To summarize, if you produce more French (self talk) and consume more French, you will think in French more and more. I've certainly found this to be true, which is why I read the news in French, listen to the news in French, and talk to myself in French (though the latter not as much as I should). However, I did have a "just do it" moment with reading. After reading French novels daily for 2 years, I just said to myself, "stop translating and just read it" and it just happened. I immediately doubled my reading speed in French. Of course, at that point I had spent hundreds of hours reading French, so I don't think you can normally just flip the switch.
No you can't just flip a switch and stop translating but constantly reminding yourself that it works is a way to quickly work towards it. Once us humans see results it's easier to repeat the task.
French internaut here, and English is my second language. Your video reminds me of my two first years of studying English at school between 1973 and 1975. I had an excellent English teacher for two years in a row. She gave us the most useful advice: "Think in English. Don't translate what you just heard or read into French". She was infinitely right, and I'd advise French learners to follow her example (just the other way around; she advised us to think in English as the native French speakers that we were learning English; reciprocally, you'll directly think in French as native English speakers learning French). It simplifies greatly your learning. Do it, please. It's not that difficult.
Interesting subject and one that I"ve also heard quite often. I actually have a different view as I don't believe that it is something you can train or force but rather that it happens naturally as part of the learning process. I also think we shouldn't underestimate how useful our mother tongue is when trying to express ourselves in French. What I believe is more powerful is to learn how to adapt and have a heightened awareness of your mother tongue which allows you to interpret that same sense in french.
Thanks for so respectfully disagreeing! Very fascinating insight and I agree that English helps us a lot with French and we shouldn't feel ashamed of leveraging it.
You're such a good motivator with a positive can do attitude, French is such a bitch to learn and speak but you make it easier especially with your examples which are so useful.
Alex, I really enjoy your observations. I remember when I lived in France and in a conversation with a French native. If they used a vocabulary word, idiomatic expression or even slang that I did not understand and it was explained to me in French, then not only did I tend to not have to translate it from English the next time I wanted to use it, but also it came with a "feeling" or deeper understanding. In fact I would have to really search (and not always successfully) to then try to translate it into English. These certainly are some of my funnest moments in learning French. Thanks for such a great video.
Learning things in just the language rather than your mother tongue definitely helps... Unless you live abroad and you have to go home to your family and can't and find the words in your mother tongue to describe everything 😂
@@FrenchinPlainSight It happened to me when I went home to NZ over summer 😂 I didn't actually forget English or anything, but there were some things I just wanted to explain in French, because the English way was just too cumbersome, or I had never considered what the English would even be.
I do just the same conduct my inner monologue in French or whichever language and practising. Works really well. I find it really useful to listen to the news on in the car on the way to work, and simultaneously translate,, speaking aloud. If there's vocabulary problem I make myself work around it and find a way! 👍
4:36, the two screen up and down are the nicest example for anyone who is really serious about the language. Not so common to understand this simple common image for everyone. Thanks you are one of the guy who really keep people like us motivated for French 😊
J’utilise exactement « Reverso » comme ça dès que je me réveille et pendant la journée ! J’aime bien votre chaîne ! J’apprends plein de nouvelles choses chaque jour !
Alex, I really appreciate your tips & strategies for thinking in French. Starting an enterprise in France is definitely great way to get your feet wet. You've inspired me to share the pathway that led me to naturel, more or less fluent French: I've always been a reader, & during my time in the US & then in the UK, I regularly frequented the 2nd hand book merchants one finds in all urban environments. It struck me, afer struggling & flailing for the better part of three years here in the south of France, that I should perhaps try to incorporate my literary passion into my actual life. I began with a 1200 page behemoth of James Michener. It took me the better part of a month & a notebook crammed with notes, but it was good, & I think the familiarity with the subject matter eased my way. I went on to read American & British rime thrillers (always taking notes), modern French & Brazilian novels, & eventually anything that came my way. What I found was that whenever I'd recently read a novel in French, my ease in communicating in spoken French was greatly improved (in effect, I began thinking in French). I made it a habit, when visiting America or the UK, to be sure to have a good French read on hand to enable me to re enter French society with ease. That's worked really well for me, a book junkie...& in addition has greatly enhanced my appreciation French history & traditions. Voilà, mon expérience, Alex & friends!
C'est vrai. I've just started to do this in the last 24 hours, and it works! "I am going to do the dishes"; " I've been for a swim." (count the laps in French, of course!); "I must call this person." Whatever. It really works. Thank you so much. BTW, it also explains how people who have a partner in the target language become near fluent in a short amount of time. I've seen it myself.
When I am IN France, I find myself thinking in French fairly readily. The most surreal feeling was coming back last time on the plane and having to practice congugating ENGLISH verbs in my head. They just sounded so odd to my ears that I had to verify that I was saying them correctly! 😅As a lifelong American who has never lived outside the States, that was such a weird feeling!
One thing I do is use French words around the house. My husband and kids have no interest in learning French but if you were to listen in to our house, you would hear them say “c’est intéressant “ because they hear me say it so often 😂
Àu debut il y a «vocabulaire, grammaire, écrire, lire, écouter, parler», mais il y a aussi comment construire les phrase et les expressions. Pour moi, j'apprends à bien écouter et bien déchiffrer. Je n'ai pas encore essayé de parler sauf à moi-même. Pendant que j'apprends, j'espère voir mon discours interne et les phrases qui j'écris devenir plus français. Divisez et conquérez la tâche !
Hi Alex. Good video as usual. I must say, my French, though still quite limited improved a lot with lockdown as I was alone for months, and had time to think through a lot of words and concepts (and often spoke to myself) I would not suggest everyone becomes a mumbling hermit, but maybe, strangely, it can help!
If the pursuit of fluency and confidence calls for mumbling, I say mumble! Haha. So cool that the upside down nature of this year has brought you such growth and realisation of the power of speaking to yourself in French. Do you find you think more in French as a result?
Great observations on a subject I have struggled with as well. Totally agree with your points and I like your comment that you just have to get used to not knowing the word to use. Something that is really hard to do when that happens so rarely in your native tongue, I knew I was finally making progress when, rather than thinking in French, I dreamt in French!
My English teacher used to say: "Don't think of a sentence in Lithuanian and then translate it word-by-word to English. Think right away how can you express your idea in English." Love this advice.
Merci Alex, un autre suggestion qui travaille pour moi est d’essayer d’écrire en Français dans emails et Facebook réponses et commentaires et autre lieux puis fais le corrections utilisant Reverso.
J'adore cette suggestion Don. Oui, plus tu fais en français, surtout les activités simples, plus rapidement tu deviendras à l'aise avec la langue. Merci pour le commentaire ! Deux astuces : 1. Les mots se terminant en "ion" sont presque toujours féminins. 2. On ne dit pas "travailler" pour "something works for someone". On doit dire "marcher" ou "fonctionner". "Marcher" est plus courant.
Alex, great video, I enjoy watching your channel, I like the way you deliver these subjects in an ‘ easy to learn’ fashion. This particular video reinforced my motivation to make the effort to think more in French, you have some great ideas that you employ in everyday life. I recently subscribed to a daily delivery of the local newspaper, this has encouraged me to read (not all of it course) regular news topics and points of interest. It is helping me a lot. I also find that reading it out aloud helps to form the pronunciation and the sounds of the words. It’s so much better than just ‘reading in your head’ all the time. Anyway, keep it going, you’re doing a great job👍
In my case, an American-born Dutchman, thinking in Dutch was automatic once I knew enough Dutch. I also know French and when thinking of a conversation I want to have with a French friend, I usually think in French.
@@FrenchinPlainSight I think because I have tried learning French before, but gave up after a short spell. So, my brain is probably re-activating old memories etc. Anyway, I would like to give this language another crack.
Very useful thanks. There's some French words that are much better for everyday stuff than English, so I soon got used to using them and they help keep me in 'French thinking'. For example, 'bricolage' is an extremely handy word to cover all the stuff I need to do around the house, from just routine jobs to actually making some thing new. There's no good equivalent in English!
That's great Paul. Would DIY be a good translation? You could also keep on learning phrases as a whole instead of individual words and verbs to help you stay in French mode. E.g. how often do we think about the makeup of "il y a"? Almost never. We just learned it means "there is/there are".
Je suis d'accord avec vous 100%🙂👍 J'ai eu la même expérience quand j'ai décidé de laisser la France pour aller vivre en Italie. Avant même de partir, je me forçais à parler à moi-même en italien et je me rendais compte de mon niveau dans cette langue. Si je devais chercher mes mots dans le dictionnaire, cela voulait dire qu'il n'était pas bon et que je devais l'améliorer. Dernièrement grâce à ma passion envers le cinéma et surtout celui anglais, j'ai eu la possibilité de voir beaucoup de films en version originale. Grâce à cela, j'ai fait un énorme progrès en anglais, grâce aux sous-titres et à différents dictionnaires que l'on peut trouver en ligne. J'ai vu tellement de films anglais qu'il m'est arrivé de penser et de rêver en anglais😮 J'imagine que des Anglais passionnés de cinéma français pourraient faire la même chose et ainsi apprendre à parler en français plus rapidement. C'est une méthode que je conseille vivement 🙂👍
Oui un état des lieux ! :) En fait à l'emménagement c'est un "état des lieux d'entrée" est en quittant l'appartement c'est un "état des lieux de sortie" :)
I've never learnt language by translation: french english dutch. Only when I read papers, then I need a dictionnary. Maybe my way of learning takes more time?
::: seen a Live Stream, of an Otto-walk / Canadian - showing a Protest, in a Cold, Cold Winter Landscape ::: Don't know that much FRENCH, but you'll appreciate how the ROAD SIGNS are bi-lingual. ( How does someone remain calm - and explain what's happening ?!)
Merci Alex, I agree with you that one has to think in French to begin with rather than translate from his mother tongue (I often do it in English which isn't my mother tongue either) The only thing I'm not sure of is at which point to start doing it "Je suis debutant en français" and I don't think I can express myself thoroughly in French In addition I might start making errors and "teach myself" / get used to these errors which frightens me. So currently I mainly focus on listening to people talk in French online (Pierre, Elsa,Alexa,Hugo cotton, you of course and many others) What's your take on it? At what stage should a French learner start talking in French?
I feel you, honestly. Even yesterday I was getting frustrated because I kept landing on topics I didn't have words for. But my view from the other side of where you're at is that you should pick your battles. Speaking to fluency (which you need to definite yourself) is such a long road and you can't get better without making thousands of mistakes, some big, some minuscule. The sooner you start talking, to yourself or to others you start seeing where your real gaps are. Personally, I would book a conversation class with a tutor early on just to see what I can and can't do because there's nothing like the pressure of the moment to make you speak. Does that make any kind of sense?
I learnt the word chauffage first from French lessons before I know about heating in buildings because I am from a country where heating is not needed. So if someone mentions heating, the word la chauffage comes immediately.
I really don't think you need to worry about it. In my several visits to different parts of France, everyone was more than willing to endure my "fractured French." They could see that as a guest in their country, I was making a sincere effort. It appeared to please them. And they will help you by correcting you. It is a gift that should be accepted avec tout ton coeur.
I have a question that’s not related to this video if you don’t mind. What’s the difference between these two phrases : Je fais laver la voiture. Je me fais faire couper les cheveux. I know one is faire, the other se faire and both mean you something done by someone else!!!! I can’t get my head around it 🤔 please help !
Good question. Yes the causative is tricky!! Your second sentence should actually be "Je me fais couper les cheveux". As far as I know, this uses se faire because if you cut your own hair you would use se couper. Je me coupe les cheveux. But extension, you need that reflexive verb when you have someone else cut it. Also, because it is a part of your body, you need it. Je me brosse les dents instead of je brosse mes dents. That's just how it is in French. Je fais laver la voiture is maybe your car but it's not part of your body so it doesn't use reflexive. If you wash the car yourself you would just say je lave la voiture. So check what the sentence would be without the causative, and if it uses a reflexive verb then you probably need it for the other form of the sentence. Is that clear?
French in Plain Sight thank you for replying. Yes I realised that I made a mistake with one of my sentences but only after I posted 🤓. You just confirmed my thoughts about the usage of the headache verbs. Thank you 🙏
Random question, has Reverso Contexte been super slow for you recently? I use it mainly on the computer not my phone and use the free version. Juste curieuse !
You don't think in any language , you talk to yourself in a language but not think, you can think of a whole scenario in seconds and then have trouble putting it in to words, so after 40years of speaking French and English i have come to this conclusion , how often do you say i can't find the words to explain what i mean , thought is so much faster and bigger than words ,
Tu parles très bien la langue de molière et tes fautes sont bénignes. Continu, ton niveau est bon et va encore s'améliorer. Passe visiter Toulouse c'est pas loin de Montpellier.
Ok this is rlly impossible for ppl who rnt living alone or living in francophone countries..... Which means, i have no chance of changing myself writing french in an english way..... i hv no hope..... 💔
If you tell yourself something is impossible, then you have no hope. If you believe in being the best you can be, no matter the limitations, you will always improve. Everything can always be better but it can always be worse.
No matter how much experience we have in speaking a foreign language, the grammar/syntax, vocabulary, and sound system of our native language are lurking at varying depths beneath the surface. It's like fish swimming beneath a thin or thicker layer of ice. The more advanced you are, the thicker the ice, but the thickness is not uniform. For example, if you want to say something about a monkey but have no idea what the French equivalent is, MONKEY is what will rise to the surface. Unless carefully trained, we will unwittingly us the sounds of English in speaking French. The truly sad fact is that there is just about zero overlap between English and French phonemes (sounds). We need to realize that French is not just some perverse code that English has been put in.
Do you think in French? What are your tips for others? #progrespasperfection
Get my tips for speaking confidence in my free guide bit.ly/fips-guide-2
To summarize, if you produce more French (self talk) and consume more French, you will think in French more and more. I've certainly found this to be true, which is why I read the news in French, listen to the news in French, and talk to myself in French (though the latter not as much as I should). However, I did have a "just do it" moment with reading. After reading French novels daily for 2 years, I just said to myself, "stop translating and just read it" and it just happened. I immediately doubled my reading speed in French. Of course, at that point I had spent hundreds of hours reading French, so I don't think you can normally just flip the switch.
No you can't just flip a switch and stop translating but constantly reminding yourself that it works is a way to quickly work towards it. Once us humans see results it's easier to repeat the task.
I've dreamt in French a couple of times. That is always exciting.
I can imagine so Andrea!
I’m very far from fluent but I have too!
Im actually leaving for Paris in a few hours… can’t wait to get some practice in
French internaut here, and English is my second language. Your video reminds me of my two first years of studying English at school between 1973 and 1975. I had an excellent English teacher for two years in a row. She gave us the most useful advice: "Think in English. Don't translate what you just heard or read into French". She was infinitely right, and I'd advise French learners to follow her example (just the other way around; she advised us to think in English as the native French speakers that we were learning English; reciprocally, you'll directly think in French as native English speakers learning French). It simplifies greatly your learning. Do it, please. It's not that difficult.
Interesting subject and one that I"ve also heard quite often. I actually have a different view as I don't believe that it is something you can train or force but rather that it happens naturally as part of the learning process. I also think we shouldn't underestimate how useful our mother tongue is when trying to express ourselves in French. What I believe is more powerful is to learn how to adapt and have a heightened awareness of your mother tongue which allows you to interpret that same sense in french.
Thanks for so respectfully disagreeing!
Very fascinating insight and I agree that English helps us a lot with French and we shouldn't feel ashamed of leveraging it.
You're such a good motivator with a positive can do attitude, French is such a bitch to learn and speak but you make it easier especially with your examples which are so useful.
Thank you Mary. I believe that almost anything is possible if we really want it.
Agree. It's a bitch to learn. But it could be worse - Hungarian, I believe, really sucks, as does Finnish, from what I've heard.
My teacher has started to play your vids in class! Keep up the good work :)
Wonderful! Who's your teacher?
Always very generous with your process/the process.
Love this video! I immediately started to talk to my dog in French!
Great advise which always gets back to attentive work. Thank you!
You're so welcome!
Alex, I really enjoy your observations. I remember when I lived in France and in a conversation with a French native. If they used a vocabulary word, idiomatic expression or even slang that I did not understand and it was explained to me in French, then not only did I tend to not have to translate it from English the next time I wanted to use it, but also it came with a "feeling" or deeper understanding. In fact I would have to really search (and not always successfully) to then try to translate it into English. These certainly are some of my funnest moments in learning French. Thanks for such a great video.
Thanks Curtis!
Did you get that conflicting feeling of frustration from English not coming to you yet happy that you went to French first?
Learning things in just the language rather than your mother tongue definitely helps... Unless you live abroad and you have to go home to your family and can't and find the words in your mother tongue to describe everything 😂
@@victoriaa2281 It would never get that bad. I think it's worth the risk 😂
@@FrenchinPlainSight It happened to me when I went home to NZ over summer 😂 I didn't actually forget English or anything, but there were some things I just wanted to explain in French, because the English way was just too cumbersome, or I had never considered what the English would even be.
I've needed a video like this. I actually talk to myself in French while I'm training on my bike.
I do just the same conduct my inner monologue in French or whichever language and practising. Works really well.
I find it really useful to listen to the news on in the car on the way to work, and simultaneously translate,, speaking aloud. If there's vocabulary problem I make myself work around it and find a way! 👍
Love your videos Alex and you always give such good advice - Many thanks
My pleasure Chris!
From you I am learning both languages Francais et Anglais
4:36, the two screen up and down are the nicest example for anyone who is really serious about the language. Not so common to understand this simple common image for everyone. Thanks you are one of the guy who really keep people like us motivated for French 😊
I will try to use images more!
J’utilise exactement « Reverso » comme ça dès que je me réveille et pendant la journée ! J’aime bien votre chaîne ! J’apprends plein de nouvelles choses chaque jour !
Super !
Alex, I really appreciate your tips & strategies for thinking in French. Starting an enterprise in France is definitely great way to get your feet wet.
You've inspired me to share the pathway that led me to naturel, more or less fluent French: I've always been a reader, & during my time in the US & then in the UK, I regularly frequented the 2nd hand book merchants one finds in all urban environments. It struck me, afer struggling & flailing for the better part of three years here in the south of France, that I should perhaps try to incorporate my literary passion into my actual life.
I began with a 1200 page behemoth of James Michener. It took me the better part of a month & a notebook crammed with notes, but it was good, & I think the familiarity with the subject matter eased my way. I went on to read American & British rime thrillers (always taking notes), modern French & Brazilian novels, & eventually anything that came my way.
What I found was that whenever I'd recently read a novel in French, my ease in communicating in spoken French was greatly improved (in effect, I began thinking in French).
I made it a habit, when visiting America or the UK, to be sure to have a good French read on hand to enable me to re enter French society with ease. That's worked really well for me, a book junkie...& in addition has greatly enhanced my appreciation French history & traditions. Voilà, mon expérience, Alex & friends!
C'est vrai. I've just started to do this in the last 24 hours, and it works! "I am going to do the dishes"; " I've been for a swim." (count the laps in French, of course!); "I must call this person." Whatever. It really works. Thank you so much. BTW, it also explains how people who have a partner in the target language become near fluent in a short amount of time. I've seen it myself.
How do you dream? French or English?
Many years ago I lived in England for a while. About 2 months after my arrival I started to dream in English. 😃
I don't typically remember my dreams but once or twice I think I have spoken French in them
When I am IN France, I find myself thinking in French fairly readily. The most surreal feeling was coming back last time on the plane and having to practice congugating ENGLISH verbs in my head. They just sounded so odd to my ears that I had to verify that I was saying them correctly! 😅As a lifelong American who has never lived outside the States, that was such a weird feeling!
Yeah, that does sound odd lol
One thing I do is use French words around the house. My husband and kids have no interest in learning French but if you were to listen in to our house, you would hear them say “c’est intéressant “ because they hear me say it so often 😂
Hahaha! Oh my gosh, it's like my most used adjective. Time for a new one!
Progrès pas de perfection. Merci beaucoup !
Great advice. I changed my iPhone and computer to French. Occasionally have to look up words but it works really well for learning vocabulary.
J'adore! C'est de l'or! Bon conseil, je le ferai! :) x
Àu debut il y a «vocabulaire, grammaire, écrire, lire, écouter, parler», mais il y a aussi comment construire les phrase et les expressions. Pour moi, j'apprends à bien écouter et bien déchiffrer. Je n'ai pas encore essayé de parler sauf à moi-même. Pendant que j'apprends, j'espère voir mon discours interne et les phrases qui j'écris devenir plus français. Divisez et conquérez la tâche !
Thank you fir your help
Hi Alex. Good video as usual. I must say, my French, though still quite limited improved a lot with lockdown as I was alone for months, and had time to think through a lot of words and concepts (and often spoke to myself) I would not suggest everyone becomes a mumbling hermit, but maybe, strangely, it can help!
If the pursuit of fluency and confidence calls for mumbling, I say mumble! Haha.
So cool that the upside down nature of this year has brought you such growth and realisation of the power of speaking to yourself in French. Do you find you think more in French as a result?
@@FrenchinPlainSight I think yes, and it was that way for a while. But I have got out of the habit as i have a lot of English speaking friends here.
@@MegaLozenge Likewise. The more our lives are in English, the less our brains are forced to work hard to think in French.
Great observations on a subject I have struggled with as well. Totally agree with your points and I like your comment that you just have to get used to not knowing the word to use. Something that is really hard to do when that happens so rarely in your native tongue, I knew I was finally making progress when, rather than thinking in French, I dreamt in French!
Well said! I'm jealous! I never remember my dreams unless they are in the stage just before I wake up. And then the memory fades within 15 minutes.
My English teacher used to say: "Don't think of a sentence in Lithuanian and then translate it word-by-word to English. Think right away how can you express your idea in English." Love this advice.
Merci Alex, un autre suggestion qui travaille pour moi est d’essayer d’écrire en Français dans emails et Facebook réponses et commentaires et autre lieux puis fais le corrections utilisant Reverso.
J'adore cette suggestion Don. Oui, plus tu fais en français, surtout les activités simples, plus rapidement tu deviendras à l'aise avec la langue. Merci pour le commentaire !
Deux astuces : 1. Les mots se terminant en "ion" sont presque toujours féminins.
2. On ne dit pas "travailler" pour "something works for someone". On doit dire "marcher" ou "fonctionner". "Marcher" est plus courant.
merci beaucoup prof
De rien ! Qui est ton philosophe préféré ?
@@FrenchinPlainSight John stuart mill et Ellen willis!
@@FrenchinPlainSight mais j’adore Amia Srinivasan aussi
I always find your videos super helpful. Thank you for sharing!!
Thanks Kevin. Bonne année à toi :)
Alex, great video, I enjoy watching your channel, I like the way you deliver these subjects in an ‘ easy to learn’ fashion. This particular video reinforced my motivation to make the effort to think more in French, you have some great ideas that you employ in everyday life. I recently subscribed to a daily delivery of the local newspaper, this has encouraged me to read (not all of it course) regular news topics and points of interest. It is helping me a lot. I also find that reading it out aloud helps to form the pronunciation and the sounds of the words. It’s so much better than just ‘reading in your head’ all the time. Anyway, keep it going, you’re doing a great job👍
Cheers Steve !
In my case, an American-born Dutchman, thinking in Dutch was automatic once I knew enough Dutch. I also know French and when thinking of a conversation I want to have with a French friend, I usually think in French.
I only started watching some videos the other day and last night I woke up dreaming in French. Didn't expect that so quickly.
That is very unusual! But a good unusual :)
@@FrenchinPlainSight I think because I have tried learning French before, but gave up after a short spell. So, my brain is probably re-activating old memories etc. Anyway, I would like to give this language another crack.
Very useful thanks. There's some French words that are much better for everyday stuff than English, so I soon got used to using them and they help keep me in 'French thinking'. For example, 'bricolage' is an extremely handy word to cover all the stuff I need to do around the house, from just routine jobs to actually making some thing new. There's no good equivalent in English!
That's great Paul. Would DIY be a good translation?
You could also keep on learning phrases as a whole instead of individual words and verbs to help you stay in French mode. E.g. how often do we think about the makeup of "il y a"? Almost never. We just learned it means "there is/there are".
Thanks. DIY doesn't really cover routine maintenance outside or inside (for me). But perhaps I'm exaggerating the meaning of bricolage?
@@paulmcguinness1072 I'm not so familiar with this world so I'd follow your gut! Was asking out of curiosity.
@@FrenchinPlainSight Bonne continuation quand même !
A toi aussi !
je suis en train de taper maintenant. Je suis Anglais aussi et je suis d'accord avec vous. Merci pour ce conseil. 👍
Super ! Comment est-ce que tu es tombé sur ma vidéo ? :) Je suis curieux.
Je suis d'accord avec vous 100%🙂👍 J'ai eu la même expérience quand j'ai décidé de laisser la France pour aller vivre en Italie. Avant même de partir, je me forçais à parler à moi-même en italien et je me rendais compte de mon niveau dans cette langue. Si je devais chercher mes mots dans le dictionnaire, cela voulait dire qu'il n'était pas bon et que je devais l'améliorer. Dernièrement grâce à ma passion envers le cinéma et surtout celui anglais, j'ai eu la possibilité de voir beaucoup de films en version originale. Grâce à cela, j'ai fait un énorme progrès en anglais, grâce aux sous-titres et à différents dictionnaires que l'on peut trouver en ligne. J'ai vu tellement de films anglais qu'il m'est arrivé de penser et de rêver en anglais😮 J'imagine que des Anglais passionnés de cinéma français pourraient faire la même chose et ainsi apprendre à parler en français plus rapidement. C'est une méthode que je conseille vivement 🙂👍
Cinéma anglais ou americain? American: je veux dire des États unis d' Amerique
The most famous word is undoubtedly the "rendez-vous" 😊 mais Je me souviens d'une autre mot qui l'on utilise quand on loue l'appartement 😊
Oui un état des lieux ! :) En fait à l'emménagement c'est un "état des lieux d'entrée" est en quittant l'appartement c'est un "état des lieux de sortie" :)
S’il te plaît: fais la traduction de ‘’J’espère qu’elle vous a plus.’’ Je comprends pas.
Merciii aleex, Parfaite suject pour moi cette semaine. Thankyou!!
Ahh genial ! Merci Monsieur/Madame le donut
I've never learnt language by translation: french english dutch. Only when I read papers, then I need a dictionnary. Maybe my way of learning takes more time?
I learned the word albino in french before I did in English. I say it in french every time I am speaking in my mother tongue to my friends
::: seen a Live Stream, of an Otto-walk / Canadian - showing a Protest, in a Cold, Cold Winter Landscape ::: Don't know that much FRENCH, but you'll appreciate how the ROAD SIGNS are bi-lingual. ( How does someone remain calm - and explain what's happening ?!)
Merci Alex,
I agree with you that one has to think in French to begin with rather than translate from his mother tongue
(I often do it in English which isn't my mother tongue either)
The only thing I'm not sure of is at which point to start doing it
"Je suis debutant en français" and I don't think I can express myself thoroughly in French
In addition I might start making errors and "teach myself" / get used to these errors which frightens me.
So currently I mainly focus on listening to people talk in French online (Pierre, Elsa,Alexa,Hugo cotton, you of course and many others)
What's your take on it? At what stage should a French learner start talking in French?
I feel you, honestly. Even yesterday I was getting frustrated because I kept landing on topics I didn't have words for.
But my view from the other side of where you're at is that you should pick your battles. Speaking to fluency (which you need to definite yourself) is such a long road and you can't get better without making thousands of mistakes, some big, some minuscule.
The sooner you start talking, to yourself or to others you start seeing where your real gaps are.
Personally, I would book a conversation class with a tutor early on just to see what I can and can't do because there's nothing like the pressure of the moment to make you speak.
Does that make any kind of sense?
I learnt the word chauffage first from French lessons before I know about
heating in buildings because I am from a country where heating is not needed. So if someone mentions heating, the word la chauffage comes immediately.
Voilà. Once it starts it's pretty cool to notice, right? Where are you from?
@@FrenchinPlainSight I am from Malaysia. Here we have four seasons too: Hot, Very Hot, Wet, Very Wet
reverso better than google translate?
Google has got a lot better. But seeing stuff in context is hugely helpful. I use Reverso (The context feature), Deepl, and Word Reference
I try to think n French to myself but I do find I start doubting myself as to whether I am correct or not.
That means you're analytical. That will make your French more accurate in the long run. But try and control it so that it doesn't take over.
I really don't think you need to worry about it. In my several visits to different parts of France, everyone was more than willing to endure my "fractured French." They could see that as a guest in their country, I was making a sincere effort. It appeared to please them. And they will help you by correcting you. It is a gift that should be accepted avec tout ton coeur.
I have a question that’s not related to this video if you don’t mind. What’s the difference between these two phrases :
Je fais laver la voiture.
Je me fais faire couper les cheveux.
I know one is faire, the other se faire and both mean you something done by someone else!!!! I can’t get my head around it 🤔 please help !
Good question. Yes the causative is tricky!!
Your second sentence should actually be "Je me fais couper les cheveux". As far as I know, this uses se faire because if you cut your own hair you would use se couper. Je me coupe les cheveux. But extension, you need that reflexive verb when you have someone else cut it. Also, because it is a part of your body, you need it. Je me brosse les dents instead of je brosse mes dents. That's just how it is in French.
Je fais laver la voiture is maybe your car but it's not part of your body so it doesn't use reflexive. If you wash the car yourself you would just say je lave la voiture.
So check what the sentence would be without the causative, and if it uses a reflexive verb then you probably need it for the other form of the sentence.
Is that clear?
French in Plain Sight thank you for replying. Yes I realised that I made a mistake with one of my sentences but only after I posted 🤓. You just confirmed my thoughts about the usage of the headache verbs. Thank you 🙏
tu utilises quelle application mobile?
Chaque application a son but/sens. Tu cherches une appli pour travailler quoi exactement ?
Random question, has Reverso Contexte been super slow for you recently? I use it mainly on the computer not my phone and use the free version. Juste curieuse !
Not that I've noticed. It seems to go slower sometimes depending on the phrase I enter!
I just noticed this morning that they have launched a desktop app. I downloaded it immediately. Will have to see how good it is v the browser.
Btw I love your frenchification of Contexte there
@@FrenchinPlainSight Je viens de remarquer ça ! Hehe
@@FrenchinPlainSight Ah génial ! Je vais le télécharger tout de suite; merci ! Je pense que c'est pour ça que le site web fonctionne plus si bien...
Pull-ups en français = une ancienne marque de couches culottes 😃
Ahah !
Please teach french r with right technique.technique that actually works.I am really struggling with French r
Sorry but seeing as I'm not native and I have never worked on my R through special techniques I am not the best person to teach you that!
You don't think in any language , you talk to yourself in a language but not think, you can think of a whole scenario in seconds and then have trouble putting it in to words, so after 40years of speaking French and English i have come to this conclusion , how often do you say i can't find the words to explain what i mean , thought is so much faster and bigger than words ,
Tu parles très bien la langue de molière et tes fautes sont bénignes. Continu, ton niveau est bon et va encore s'améliorer. Passe visiter Toulouse c'est pas loin de Montpellier.
Ok this is rlly impossible for ppl who rnt living alone or living in francophone countries.....
Which means, i have no chance of changing myself writing french in an english way..... i hv no hope..... 💔
If you tell yourself something is impossible, then you have no hope.
If you believe in being the best you can be, no matter the limitations, you will always improve.
Everything can always be better but it can always be worse.
"Automatism" lol
No matter how much experience we have in speaking a foreign language, the grammar/syntax, vocabulary, and sound system of our native language are lurking at varying depths beneath the surface. It's like fish swimming beneath a thin or thicker layer of ice. The more advanced you are, the thicker the ice, but the thickness is not uniform. For example, if you want to say something about a monkey but have no idea what the French equivalent is, MONKEY is what will rise to the surface. Unless carefully trained, we will unwittingly us the sounds of English in speaking French. The truly sad fact is that there is just about zero overlap between English and French phonemes (sounds). We need to realize that French is not just some perverse code that English has been put in.
I found myself naturally thinking in French, maybe it’s because I’m eager to improve my French I don’t know lol
Je pense que tu as un très joli visage.
#progespasperfection
People don't think in languages.
Well we hope not . Thinking in French eww . Hellll no