matin » is a very common greeting in Quebec. 😊
I heard it recently on the French speaking Belgian radio (RTBF La Première) and some days ago even "Excellent matin". I think it will find its way into Europe too in due times.
@@louis-philippearnhem6959 "Bon matin" alone seems unlikely. What you might hear on RTBF is "Bon/excellent matin à vous si vous nous rejoignez maintenant" or something similar.
I learn that the phrase c'est bien fait has a positive meaning. In what context can we use it?
Usually it means "it serves you right", so not positive
«c'est bien fait» and «bien fait !» are not exactly the same thing. The first is a statement which would tend to the positive; the second is an exclamation that is definitely negative. In English the same expression would change meaning with inflexion. "Oh well done" with emphasis on both well and done is generally positive. "Oh well done" with emphasis on the well, and done on a down tone, has more the meaning "clot"!
Toilette was the most disappointing to lose use of. I worked so hard to get rid of the US pronunciation. Now it’s WC, which is harder to pronounce: Du bleh vay ceh.
Veh Ceh no need for the double but evryone will understand if you ask for the "toilettes"
le water (wa'terre) is just as good!
Diantre!
used as a stand alone, "bien fait" is cheering about whatever bad is happening to the person you are directing it, usually because they're idiot and told them not to do it or because they you dirty in some way. The closest equivalent in English would be " in your face!" (btw, often we use it like that "bien fait pour ta gueule!") some of today equivalent: sacrebleu: oh putain! zut alors: puutaiiiiin! yeah, this word is used a lot, like the F word in English, and in combo with other words to mean about anything, lol
Excellent ! La langue française est belle ... difficile !😅
The difference between French and a real language is that even though French is spoken all over the world, all French teachers treat it as if it were a Parisian dialect.
Here in the Southwest we talk beautifully. Toulouse has the sexiest accent of all France... putaing cong!
I want to stay my friend. So i use mon ami 😂 what would you suggest?
❤❤
Es-ce vrai qu’on ne dit pas “bonne nuit” jusqu’au moment de se coucher?
Vrai.
Oui
Yes
Et comment s'appelle un 'French Kiss' en Francais?
bien fait is more like sarcasm ; if you use it it can be felt like you 're laughing at the person , like you're mocking and making fun of like a mean person would. So we dont use bien fait when talking about a persons action .
and how about «pas terrible» which actually means «sacrébleu, c'est terrible!!!»
Il aurait fallu mentionner la chaire which means the chair in a university context.
In Quebec Bon matin is used!!
C’est intéressant ça!
What’s a relaxed way ro say good to meet you? Or what else to say when you’re introduced to someone? In the movies it’s enchanté but got a feeling French people in this century don’t say that!
‘Plaisir’ is something I hear a lot. ‘Bien de faire vos connaissances’ (swap vos for tu in younger social settings: though I like the votre even though it makes me sound old). Many people don’t say anything at all or I didn’t notice what they said.
Remember it’s always OK to use English cognates, to convey your base language. Enchanted, rather than enchanté.
May I point out that the clips used are predominantly American and not British. I don't know if you have heard of 'Only Fools and Horses' a BBC Comedy, but the main character tries to elevate his status by speaking French - badly. Two of the phrases of exclamation, that had in a heap of laughter were, "Bonnet de douche" and "Frappez mes dents" . The latter had me aspirating my coffee.
Utilise-t-on bon reveille tôt le matin?
Nope
12:31 “It takes a long time to make friends with a french person” Ah bon! Ça n’en vaut pas la peine.
We use all those terms in Quebec............
Ici on dit bon matin
Où?
So basically, most these words/terms are now actually English.
I agree with your video but not quite with using "ouais"" and "bof". Sorry but they're vulgar, one corresponds to a grumpy teenager "yeaaaaah" and the other to "don''t give a f..."" shrugging. Ok if you've got to impersonate a trashy person on stage, but otherwise not recommandable, particularly in corporate circles. "Oui" and "Pas mal" are so much more polite.
not enough french and french words to use in this lesson. I like most of your videos, but this one had way too little french
Bigre!
As a Canadian who learned France French before the French of his own nation, imagine my surprise (and revulsion) when I learned that « bon matin » is completely normal to hear in Québec, as well as responding « bienvenue » or « t’es le/la bienvenue » for « merci ». 😖 It just sounds so wrong to me! There are also expressions in French that English speakers have invented to sound fancy, like « enfant terrible » or « double entendre », which aren’t (to my knowledge) actually used by French speakers.
Normalement is the most common and most misleading i find.
We have won the war......that's 5 right ?
kzhead.info/sun/ft2IgsqtinOXamw/bejne.html la France d'aujourd'hui ne m'interesse plus.....
2:09 - Americans are swearing more, too. That's a shame. It is sign - along with a degraded sense of clothing style and fashion - that our cultures are degrading to the lowest common denominator. In the effort to liberalize every thing - from language to clothing to personal behavior - we've lost the example that would elevate society to its better nature.
Worse: the “swearing” is systematically censored now with very annoying tweets and even blurred lip movements in documentaries or reality TV. Horrible evolution that is now blowing over to Europe.
Europeans use the f word constantly as if it is normal slang. Especially Brits. While you hear a lot of that on TV and among younger kids, it is still considered offensive in polite company and among children. I was shocked how often we heard it the last two summers in Europe (sprinkled in French, Italian, and Spanish. I don’t think any Europeans think about how offensive the word used in general conversation (except code switching with young people). Maybe when imported to French and Spanish, it doesn’t have the same power.
5 Words the French would never say? “Let’s Stand Up and Fight.” It's the reason why the French built the Eiffel Tower. So Hitler could see the White Flag from his office.
Idiot! Same word in both languages.
Huh? It was built to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the revolution. Hitler had nothing to do with it!!
Sooooo French 😘 I suggest JARNICOTON. Zut comes from the mean English sh.t actually.