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[Natetan]

So for various reasons I've started studying French.

A bit of background. I've always been terrible at European languages. I studied Chinese and Japanese in school because they are 'easy' not having genders/conjugation/plurals. I tried to study French several years ago and it just seemed impossible. But I downloaded the duolingo app lately and it's clicked with me. I'm not absorbing everything but the presentation and the focus on just doing the language drills without any difficult grammar rules after which you can then go to the website and read a good bit of solid intro grammar seems to work for me.

I recently registered for the DELF A1 exam. And I bought a textbook to go with it. Hopefully I'll pass the exam in October. I hope to get through all the duolingo material and my textbook and that should prepare me for the exam.

After I take my A1 exam I was thinking about taking the DELFPro exams, since I'm basically doing this so I can be employable in France. Anyone have any experience with those. Is there a big difference in content between the DELF public and DELFPro content?

Anyway, if anyone wants to share tips or encourage me/other people studying feel free to jump in. I'm really beginner and just finally feeling slightly confident that I'll ever be able to speak French.

I'm also watching Arte Journal news on Apple TV. I do t understand any of it yet really but I figure it's a good place to start. I'm hearing some words here and there that I've been learning. It's starting to be fun!

 

[GhostTrick]

French is a difficult language. Not only there are many rules, you have also many exceptions to these rules. A lot of french people don't even master this language. Good luck though.

 

[chefbags]

 

[Arksy]

I started learning French two and a half years ago. I was graded this year at B2 in everything but speaking, where I'm somehow at B1 (I feel like I'm a lot worse!)

My three greatest tools have been; Duolingo, News in Slow French and reading, reading and more reading. After learning duo for about six months I enrolled in French at University which has been a great experience but like duo, it really trains your reading and writing skills and does little to help you actually engage in conversation.

My main tips to you would be;

1. Duo misses out on some pretty common verbs and grammar patterns so don't limit yourself to duo. I remember my first French class, I was wondering what the hell the verb 'oublier' meant. (Hint: To forget)

2. A mistake a lot of English speakers make is to default to vous. I've been told "tu peux me totoyer" about a million times. (Translation: You can use the informal "tu" register with me).

3. Don't worry about gender, it will click very quickly and it won't be a problem. Remember in French (non-subject) gender attaches to nouns, not persons. So his mother and her mother are both "sa mère".

4. Pronunciation. It will rack your brain that "Il mange" and "Ils mangent" are identical in pronunciation. In a very large number of cases the je, tu, il/elle and ils/elles forms of the verbs are pronounced the same way, but are spelled differently.

French actually has pretty regular rules on pronounciation that you will pick up in due time. The only problem is that the rules are a bit odd.

5. The French [R]. There's plenty of videos on youtube on how to pronounce it. It will make you stand out and sound less ridiculous, especially if you are American. Pretty much every other sound is easy by comparison.

 

[HarryKS]

How old are you OP?

 

[Putosaure]

OP, please keep watching channels like Arte or things like that. Because if you try some other popular programs or channels, you might encounter some grammatical mistakes and slang which are not useful to your learning process.

And keep in touch with french people. I'm sure some French gaffers here (including myself) could provide tips and help if needed.

 

[azyless]

Good luck ! A lot of french people have trouble with it so it's probably a pretty tough language to pick up.

4. Pronunciation. It will rack your brain that "Il met" and "Ils mettent" are identical in pronunciation.

Uh ? They're not

 

[Kurita]

4. Pronunciation. It will rack your brain that "Il met" and "Ils mettent" are identical in pronunciation.

They're not

"Il court/Ils courent" are for instance

 

[Arksy]

Good luck ! A lot of french people have trouble with it so it's probably a pretty tough language to pick up.


Uh ? They're not

!@## You're right, editing. Sorry. My bad. -_-

 

[Natetan]

I started learning French two and a half years ago. I was graded this year at B2 in everything but speaking, where I'm somehow at B1 (I feel like I'm a lot worse!)

My three greatest tools have been; Duolingo, News in Slow French and reading, reading and more reading. After learning duo for about six months I enrolled in French at University which has been a great experience but like duo, it really trains your reading and writing skills and does little to help you actually engage in conversation.

My main tips to you would be;

1. Duo misses out on some pretty common verbs and grammar patterns so don't limit yourself to duo. I remember my first French class, I was wondering what the hell the verb 'oublier' meant. (Hint: To forget)

2. A mistake a lot of English speakers make is to default to vous. I've been told "tu peux me totoyer" about a million times. (Translation: You can use the informal "tu" register with me).

3. Don't worry about gender, it will click very quickly and it won't be a problem. Remember in French (non-subject) gender attaches to nouns, not persons. So his mother and her mother are both "sa mère".

4. Pronunciation. It will rack your brain that "Il met" and "Ils mettent" are identical in pronunciation. In a very large number of cases the je, tu, il/elle and ils/elles forms of the verbs are pronounced the same way, but are spelled differently.

French actually has pretty regular rules on pronounciation that you will pick up in due time. The only problem is that the rules are a bit odd.

5. The French [R]. There's plenty of videos on youtube on how to pronounce it. It will make you stand out and sound less ridiculous, especially if you are American. Pretty much every other sound is easy by comparison.

Thanks! Yeah duolingo has some really wierd stuff and sentences, and I figured what I'm getting in there won't match what is in the A1 test. I'm just sort of rising the wave happy that something has clicked for me with this language. Duolingo doesn't really reinforce things or make sure that you thoroughly have grasped every grammar item in each section.

It's wierd that this/that and his/her are the same word.

I'll check out those other items too. The slow news might be good for me.Arte is quite fast...

OP, please keep watching channels like Arte or things like that. Because if you try some other popular programs or channels, you might encounter some grammatical mistakes and slang which are not useful to your learning process.

And keep in touch with french people. I'm sure some French gaffers here (including myself) could provide tips and help if needed.

Thanks for the tips. My bf is French and basically we're moving next summer, so the clock is ticking on me to get as fluent as I can by then.... He's helpful, and we watch arte together

 

[Arksy]

Think of his and her as "its" - it's easier to get your head around it that way.

 

[God Dayumm]

French is a difficult language. Not only there are many rules, you have also many exceptions to these rules. A lot of french people don't even master this language. Good luck though.

The grammar rules were easy for me. Conversation was not. I gave up after I figured I would not be able to talk fluently or even understand half of what the other person was saying.

 

[Arksy]

I've learned three other languages and no other language is as difficult to comprehend verbally as French. They have very difficult stress patterns where all the syllables seem to blend into each other and it sounds like a mumble.

My biggest problem with French has been speaking and listening to normal conversation. A huge issue is that you learn very formal French when you study at an English University...and you don't nearly get enough practice speaking and listening. I feel as though my ability to read and write French completely and utterly outstrips my ability to speak and listen. I feel as though I need to actually go to a Francophone country and take a crash course to bring me up to speed. Part of it, I'm sure, is a confidence problem. I'm always second guessing how to say even the simplest sentence.

Despite that, learning French has been incredibly rewarding for me.

 

[AuthenticM]

Here's an extremely handy database of tips offered by the Office québécois de la langue française.

Go through some of it in your free time. It's a god send. I wish I had access to it when I was going through high school and college, lol.

edit: for some reading, here's Le Devoir. It's the oldest independent media outlet in Québec, and the most respected.

 

[Mass_Pincup]

I'm happy for you OP, french is a pretty difficult language to fully comprehend even for us french people but stick to it and it'll help you learn spanish and italian since they share some similarity.

If you have any question regarding some rules don't hesitate to PM me, I'll answer as best as I can.

Bonne chance, j'espère que tu réussiras ton examen et que tu pourras tenir une conversation très bientôt !

 

[Sch1sm]

There are a lot of podcasts out there that can help you in the more conversational aspect. Since you're already going through DuoLingo and a text, though, here's a shorter one for you. Episodes aren't ever more than like...15-20 minutes.

 

[SchrodingerC]

Good luck OP. I took accelerated French this summer, and while I can vaguely read and understand it, there were times I wanted to quit because of the difficulty of the language.

Don't forget to try immersing yourself in language however you can.

 

[Orniletter]

French is pretty great, I wish I'd have taken the course a bit more seriously in school back then.

There was this one grammatical tense nobody in my class ever really figured out when to use. I think it was passé compose vs. something with "ai" (?).

My teacher was like "you'll see and feel when to use it" without any further explenations.

Well. No.We didn't. lol

Fake Edit:Oh, it was passé compose vs. imparfait. Well reading about it a decade later....that doesn't seem all that complicated at all.

 

[Arksy]

My main sticking points with grammar seem to be;

1. I always seem to forget how to use "dont" especially when the verb phrase doesn't take "de" - not like it matters. I can never seem to remember half the verbs that do anyway. God damn it French prepositions give me the shits. I'll never forget the response when I said; "Je suis sur le bus."

2. I don't think I'll ever be able to use y and en properly. Why can't it just be simple like in English? *cries*

3. French past tenses. I thought I had a pretty good grasp on it, but I always seem to encounter a case which throws me off completely and make me feel like I should go back to learning how to say hello and how are you.

The good news is that I've read up so much about the subjunctive I think I perfectly understand when to use it. :/

 

[AuthenticM]

My main sticking points with grammar seem to be;

1. I always seem to forget how to use "dont" especially when the verb phrase doesn't take "de" - not like it matters. I can never seem to remember half the verbs that do anyway. God damn it French prepositions give me the shits. I'll never forget the response when I said; "Je suis sur le bus."

2. I don't think I'll ever be able to use y and en properly. Why can't it just be simple like in English? *cries*

3. French past tenses. I thought I had a pretty good grasp on it, but I always seem to encounter a case which throws me off completely and make me feel like I should go back to learning how to say hello and how are you.

The good news is that I've read up so much about the subjunctive I think I perfectly understand when to use it. :/

For the subjunctive, keep in mind that it is for the domain of uncertainty and supposition. There are times when a sentence uses "que", but the subjunctive will not be the proper tense, because of context.

 

[VAD]

Félicitations et bon courage!
I wouldn't dare learning the language if it wasn't my mother tongue already.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Bonne chance !

 

[Madouu]

It's all about regular practice, it's easier than what some people might tell you, especially if it's something you enjoy!

Here are my recommendations:

- Finish the duolingo tree.
- Get an easy quality beginner grammar book such as this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/209033858X/?tag=toweofbabe-20
- Introduce as much listening as you can early on so that you get used to the pronunciation and most importantly, the 'music' of the language.
- Watch TV shows dubbed in French, it's an amazing tool to improve really quick.

Depending on your interests, I can recommend you different programs to watch or listen to in French.

It's a wonderful language, I'm glad you're learning it and I'm sure you will be great at it very soon!

edit: Here are a few tools that you might want to look at. First, you can check out Fluent Forever for a good method to help you learn any language. forvo.com and rhinospike are great tools if you need to find the correct pronunciation for a word for the former, and to ask for full transcript pronunciations on the latter. If you like flash cards then Anki is a pretty good tool to make them and make use of spaced repetition to help memorize vocabulary faster. Finally, italki is a great website where you can book sessions with people that will teach you a language or just talk with you in the language you are learning. Hope this helps.

 

[Arksy]

For the subjunctive, keep in mind that it is for the domain of uncertainty and supposition. There are times when a sentence uses "que", but the subjunctive will not be the proper tense, because of context.

*Nods* I now understand the difference between, "Il ne pense pas que je sais parler le mandarin / Il ne pense pas que je sache parler le mandarin" and "Je cherche une boulangerie qui est près d'ici // Je cherche une boulangerie qui soit près d'ici"

But it took me about half an hour to figure out why "dont" was used in the following sentence: "Le navire dont le commandant a disparu lors du naufrage de 2011 est maintenant un musée qui attire de nombreux visiteurs."

 

[dankir]

I think spoken French is one thing, I've lived in Montreal since 1986 and married a French Canadian so I can speak, communicate.

But written French? Forget about it, my wife is 100% fluently bilingual and even she thinks written French is really really tough.

 

[Vincent Grayson]

I kind of miss French. I took an incredibly intense course about 5 years back where we did 2 years (4 classes) worth of French in the span of about 12 weeks. It's probably the most fun I've had studying a language, and certainly the one I took most easily to.

Hopefully I've retained enough that when my family and I finally make it to France, I won't feel like a total idiot.

 

[Orniletter]

Félicitations et bon courage!
I wouldn't dare learning the language if it wasn't my mother tongue already.

I really don't think french is that outragously difficult.

It's not on the easy side like english, learning genders (welcome to europe !) and learning how to conjugate sucks....

...but fundamentally, it's structurally similar enough to german, english and Italian to be managable imo.

 

[Mass_Pincup]

I really don't think french is that outragously difficult.

It's not on the easy side like english, learning genders (welcome to europe !) and learning how to conjugate sucks....

...but fundamentally, it's structurally similar enough to german, english and Italian to be managable imo.

There's so many exceptions though.

 

[Arksy]

There's so many exceptions though.

Are there really though? Is French really any worse than the other European languages? English is pretty bad...and let's not forget what Mark Twain said about German:

One is washed about in it, hither and thither, in the most helpless way; and when at last he thinks he has captured a rule which offers firm ground to take a rest on amid the general rage and turmoil of the ten parts of speech, he turns over the page and reads, "Let the pupil make careful note of the following exceptions." He runs his eye down and finds that there are more exceptions to the rule than instances of it.

I've never really felt overwhelmed by the exceptions that exist in French.

 

[Natetan]

I really don't think french is that outragously difficult.

It's not on the easy side like english, learning genders (welcome to europe !) and learning how to conjugate sucks....

...but fundamentally, it's structurally similar enough to german, english and Italian to be managable imo.

Yeah I'm really bad with genders. It's actually worse than German because other words than the article also change as the gender or plural change.

It's funny because it is so grammatically similar to English. I speak Japanese and you can never just translate word for word a phrase, but French and English, many expressions are, but I'm always second guessing myself.

Thanks for all the advice everyone in going to look all that stuff up.

 

[timetokill]

I'm torn between learning French and Japanese. I took Japanese for a year in high school but that was a long time ago.

Japanese seems way easier so it has that going for it, but I really want to talk to girls in French.

Tough decisions.

 

[NYCmetsfan]

I started learning French two and a half years ago. I was graded this year at B2 in everything but speaking, where I'm somehow at B1 (I feel like I'm a lot worse!)

My three greatest tools have been; Duolingo, News in Slow French and reading, reading and more reading. After learning duo for about six months I enrolled in French at University which has been a great experience but like duo, it really trains your reading and writing skills and does little to help you actually engage in conversation.

My main tips to you would be;

1. Duo misses out on some pretty common verbs and grammar patterns so don't limit yourself to duo. I remember my first French class, I was wondering what the hell the verb 'oublier' meant. (Hint: To forget)

2. A mistake a lot of English speakers make is to default to vous. I've been told "tu peux me totoyer" about a million times. (Translation: You can use the informal "tu" register with me).

3. Don't worry about gender, it will click very quickly and it won't be a problem. Remember in French (non-subject) gender attaches to nouns, not persons. So his mother and her mother are both "sa mère".

4. Pronunciation. It will rack your brain that "Il mange" and "Ils mangent" are identical in pronunciation. In a very large number of cases the je, tu, il/elle and ils/elles forms of the verbs are pronounced the same way, but are spelled differently.

French actually has pretty regular rules on pronounciation that you will pick up in due time. The only problem is that the rules are a bit odd.

5. The French [R]. There's plenty of videos on youtube on how to pronounce it. It will make you stand out and sound less ridiculous, especially if you are American. Pretty much every other sound is easy by comparison.

This is why I quit. I cant do it

 

[DriftingSpirit]

Took French from middle school up to college. Tough language.

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

I almost failed French class in high school. I never got anything less than a B in my whole life besides French class.

Edit: I'm pretty sure I did get a C once in college because I had to skip some classes attend my grandma's funeral.

 

[Jisgsaw]

I'm torn between learning French and Japanese. I took Japanese for a year in high school but that was a long time ago.

Japanese seems way easier so it has that going for it, but I really want to talk to girls in French.

Tough decisions.

As a french-german having tried japanese, I think the "easier" depends on what you dread more:
- for fench you'll have to get the conjugation, exceptions and spelling / pronunciation, but you'll have a solid vocabulary base (assuming you know either english or german, or even better, italian, spanish or portugese)
- for japanese, you'll have to learn the kanas and kanjis, and completely start from 0 for the vocabulary, but the grammatics are piss easy.

I personally suck at learning by heart, so I gave up japanese (despite playing a lot of japanese games and watching a lot of animes, in jap sub eng when possible)

 

[Orniletter]

There's so many exceptions though.

Oh, of course ! It's not easy or simple in any way, but I'm coming from another language thats not as simple as english (german has many, many pitfalls too). I don't think either of them is balls to the walls rediculous like Chinese.

Yeah I'm really bad with genders. It's actually worse than German because other words than the article also change as the gender or plural change.

It's funny because it is so grammatically similar to English. I speak Japanese and you can never just translate word for word a phrase, but French and English, many expressions are, but I'm always second guessing myself.

Thanks for all the advice everyone in going to look all that stuff up.

Learning genders was my cryptonite. It's just natural in your mouther tongue, but having to come up with the right form of an adcective when you are trying to form a coherent sentences is ...not easy.

 

[SecretMoblin]

After studying mostly Germanic languages in school I found pieces of French a bit frustrating (verb forms especially tense and mood, prepositions, the appropriateness of idioms/slang in certain situations) but for the most part it's fairly straightforward.

Make sure to use a variety of sources and communicate with native speakers as much as possible. You can't properly learn how a language is used from textbooks and websites alone.

 

[Clay Davis]

What a strange coincidence, I'm currently learning French too.

I'm using Duolingo, which isn't so bad but it does feel quite lacking so I've also signed up to some lessons through Udemy which I'm due to start soon. Duolingo has helped to get the basics though, so I'm hoping I'll be able to translate that into the other lessons.

 

[Vincent Grayson]

I'm torn between learning French and Japanese. I took Japanese for a year in high school but that was a long time ago.

Japanese seems way easier so it has that going for it, but I really want to talk to girls in French.

Tough decisions.

As someone who took a couple years worth of college classes in both, I found French to be far, far easier.

Japanese pronunciation is easier, sure. But having to learn not just one, both two entire new alphabets plus kanji? That shit is way worse than anything I encountered with French. Learning to speak Japanese isn't so bad, but reading (and especially writing) it is much more of a challenge.

 

[SpiceMelange]

I'm French Canadian and I have way more trouble writing properly in French with no grammar mistakes than English. Shit is complicated, with tons of exceptions on how to conjugate. For certain verbs you conjugate according to the subject, for others you conjugate according to the object complement (and you have to take into account if it's a direct or indirect complement and it's after or before the verb). Also the accents like la or là, sa or ça, tous/tout, a or à. I took some Spanish classes which I found way easier than French especially on how few exceptions they are on word pronunciations. Also took Japanese classes and the grammar and pronunciation are very very simple.

 

[AuthenticM]

I started a second bachelor's degree last year, in Translation. In the first semester, I had a class devoted to knowledge of the French language; nothing about translation. It quickly made me realize that 1. French is not as hard to understand as its reputation suggests, and 2. the reason why it has that reputation is because it is poorly taught in school. I shit you not, I learned more about French by reading the class' small and concise PDFs than I did throughout all of high school and college. The documents were so well-put together!

I'm tempted to put them all in a google docs for all to grab, but I think I could get sued if I did, haha.

 

[UnluckyKate]

Bienvenue in the elite circle of gentlemen.

Un peu de vin ? We're about to debate existentialism philosophy.

Très belle écharpe, by the way. Hope you enjoy your stay.

 

[Ferulci]

Bonne chance !

 

[Killer Queen]

Gunna agree with the Duolingo suggestion..i don't use it nearly as frequently as I should but I surprisingly retain a lot of information and understand bits of German when spoken even if I wasn't fully paying attention.

 

[MoodyFog]

Bon courage

 

[Yort]

My French isn't very good considering how long I've studied it, K-12 Core French in school, and then 5 university courses. Listening and speaking are where I struggle the most, so hopefully some of the resources mentioned in here help.

I'm taking the federal government writing and reading test tomorrow, so I'll see how that goes. I've been doing Duolingo for a while, too.

Anyone have recommendations for games to play in French? I don't know if they're all that good for learning, but since I'm playing them anyway I figure it's worth a shot. I played through the VC release of Pokémon Yellow and am working my way through Alpha Sapphire now in French.

 

[Mass_Pincup]

Are there really though? Is French really any worse than the other European languages? English is pretty bad...and let's not forget what Mark Twain said about German:



I've never really felt overwhelmed by the exceptions that exist in French.

English is a pretty easy language to get into at least for holding a basic conversation running, I found french to be harder in that regard but since I'm native french speaker my opinion isn't perfectly representative.

Oh, of course ! It's not easy or simple in any way, but I'm coming from another language thats not as simple as english (german has many, many pitfalls too). I don't think either of them is balls to the walls rediculous like Chinese.

German seems like such an hard language to learn, a lot of my friend attempted to learn it and they all failed, I've always been afraid to take a look at it.

 

[GYODX]

I've been wanting to break into French for a while. I speak Spanish and English natively, which should give me an advantage with French. I'm a bit intimidated by French pronunciation, which seems to be the hardest aspect of the language.

As for Japanese, the pronunciation is dead simple. In fact, Japanese vowels (with the exception of u) are pronounced the exact same way as in my native Spanish. A lot of people have remarked on the simplicity of Japanese grammar, and while that is true to some extent, I have to say that it is very overstated. Japanese grammar becomes quite complex and confusing the deeper you get into it. The lack of relative pronouns in Japanese can sometime lead to confusion. Take this sentence for instance:

私が英語を習った先生は、今私が勤めている大学の卒業生です。

The teacher I learned English from is an alumnus of the University where I currently work.

私が英語を習った先生
I (subject) English (direct object) learned teacher

Notice how this translates to "the teacher I learned English *from*", even though there is nothing in the actual Japanese to explicitly indicate the relationship between the relative clause and the head noun? This sort of inferring is very, very common when reading Japanese. Sometimes, as in this case, the relationship is obvious, but other times, there is room for ambiguity.

 

[Steiner_Zi]

My biggest problem with French has been speaking and listening to normal conversation. A huge issue is that you learn very formal French when you study at an English University...and you don't nearly get enough practice speaking and listening. I feel as though my ability to read and write French completely and utterly outstrips my ability to speak and listen. I feel as though I need to actually go to a Francophone country and take a crash course to bring me up to speed. Part of it, I'm sure, is a confidence problem. I'm always second guessing how to say even the simplest sentence.

The same things apply for everyome who tries to learn a foreign language. Being a non-native English speaker myself, when I came to the UK I realised the English you get taught at school is so much different to the English actually spoken and even though you may have very good reading/writing/listening skills it's a whole different story trying to actually actively speak it. It took me a while to get confident at engaging in everyday conversations with native speakers.

Practice and don't be afraid to get out there and speak despite your inner fears that you don't speak it well and your accent is terrible, the only way to master a foreign language.

 

[Llyranor]

Read comics like Asterix and Tintin.