I’m Australian and work at a French company alongside many Frenchmen. Having lived in a Canada for a few years, I was curious about how the French view Quebecois, and the language differences, in particular.

When I asked my French colleagues, they answered that it was almost a different language. I find it kind of hard to comprehend since there’s no English dialect that I would have too much difficulty understanding (though I get the impression that American English speakers struggle a little more with other dialects).

My best guess at how different it could be would be something like someone with a thick Louisianan accent speaking to someone with a thick Glaswegian accent? As in, even though the words are largely the same, they’d need to speak slowly and enunciate clearly in order to understand one another. Is that about right?

Bonjour mon ami.

I'm reading a paper written by Saussure (or actually his students but whatever) and he writes the following:

"Modern French mouton can have the same signification as English sheep but not the same value, and this for several reaons, particularly because in speaking of a piece of meat ready to be served on the table, English uses mutton and not sheep. The difference in value between sheep and mouton is due to the fact that sheep has beside it a second term while the French word does not."

Am I correct in understanding that if I go to a French farmer and say: "Do you have mouton?" he will show me his sheep, and if I go to a French restaurant and say: "Do you serve mouton?" they will serve me sheep [mutton] cooked to perfection?

donc je vais passer mon DALF dans quelques jours et je trouve que la partie de l'expression orale spécifiquement la synthèse apparaît comme un compte rendu ? est ce que c'est la même chose apart la partie de la critique bien sûr

Heyy 21M here I'm intrested in learning Quebec french but I don't even have any idea about the France of French let alone Quebec french and I assume there are more resources for France of French online/offline how hard would it be for me to learn quebec french after I have learned french of France or should I directly learn quebec french is the difference between the two massive or it's easier to learn quebec french after french of France

I don’t know why use Te here

Bonjour à tous,

Récemment, en lisant des livres français, j’ai remarqué l’usage d’un objet direct où on n’en emploie pas en anglais:

• “C’est moi mais je vous ***le* jure, je ne savais pas ce qu’il y avait sur le disque… sinon je ne l’aurais pas fait!"
  • Agatha Christie, Ils Étaient Dix
• “‘Et que signifie le Jour de Durin?’ demanda Elrond. ‘Le premier jour du Nouvel An des Nains, dit Thorin, comme toute personne devrait *le* savoir, est le premier jour de la dernière lune d’automne au seil de l’hiver.’”
  • J.R.R. Tolkien, Le Hobbit
• “Et c’est là qu’ils se tiennent encore aujourd’hui, tout seuls, sauf quand les oiseaux viennent s’y percher; car les trolls, comme vous *le* savez sans doute, doivent rentrer sous terre avant l’aube, autrement ils retournent a la pierre des montagne dont ils sont faits, et ne bougent jamais plus.” 
  • J.R.R. Tolkien, Le Hobbit

Est-ce qu’on peut m’expliquer le règle ici? C’est difficile à comprendre pour moi, et je crains que je vais oublier d’utiliser l’objet direct dans ces cas.

Veuillez corriger mes erreurs si vous en voyez. Merci beaucoup!

planning on making a sign in french for a hockey game. im trying to say "trade for a stick or puck?" im learning on duolingo, which apparently isnt the best. am i saying what i think im saying? "échanger pour un bâton ou un palet?

EDIT: canadian french idk if theres a separate subreddit for that i didnt think that far ahead

Hi everyone! I wanted to get some advice on whether it’s realistic to make solid progress in French over the next six months while also taking AP Italian. For some background, Spanish is my first language, and I’ve been studying Italian for four years, including a recent trip to Italy.

Given the similarities between Spanish, Italian, and French, I’m hoping my background will help me pick up French a bit faster, but I’m also mindful of the time commitment. Does anyone have tips or resources that worked for you when learning multiple languages, especially if you were already familiar with other Romance languages? Any advice on time management or balancing AP Italian with French study would be really helpful. Thanks!

It makes you wonder since French had heavily influenced English spelling and J makes the ZH sound in both French and English, but almost all languages have a yuh /j/ sound even in Romance languages like Spanish and Italian.

I tried looking it up but all Google is giving me is the /y/ sound and not the yuh sound. Like seriously what letter (combination) in French makes the yuh sound?

HINT: I'm Canadian

Edit: sorry for the cryptic post. Here is the explanation. I often type to friends in either English or French. So I have the English (Canada), French (Canada) and French (France) keyboards. On my work laptop I think I even have English (US). Sometimes it's just to use one or two characters. For French, I think it's for the "ù". I don't know how many times I switch between keyboards in a day, but it seems like too often. Not to mention on my phone. And even worse sometimes I text people in Spanish. Wondering if anyone else has this problem, or has a better way of operating.

Example I came across: coûter vs couter

Hello, native French speakers. In American English, the term retarded - while also meaning delayed - has fallen out of polite speech because of its use a pejorative for the mentally handicapped.

Are the 1st and 3rd definitions here from Collinsdictionary.com still common among native speakers, or is it an equally impolite phrase in French too?

Thanks in advance!

After you eat, you can leave. What's the best translation for this in french.

Is it après avoir mangé, tu peux partir

The past infinitive

Or apres qué tu mange...

The present

après que tu auras mangé....

After que tu manges, tu peux partir

Or the future anterior

Also what's the difference in when you use the future anterior and the past infinitive. Thank you

In one of the panels, Obelix says "j'ai un creux, là"

https://archive.org/details/AsterixChezLesHelvetes/page/n17/mode/2up

is this a pun?

What exactly does this mean? I don’t speak French and google says “Yes but no”

which pronom would you use for this question?

avez-vous déjà visité LA FRANCE?

i wrote- oui, j'y ai déjà visité and i was marked wrong.

Il ne serait pas un problème dans la plupart des situations.

Mais y a-t-il un moyen de les distinguer par la prononciation ?

Do we use jouer for echecs? and if so, why? Chess isn't played with a ball.

I was studying "Les misérables" novel in school and there was a phrase says :

un pantalon crasseux.

When we asked the teacher he said that the word "crasseux" means patchwork (the pants was ripped so it was patchworked) but when I googled it, translation say that it means "dirty" so what is the right meaning?

Je crois que je fais un calque depuis ma langue maternelle… voilà pourquoi?

Est-ce que ces usage sont courants?

1. "Ils se sont tapés dessus, c'est pourquoi sont nez saigne" (là c'est clair à mon avis)

2. "Vous interprétez mal son caractère, Monsieur le juge. Lui et son frère ont toujours gardé un esprit compétitif et taquin. Donc quant à ce harcèlement soit-disant, ils aiment juste se taper dessus de temps en temps, c'est tout. "

(ici je pense que se taper dessus amicalement pourrait être une contradiction, si c'est toujours physique)

Merci de votre aide !

I think overall my pronunciation is fairly good, but I stumble on certain words that are the same in English like "distinct" and "poison" that don't have obviously French-sounding endings like "ance" or "ment". I end up slipping back into English pronunciation and it really takes me out of it! Does anyone else have this issue/have any tips?

J'ai l'impression que j'entends l'expression pas très souvent (voire jamais), pourtant les français aiment bien se critiquer.

Les natifs, quand vous risquez de parler mal à une autorité quelconque, avec quelle phrase est-ce que vous atténuez les critiques?

Use this weekly thread to ask for specific media recommendations or spontaneously recommend movies, books, webcomics, video games and more to other members!

En: Why spoil a good mystery?

Fr: Pourquoi gâcher un bon mystère?

I’m new to this so I wasn’t sure if translating it word for word is the correct way, or if there would be a more proper way of phrasing it. Thanks

Je viens de commencer un projet académique qui inclut une rédaction autobiographique, un peu comme une lettre de motivation, avec beaucoup de détails/histoires provenant de mes expériences antérieures. L'importance de cette rédaction pour ma carrière pourrait être énorme, et on va m'évaluer comme le français c'est ma langue maternelle (ce ne l'est pas) - donc j'aimerais qu'elle soit la plus belle possible...

Mais j'hésite entre le passé simple est le passé composé. Je n'ai jamais eu un cours de français écrit. Je lis assez souvent en français donc je suis habitué à lire et à comprendre le passé simple mais je suspecte qu'il y a des nuances importantes lorsqu'on entreprend à vraiment l'utiliser. Ou, j'ai tort et c'est assez simple que le passé composé devient passé simple dans tous les cas, fin de discussion.

Suggestions?

I’m having a hard time trying to understand the different meaning <<rapport>> can have, and I’m not exactly sure what Savigny is saying in passages such as <<je désignerai par l’expression rapports de droit, sans autre distinction, cette classe de rapports particulière au droit privé>>.

Hi guys,

I just started learning French using Duolingo, but I thought it might not be useful too really learn to speak and communicate effectively. Thus, I have decided that it would be a good idea to practise immersion by speaking to natives, but the thing is that, my parents are not able to support me in this sense economically speaking. I recently discovered Schoolhouse.world, a really good place to learn with people teaching you, but I couldn't find any French courses there. Are there any other places in which I can do that? Are there any other immersion techniques to get better?

Thanks.

P.D.: btw I'm also learning german and already know how to speak (fluently) Spanish (I was born in Spain), Chinese (I'm chinese), and English (interacting in Reddit, YouTube and other stuff made me fluent at it).

So, it's transitive direct as in: Jouer un instrument - and transitive indirect as in jouer au football? In English, the second case would have probably been a phrasal verb, lol.