Asking Questions in French - WHY WE DON'T USE INVERSIONS!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 พ.ค. 2024
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this channel is basically:
"you know everything you learned in french class? yeah we don't do that here"
haha yeah pretty much
Honestly!!! I’m like, why did I even bother learning French in college 😭😭😭
@@curtiscurry5775 ow no don't worry :) you have a good base now you can learn new things ^^
So how would you say can I - puis-je. Since that is an inversion??
@@TheBala1999 in a very veeery formal situation you would say "puis-je", but in an everyday conversation you'd rather say "est-ce que je peux..." or in informal situation "je peux...?". And if you're ordering at a restaurant just say "Je prendrai..." ou "je vais prendre..." (I'm gonna take)
I learned French in US public school in the 1960s. A native French speaker recently told me that the language I learned was equivalent to 19th century French.
aww yeah makes sense
Yes. I am shocked that the things I struggled to learn (inversions) are archaic and formal and reflect class.
I can’t hear it in a social context. So I can’t hear that it’s fancy. Bummer.
😂😂😂😂
When I lived in France, I found that most speakers use “on” rather than “nous”.
yeah exactly :):)
In some regions you may even hear people using both in the same sentence. "We're the best", would then be "C'est nous qu'on est les meilleurs". Which is the worst construction possible, really :).
But you're right, we'll use "on" most of the time if it's used before a verb. "Vous faites quoi ?" -- "ON attend le bus".
Remember you can't replace "nous" with "on" everytime. If someone asks "Qui a fait ça ?", your answer could be "C'est nous !" and never "c'est ON".
Starbug Neufko I haven’t regularly heard or spoken French since 1996, but couldn’t one say “C’est on qui l’a fait!” or “On l’a fait!”
@@joshadams8761 "On l'a fait" is correct. "C'est on qui l'a fait" is never correct (even in spoken french). That would raise people eyebrows for sure. You would say "C'est nous qui l'avons fait" in that case.
On, doesn’t include the person who’s speaking
I've had that look from a French person when I used inversion. Not pretty. Thanks for the tips.
ah yeah I guess they just thought it sounded awkward lol it's ok :) glad we could help ! :)
I’m in my 50’s, but I feel like when I was a teenager people did use inversions more. Then learning English sometimes they would try to use the same form. I remember a French girl at an ice cream parlor in NY asking, “What flavors have you?” Their English teacher, who was not a native speaker, had told them they could use that form. But he was wrong.
Juniper Hill I guess in English...Do you have vanilla? or Have you got vanilla? are both pretty natural. So, to me inversion has never really felt strange! Having obviously been a beginner to every French person I’ve ever spoken with, no-one has ever told me before this ;)...
Wait...I just realised it’s the same thing in English. It’s like “what say you?” Or “speak you french, good sir?” Just sounds archaic.
ah yeah I guess so ! :)
In Québec it's common to use the inversion « tu [verbe]-tu?», e.g. tu veux-tu, tu penses-tu, tu peux-tu, etc.
Then again, in Québec it's common to do a lot of stuff that will confuse Parisians.
ah oui c'est vrai :)
Yes and it sounds much more correct
Its not just Quebec. I think french Canadians generally speak using the inversion. I had no idea that it sounded so formal to people from France lol
Dans le cas de "Tu [verbe]-tu", le deuxième tu est en fait "ti". On prononce "tu" car personne ne sait que "ti" existe. C'est un ancien marqueur de question. Donc ici pas d'inversion mais simplement un archaïsme. Exemple: "ça va ti? Tu viens ti? on mange ti?". Il y a encore une trace de ti dans le français moderne: "y a-t-il" viens de "il y a ti?"
Mais oui on utilise encore des inversions comme: "As-tu 5$? Peux-tu y aller demain? Aimeriez-vous manger de la pizza?" Donc surtout des questions qui se répondent par oui/non. Mais dans d'autres cas on n'inverse pas: "Tu penses faire ça comment? Tu as déjà planifier ton voyage?
Pour ce qui est de "est-ce", on remplace souvent par "c'est". exemple: "C'est quoi tu fais?" pour "Qu'est-ce que tu fait?" ou bien "C'est comment tu vois ça" pour "comment est-ce que tu vois ça?"
tu veux tu ben farmer ta yeul XD .... Joke !!!!
My teacher always pushed us to invert , and not use est-ce que which she told us was for children. I always liked est-ce que because it gave you a moment to compose the rest of the phrase in your head. Inversion seemed brutally quick and for that reason more adult and firm.
ah interesting to hear that you prefer to use "est-ce que". and yeah it's normal, in school they really want you to speak very formal textbook proper French. but it's good if you're more confortable with spoken French as it's what's mostly spoken :)
I agree w you about est-ce que. I am a French teacher, and I teach est-ce que, especially at first, with my students because it’s a quick signal to them that I’m asking a question & need a response. I find I drop it more and more as they advance. I only show them inversion, so they’ll get it, but I do not teach it where it’s an active part of how they speak.
Omg thank you!!! Gonna stop thinking like that way before it becomes a habit! I thought the inversion question was the informal way. Haha
ah yeah glad it helped! :)
I've lived here for 3 years and have only just found this out 😂
This is the thing that confuses me the most (inversion) so now I know it's not even necessary I might actually be able to learn more than 5 phrases!
I just found your channel so will be trying to watch a clip everyday thank you!
Can you make a vid on verlan? I just heard about it and I’m so intrigued. Not only do I have to learn French forward, I also have to learn it backwards 😂
Ah yeah we'll do that :)
Le verlan c'est très peu utilisé voir pas du tout
@@syfre9506 ?! au contraire c'est TRÈS utilisé , sur des mots spécifiques et suivant certaine tranche d'âge (ouf, reubeu, teuf, pécho , caillera, teubé et j'en passe).Après , peut être que vous même ne l'utilisez pas mais ce n'est pas forcément représentatif de l'évolution actuel du langage "de la rue" ou "des jeunes" en france . Cependant le verlan est utilisé sur moins de mots qu'il ne l'était durant les années 90/début 2000
@@Street_French also, if you can, you should add in the clip of Paul Taylor in his stand up on this. He has a hilarious bit on verlan!
I’m so glad you made this video. I’m taking beginning college french (but have some knowledge from trying to learn on my own over the years). We just learned how to pose questions. And my professor did tell us about inversion but made it seem that this was INFORMAL and not unusual to ask this way. We also didn’t learn about adding the -t- on inversion because it’s not part of the 1st semester class instruction. (I actually learned that in a high school French class-which makes sense! They never teach you conversational language skills in high school. So now I have the 411. My goal is to speak French so that I can be understood in France and to speak as naturally as possible! I will look out for your upcoming videos.
ow so cool ! thanks for sharing :))
I should say, my teacher didn’t SAY it was formal or informal. I incorrectly inferred it was INFORMAL. My professor is great. But we are limited by the syllabus, etc. and many of the students are much younger with not much language or life experience.
I remember hearing "T'as fais quoi ce weekend?" in the tram between all the students every Monday morning!
☺️☺️
Inversion is used more in Quebec. They use it on a daily basis whereas European French
ah ok cool ^^
Mmmm, à part le comment vas-tu? as-tu des exemples?
@@mbarchello5903 Je sais qu'en français québécois le pronom tu est souvent utilisé pour marquer l'interrogation ("t'en veux tu?" par exemple) mais c'est pas une inversion à probablement parler
I can understand that these rules on inversions can apply to modern French in (some parts?) of France. But in my region of Canada anyways, spoken inversions are much more common than non-inversions, and we definitely don't consider ourselves to be "upper echelon". Vive la différence!
ah yeah keep in mind that we share how we speak and we live in Paris, France. We wouldn't dare to say how to speak in Quebec, or Belgium or any other francophone country. It's definitely not our place. We share and teach what we know and how we speak :)
Inversions are more common in Canada.
In the course of my life, I found that French street language changes about every 5 to 10 years. Fluency means fluent for a certain age group at a particular moment in time in a precise area. When I lived in Paris, verlan was new. Today, 'hip' is the language of the 'beurs de tess' (suburban Maghreb people) that change the language. And I am not sure a 2008 sentence like "Je kiffe trop ce teuf" (I really like this party) would not sound old-fashioned today in 2019. Apart from that, real French has about five different levels, higher levels are fed new words and expressions from lower levels. The way you speak immediately puts you in a social echelon. (Read Pierre Boudieu's (La) Distinction) I could speak with politicians and business men but not with 'les mecs et les meufs' in a café. The French lady I was staying with in 1994 (a 'Sudiste') could not understand her own children when they came home from school for lunch. She got 'très énervée' about it in a funny kind of way. The people in this video speak the third level, street French, which changes all the time. Above that one has 'decent' French (Figaro, the web) and above that one has the French that politicians speak on television. Below that one has two separate languages, the French of the teenagers who try to be new and different, and various versions of patois and slang. So, when you go live in France and have learned French outside France itself, I guess 'StreetFrench.org' helps you a lot.
I'm French and I don't agree. Of course French is constantly changing but they talk about don't use inversion, or formal textbook French in a normal conversation and that's right. What they say is pretty right (use in everyday conversations) and it's not to much young's slang who change a lot, and even though for the verlan they aware people to understand it. Btw I'm a French college boy and from what you said you might be older than my parents so not sure you're a specialist, no offense
Charles van der Hoog I understand. I lived in Germany in the 80s. While I cold converse today, I wouldn’t know all those colloquial nuances that change with the times. (What’s today’s equivalent if “that’s cool” in Germany?? I don’t know, I don’t live there!) I was very aware of the expressions I didn’t learn in my formal German classes, which made me scared to speak a sentence in public . I got over it and learned as I went. And I lived there for 5 years. But these things are not in books. eg, we often say in English now, ‘it bites’ which means it’s horrible, or I don’t like it. It has worked its way up from SLANG to common usage to the likes of even me (I’m a 60 yr old mom with a teenage son at home!). I don’t use it every day, of course or in a work situation. Ahem. But it’s way more ‘vanilla’ that’s what’s found in the urban dictionary these days. We’d never teach “it bites” in a formal English class. But it is part of the common usage.
Hope this makes sense. Even a really well versed foreign speaker mostly learns business or formal English and it takes awhile to fall into colloquial language usage to sound like part of the crowd.
@@cindland Now I understand their band name: th-cam.com/video/ofL-ePVAshs/w-d-xo.html
Thanks!
Thanks for this informative video, I have been learning French for a while and was familiar will all the question forms that you described. However I had never heard that you don't tend to invert in spoken French. Yours was the only video I have seen to convey this. I will subscribe and look forward to looking back on your previous videos. Regards Julian, U.K.
Oh so glad you found it helpful Julian :) thanks for watching!
In the newer textbooks (even the CLE International series), to my surprise they don't even teach the formal inversion of verb & subject for interrogations to beginners ! They teach the "est-ce que" method, and the affirmative method with elevation of intonation at the end, without saying it is indeed incorrect and familiar. So it's good you mention it exists and is the correct (formal) way, to avoid some embarrassment when the formal way is needed, when writing application letters, for example.
ah so interesting ! thanks for sharing :)
When I was in college we had a lot of international students. What sounded worse then formal English to me, was a foreign student using too much slang. Especially a few years out of date slang, like from movies or TV. "Hey man, I really dig that grovey chick." "She's like far out man". That may have been "cool" in the '60s, but not now.
ah yeah out of date slang is the worse haha
What do you mean, simpler? For native Dutch and German speakers, the inversions are completely natural, and it's *not* using them that takes getting used to. 😄
ah yeah I guess that for some it might be confusing :)
Your videos are really helpful. The term "street french" is cool.
Thanks! Glad you enjoy our work :)
Inversion is how Yoda would ask a question in French.
wow, that was so useful. I never thought of it in that way. But yes, I know in my language is the same, formal and fancy way of speaking. Thank you for the great tips.
you're welcome! :)
Thanks for creating these videos. The fear for most beginners is sounding awkward and standing out when speaking. Learning to speak more naturally is always plus for me!
Okay. I’m glad you’re saying this because there’s something about French inversions that seem awkward to me. Like, I really don’t want to say «puis-je» and «dirais-je» 😄
haha ah yeah you understood it was awkward :)
It's the first video I've found where this topic is explained well. Thanks a lot 😊.
Love this!! Uggh thank you so much for clarifying this. It never made scenes to me either & I got frustrated learning formal 😅
aw you're so welcome! :)
“That’s okay if you want to sound like Moliere...”. Awesome! New sub!
haha you're welcome :)
Merci mille fois! C’est très utile.
De rien!
Great content. Love your videos. Très utile
👏🏻😊
ah merci :))
Omg tks for the tips, I've started to learn french 1 month ago, and basically i learned the formal form, just it
ah you're welcome :)
Many of us older people were taught according to the rules of the language police, Académie Française. On arrival in France, we soon learned that French evolves, just like other languages. We learned that spoken French is vastly different from written, academic usage. I like your lessons. You show that the language continues to evolve, despite the Academy. 50 years ago, the inversions were still used some in spoken French, at least around Poitiers.
ah thanks for your feedback :)))
I love you guys, it always feels like I'm sitting with my friends while watching you.
oh cool glad to hear that :)) yeah we like to bring a chill vibe in our videos, kind of like we were are sitting together around a cup of coffee or something haha^^
@@Street_French I've only been to Paris once. Looking forward to going again. If you're ever in Cairo, Egypt I'm willing to give you a free tour around :D
bonne vidéo!- merci beaucoup!
de rien ! :)
I'm so glad I found this video. I've been speaking French for over 13 years (mostly at school) and never once learned that inversions are super "frowned upon" in spoken french. I've only been speaking regularly with native French speakers for a couple of months, but hopefully this will enhance my conversations. Thank you so much!
est-ce que tu regarder des films?
Having learned formal way in school, it doesn't sound fancy, but I get it.
J’ai hâte de montrer cette vidéo à mes élèves! Elle est super! Merci de l’avoir faite!
ow cool ! vous êtes prof de français? :)
StreetFrench.org, ouais! En fait, ça fait 23 ans que j’enseigne le français ici à Warwick! Ça sonne absolument vrai votre vidéo! Peut-être on peut en créer une pour expliquer quelques expressions comme, «en effet », «quand même», «en fait», «quoi » (lorsque c’est à la fin d’une phrase? Merci d’avance :)
@@harryscott4705 ouais tout le monde nous demande ça haha il faut vraiment qu'on le fasse! :)
StreetFrench.org Super!
Awesome, great to see this video. I thought I was speaking like a child since I didn't learn to use inversions
ah cool thanks :)
Great video. Thanks!
De rien :)
Salut ! J'adore vos vidéos beaucoup ! 💕🇫🇷🥖
Salut! Merci
nice video, I completely agree with all you said
ah merci :)) glad you enjoyed the video !
I feel like a have a toolbox full of tools i can't use and i need to buy a whole new set. :( Thanks for making these videos, though. It makes a big difference having people spell this stuff out!
ah yeah sometimes spending too much time studying you can feel stuck, you need to go use the stuff you learned and go back and forth between studying and practicing speaking with people :) I think you'll feel much better if you could do that :)
Language is constantly changing every few years. I was born and live in Australia and didn't learn French at school. My Swiss-Italian father insisted I learn German at school and not French as we spoke French at home as my mother, who emigrated in 1950 from north of Menton speaking 1950s French but swearing in the local dialect, similar to Monagasque spoken in Monaco. I am fluent in these but people are intrigued when I converse in Paris.
To top things off, My mum says my cousins in Quebec City speak "like Shakespeare" ... they still use inversions there I discovered !
My first instinct is always to say something like "Où travaille-t-il?", or "Êtes-vous français?" I guess I should relax when talking to most Frencg speakers.
It's totally correct, but it's really formal to ask questions that way :) maybe try copying the native speakers you interact with, it's one of the best ways to learn a language!
So helpful! the equation makes it easy
Glad it helped! :) :)
Merci pour une bonne nouvelle, en fait ces questions sont plus facile :-)
de rien :)
Yes, and actually English with mandatory inversion and front-moving of the question word is a real headache! In French, you just ask question in the exact same order as the affirmative sentence: Tu penses que si demain il ne pleut pas tu pourras venir quand pour m'aider à déménager? In English you cannot say: you think that if tomorrow it doesn't rain you'll be able to come when to help me move? People would not just find the formulation weird, they would just NOT understand...
So how would you say can I - puis-je. Since that is an inversion??
we give you examples in the video :)
OMG I love your channel guys!! it made me realize french is not that complicated at all as I learned it at school. I´ve learned more in your 10-minute videos than in my 5 years at classes hahaha.
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Would you make a video explaining why "On" is used more often than "Nous"? Thanks!!!
Aah thanks for you comment! We're so glad you enjoyed this video!
As for "On", we wouldn't know the right reason why we started saying that but the reason why today we wouldn't say "nous" is because it just sounds to formal.
In French you have spoken French, polite French and then SUPER EXTRA FORMAL French that is used by the president or in literature haha
and saying "nous" sometimes ends up in that last category haha.
Wow nice to know, I've been using the inversion style questions lol
There are actually some exceptions. You can sometimes say: "Comment vas-tu ?" without sounding awkward. It's quite hard to explain...
Some examples :
_ you're at a party. An old friend or a person you didn't expect shows up. If you say: _"Hé, comment vas-tu?"_ with duly noted irony, it'll sound like a sarcasm, like a way to say: _"You, here?!? WOW!"_
It could also just mean you're very happy and surprised to see this person (without any sarcasm).
_ You can say as well _'Comment vas-tu?"_ when you see somebody you're having a crush on. In this situation, you usually whisper the sentence. It'll sound cute and kind of _"vulnerable"_ .
In this case, not inverting the sentence is a way to accentuate a feeling.
ah yeah I totally see what you mean but in both situations I would personally say "comment ça va?" or just "ça va?" . it's a personal choice and style of speaking I guess at the end of the day^^
I very often use "ça gaze ?" But please always use it with friends.
@@IAmFat1968 ow that's a cute expression, but it's a bit old fashioned now :) we sometimes use it ironically because it kind of sound funny and cute :) but yeah it's definitely just to be used with friends or in a informal situation :)
Je n'utilise pas l'inversion très souvent, mais il y a deux questions que je sais pas comment dire sans l'inversion. 1) comment vous-appellez vous? What's your name (formal)? 2) D'ou venez-vous? Where are you from (formal)? Tu peux m'aider s'il te plait?
@@karahope8249 In a formal situation, _"Comment vous appelez-vous ?"_ is okay... but _"Comment vous vous appelez ?"_ or _"C'est quoi votre prénom ?"_ would be more _"common"_ (even if it's wrong grammatically speaking but this is the way we use to speak).
For _"D'où venez-vous ?"_ , I'd rather just say: _"Vous venez d'où ?"_ .
Again, it just depends on what you're looking for: speak the most perfect french ever or sound like a French. ^^
Hi! thank you so much for your channel! Could you recommend some modern french tv shows or movies??
Such an informative channel and the examples given are so useful and practical for people learning French or like me already know it but dont speak it anymore only because I dont live in France anymore however I,ve been traveling there for vacation . It is so helpful to know because you dont want to sound like a jerk speaking French .Thank you
ow cool, we're so glad to help you along your journey :):)
Excellent thank you!
You're very welcome!
Merci pour cette vidéo excellente.....À +...
de rien :)
If you're meeting someone for the first time and you're using "vous," would the "tu t'appelles comment" then become "vous vous-appellez comment?"
exactly :)
Your vlogs really helps for a beginner like me. You guys are awesome. New subscriber here.
ah thanks! Welcome aboard!
@@Street_French Hi I am a Filipino from Philippines. How can I say in French "I am a Filipino" or "I am from Philippines" ? I really love the French language now and really love your vlogs. TIA
Merci beaucoup!
de rien :)
So I stumbled on your channel, thank God, and I love it. weird but I actually like the inverted way lol. like Parlez vous. I haven't learned the stuff with the extra t. I dont like that. I think the french constructed the language to flow beautifully and the inverted way flows better off MY tongue. I' learning with Duolingo so your channel is a great asset to have. Time for me to switch it up. Keep up the great work. Bless
aw thanks your comment means a lot :))
No its not grammatically wrong to say it but it just implys that older people should be talking a certain way .I like you and the dude and your channel helps me learn .
So it's not so much an out dated language issue, as it is a class issue.
I will stick to formal French then.
But I like the fact that I can speak proper English and "street" English, so I want to do so in French, as well.
Thanks for the upload!
Yeah do whatever you think is best :) thanks for watching!
I'm sure you don't speak English like Shakespeare. And I'm sure you don't want to speak French like Molière. But hey, each to his own.
Mostly it's a spoken vs written issue.
Je suis américain et il y a au moins un an depuis j’étais capable de parler en français. Quelquefois je doute mes capacités de parler en français parce il y a personne qui parle français proche à moi aux États-Unis, mais j’aime votre chaîne parce que je peux me rappeler la structure du grammaire et je peux être à jour à l’égard du français quotidien ! Merci de publier toutes vos vidéos !
ow cool c'est bien il faut continuer comme ça! si vous voulez améliorer votre Français, la prochaine étape c'est de trouver des amis avec qui parler français :) avoir des conversation et apprendre à improviser ça va TELLEMENT vous aider! :))
Une amie a appris toute seule le japonais en utilisant un système proche de Skype pour dialoguer avec des locuteurs (des gens qui parlent) japonais, je pense que ça doit exister en français.
Ngl all the formal phrases sound really nice.
Fancy sounds cool tbh. I get socially awkward etc, just sounds so complete and beautiful
Love the info and EXAMPLES
Merci beaucoup pour cette vidéo! I always wondered which structure to use and now it makes perfect sense. 😁 Also, when you talked about the formal way to speak I knew exactly what you meant. I would say someone who uses that structure is pretentious (another French word, lol 😉)
ah de rien ☺☺ glad you see what we meant by that ^^
Thanks. Nice job laying out the differences. I actually thought the 3 forms were pretty much interchangeable.
ah de rien :)
Completely agree for yes/no questions. There are some particular cases when inversions should still be used. For instance, you meet a stranger that is not a youngster, and you want to ask where he comes from. You want to be polite, so you're gonna use vous and not tu. If you say "vous venez d'où ?" it can be seen as inquisitive or even a little aggressive, when saying "d'où venez vous ?" sounds more neutral, especially if it is your first question to this person and you're not already engaged in a conversarion. "vous êtes qui ?" versus "qui êtes-vous ?": the first one feels like you are implying something along the lines of "who do you think you are?". This is a nuance and some people may not feel it, but others will.
ah so yeah that's where we don't agree "vous venez d'où?" is not impolite or agressive it's just polite :) And "d'où venez vous?" is not neutral at all, is REALLY formal. you have formal/polite and SUPER formal haha^^
I can tell you I never ever hear anyone use the inversions, even with older people. But maybe if my grandpa meets another person from his age, they would speak like that^^
and we don't ask a question like "vous êtes qui? or qui êtes-vous?" when we meet someone. But what's your name or who do you know etc... ^^
but maybe that's how you speak French and that's ok. And what we're sharing is how we speak French and how everyone we meet around us speak french ^^
Of course not all people speak a language exactly the same. It defines "living" languages as opposed to dead ones, like ancient Greek (I was gonna say Latin, but it's a tricky one). I'm not in any way trying to undermine or invalidate your work, your videos are great material for French learners! Just trying to add what I can, as typing these comments only take a few minutes compared to the hours you most probably spend doing these videos. Cheers! 🙂
Merci pour la vidéo, j’ai vraiment apprécié. J’ai besoin de parler plus comme un natif !
ah cool :)
Interesting video! Thank you very much. I haven't been to France since 1991 and I think inversion was already less common then but maybe not as weird as now. A couple of questions: is inversion just as weird in passé composé? (Par exemple, où êtes-vous allés, as-tu fait tes devoirs, a-t-il fini.)
Also, is it still common to use est-ce que with interrogative pronouns, too? (Quand est-ce qu'elle va arriver, pourquoi est-ce que tu m'as dit ça, comment est-ce que je devrais acheter une voiture sans argent)
I was told early on that "puis-je" was being "precieuse" so that was an easy one to dispense with ;-)
Here in Quebec I believe it can also be a question of context. Of course, Est-ce que is used very often, but when the inversion is shorter, we tend to use it. Eg.: As-tu eu le temps de ... would be used more often instead of Est-ce que tu as eu le temps de... . However we would say Quand est-ce que tu reviens... instead of Quand reviens-tu. If that makes sense.
Very interesting and useful information. The vast majority of questions in English have some element of inversion - so maybe that's part of the misunderstanding.
Yes definitely! Thanks for watching :)
These videos are very, very good for an English speaker.
ah cool glad you enjoy :)
I'm glad i found your chaîne
This is absolutely fascinating. I started to learn French in 1971 at the age of 6 in England, so I learned it quite formally. By the age of 19, my father had moved to France to work in Paris for 3 years (about 1984) and I also had a few French friends so also travelled in France and I spent some time in bars getting drunk with them.
So, all of the French I actually learned when I visited France was was by direct contact and a few phrases that my dad taught me. I never realised that there was a difference - I just absorbed it.
My dad taught me the less formal, "Vous acceptez la Carte Bleue?" (Do you take Visa cards) when in a supermarket - this was the 1980s, people paid with cash or checks with an identity card rather than credit/debit cards used by the English when in a supermarket, but my schoolboy French (taught to me by a French woman teacher who was born in the 1920s) would have been, "Acceptez-vous le carte bleue".
I now understand why a French girlfriend used to find the construction of an English insult, but spoken in French, used to find so amusing. You can probably work it out. The insult was, "Go f**k yourself", and I used to use a formal French construction to translate it. No wonder she found it hillarious when I used it.
I have a horrible feeling that the French that I use is a mixture of very old and very modern. I will be in the South of France in June 2023 - I will see if I can be less formal. Obviously, my French is now half a century old and because I don't get to practice it often, I must sound like an old man. I am now terrified how I must sound in Spanish and Portuguese with my rudimentary grasp of those two languages.
i salute you for your quadrafecta of languages and wish I could just be concerned about mixing old & modern French. I love the language and hope one day I can retire in a little French village, somewhat understood and understand what is happening around me.
You guys are blowing my mind! Man, I always learned the inversion and it was the bane of my existence in school! So happy I can abandon it haha
oh cool ☺☺☺
Thanks for the useful video! Please check if the following are also outdated, and if so what should be used instead:
1. Quel est votre prénom, svp ? (a hotel receptionist asking a guest who is checking in)
2. Où se trouve la gare, svp ? (a travler asking a local resident)
3. Où est ta mère ? (a father asking his child)
Also, how to answer the question "Est-ce que vous allez bien ?" if the situation is halfway between good and bad?
Whenever I hear someone use inversions in France, I wonder if they're taking the piss tbh.
haha yeah
I read French language books 20 years ago and putting the “tu” or “vous” after the verb was what I learned. Seems like I have to unlearn it. I didn’t know it sounds fancy. Informal French is like English sentence structure of subject-verb-object.
Super..et aussi
c'est beaucoup plus facile pour nous (les anglais)de poser une question comme ça, d'utiliser 'on' et tout ça... Mais vous avez raison, les profs ici enseignent encore le vieux façon. merci pour vos leçons.
ah cool :)
So first I really enjoy this channel and wish there were more like it as conversational language is so much different from what you learn in any learning system really! Lol. Growing up near the Canadian border in New York we took French in high school and I heard it spoken often. Now don’t cringe, LOL I know that French-Canadian is much different than what you speak in France. But keep up the good work and thanks for all the useful info!
Ah glad you enjoy our work! :):)
Best ❤️part2
ah cool thanks :):)
In a school oral, is it better for me to use the formal way? Also this video was very helpful, thank you!
Pick up the “dirty” French books at your local bookstore or get them online. They teach this concept (not only the cuss words 😉). Helped me a lot. Also talking to French and French Canadian people in the old school AOL SQL chat rooms definitely gets you practicing these forms.
For anyone interested...One of the best books I own is Talk Dirty French by Alexis Munier and Emmanuel Tichelli. There is lots of Verlan in this book as well. Use extreme caution with this book however.
ah lol :)
Last year I spent several months taking french in Paris and they beat the inversion thing into us. Telling us that it is the better way!
ah yeah that's normal that they teach that :) but yeah spoken French is different, too bad they don't mention it at least :)
Very good I have been trying to pick up French the way you explain is better
ah that's great, glad to hear that :)
Vous êtes beaux, relaxing to listen ))
ah cool thanks :))
One thing that caught my eye, was that compared to the French girl that I was talking to (Elisa, from Nancy)...The girl in this video is not a "rotten not nice lady person". A refreshing contrast, if i do say so myself. I have Hope for the French !
ah :)
Hi, love your channel, can you do a lesson on MySelf, It would be great.
Hey guys. Love the idea of y’all teaching day-to-day French! A
constructive feedback from a new subscriber here: I’ve noticed the use of the word ‘awkward’ a lot in your approach. Why not to reinforce the positive by using ‘customary’ instead? It is customary to say....such, such...as opposed to ..’it’s awkward to say this or that’. As almost a multilingual person myself (with English being my 2nd,French 3rd & Italian 4th), I have found positive reinforcement crucial in building my confidence when learning/communicating in another language other than my native one. Keep up the good work!
ah yeah I see what you mean thanks :) but we try to put an emphasis on what mistakes make you sounds weird or are wrong and then what to say to sound more fluent :) I feel like we need to explain why a certain way is better.
A bit of carrot and stick are both fine.
My Portuguese teacher used to tell us 'Se fala isso, não vai ter amigos', Or, 'if you say that, you won't have any friends' ... Which is a hilarious way of putting it.
In Indonesian language (I think, this also applies to most local languages in Indonesia), the structure of a sentence is S-V-O (subject-verb-object). There are no inversions. If we want to ask, we just add a question word at start or end of the sentence. For yes/no question, we just change intonation (spoken) or use question mark (written). For clarity (or in formal speech), we add "apa" or "apakah" that acts like 《 est-ce que 》 in French.
This structure makes me (an Indonesian speaker) able to learn quicker about the structures of French sentences. Here are some examples.
"Saya memakan nasi goreng." (formal)
"Aku makan nasi goreng." (informal)
《 Je mange le riz frits. 》
"Saya memakan nasi goreng?" (formal)
"Aku makan nasi goreng?" (informal)
《 Je mange le riz frits ? 》
"Apakah saya memakan nasi goreng?" (formal, clearer)
"Saya memakan nasi gorengkah?" (variation)
"Apa aku makan nasi goreng?" (informal, clearer)
"Aku makan nasi gorengkah?" (variation)
《 Est-ce que je mange le riz frits ? 》
"Saya makan apa?" (formal)
"Aku makan apa?" (informal)
《 Je mange quoi ? 》
"Saya makan di mana?" (formal)
"Aku makan di mana?" (informal)
《 Je mange où ? 》
"Di mana saya makan?" (formal)
"Di mana aku makan?" (informal)
《 Où je mange ? 》
"Kapan saya makan?" (formal)
"Kapan aku makan?" (informal)
《 Quand je mange ? 》
"Bagaimana saya makan?" (formal)
"Bagaimana aku makan?" (informal)
《 Comment je mange ? 》
Note that 《 je 》 can be translated as "saya" (formal), "aku" (informal), "daku" (poetic), and "hamba" (acting as servant).
Nice video, by the way. Thanks for sharing!
id like to see you both do a video where you explain why french fluent people who are learning english , are making certains types of mistakes certain way they(we) translate in our head to speak eng. or the way we contruc (wrongly) our sentences. lots of things french people are doing when speaking or learning english ?
ah interesting, good idea :)
On the historic side, the "ne" is often omitted in informal conversation nowadays but it is the real word of negation (coming from Latin non). The other word "pas" is the sole survivor of olden times, when people would add what they felt was the smallest element of what is not : "pas" was for going "Je n'avance pas", "I'm not getting (one step) forward". Another one you may know is "point" for seeing, though it feels dated: "Je n'y vois point", "I can't see (a spot)". All others than pas sound so funny to people today that we even mixed some up: "goutte" was for liquids (drinking, pouring, raining), but you might hear "on n'y vois goutte". Cheers!
ow, who says "on n'y vois goutte" ?? I've never heard that expression in Paris. Is it a regional thing? or maybe it's a bit old fashioned.
@@Street_French totally old fashioned. If you still have them, try to ask your grandparents ^^ It's gonna look like I'm a thousand years old 👻
Yeah, I speak Spanish and always look for the “ne” for negation cause is close to our no, but then I remember that spoken French drops it. ;-;
6:50 What's the correct standard form? Est-ce qu'il parle français?? thanks for a helpful video 💕
Oui!
@@amelia.landry Merci!
yes ^^
This is very helpful. I had no idea inversions are old fashioned in French. Thanks for the tip.
ah cool de rien :)
Just so you know, I lived in Neuilly sur Seine while I went to university in Paris and they speak just like everyone else. I never heard an inversion . . . mdr . . . Great great video, like always.
haha yeah I'm sure they don"t do it either, it was just a silly example I guess ^^
I feel so old! The way I learned to ask someone’s age was “Combien d’ans avez-vous?”, which always seemed like the most convoluted (and vague) way to ask that question
Yeah we learn a lot of things in school that aren't very useful in real life :/
@@Street_French Yes. I bet a lot of people who learn English are taught to say, "How do you do?" even though no one says that.
«Combien d'ans avez vous?» isn't even formal… it might not be understood (the person might think you ask them how many teeth they have, or how long have you been working (your seniority) :D
How would I say it then? Vous avez combien d'ans?
@@jamestjw97 we say «Quel âge tu as ?» or «tu as quel âge?» (wich is often shortened «t'as quel âge?»)… we can also say (as it is not very polite to ask someone's age, especially a woman's age) : «est-ce que je peux te demander ton âge ?»
This is a good example of the dumbing down of french. There is nothing complicated with inversions especially for an english speaking person. And it is a weird reason to give considering how much french people love to complicate things... As for fancy (or upper class) sounding, I must sound super fancy since I don't pepper my french with english words...
How do you drop the ne for verbs starting with a vowel? Thanks!
Bonjour! Any website that you would recommend to learn informal spoken french?
Can you do a video about quand vs lorsque?
ah I can explain here : they mean the same thing, but "lorsque" is way to formal and no one uses it!
so just use "quand" :))