![]() ![]() It has had an effect in turn on the syntax, and I think French relies more on phrases rather than individual words than other European languages do, since this avoids ambiguity. The loss of consonants in turn has created a large number of homonyms in French, perhaps more than English. The Scandanavian pitch accent is not the same. French also has what is in effect a pitch accent, although I've never heard it defined that way, and that is also unique in Europe. I've come to the concluision that there is no one reason, but rather a number of small reasons, none of which is paramount on its own but added together create difficulties for the learner.įor one thing, French really has a phonetic system that is unique in Europe, having lost in the spoken language many consonants that are sounded in other Romance languages. You could change the word order slightly, too, and say Comment ça se dit en français?Ĭ’est quoi en français, …? What is … in French?Ī less formal turn of phrase, but still very useful.I've always experienced the same problem, and I've asked myself the same question many times. Ça se dit comment en français? How do you say that in French? Note that instead of tu or vous, the pronoun on is used in the phrase above: on can mean we, someone, they, you, or can be used to refer to people in general. One enjoyable aspect of learning a new language is finding out about new words and phrases the challenging bit can be remembering lots of new rules and vocabulary! So it’s good to know how to ask what the word is for something, or what a word means, when you come across a new word or phrase, or have forgotten how to say something.Ĭomment dit-on … en français? How do you say … in French? Like their English equivalents, these are rather familiar turns of phrase…use only with those you know very well! How do you say … ? Qu’est-ce que t’as dit? What did you say? Of course, as in English, there are plenty other, less formal ways to ask someone to repeat themselves: You could replace parler with répéter – Pouvez-vous répéter plus lentement, s’il vous plait? Can you say that again more slowly, please? Pouvez-vous parler plus lentement, s’il vous plait? Can you speak more slowly, please? This question uses the conditional tense, and would only be used in very formal situations. Pourriez-vous répéter, s’il vous plait? Could you repeat that, please? If you are using tu, you would say Peux-tu répéter, s’il te plait? Pouvez-vous répéter, s’il vous plaît? Can you repeat that, please? ![]() However, you may want to ask the person speaking with you to repeat ( répéter) something they’ve said, or perhaps to speak ( parler) a little more slowly. If you want someone to repeat something they’ve said, a simple Pardon? ( Excuse me?) should suffice. ![]() It’s great to improve your listening skills in conversation with a French speaker, but there will almost certainly be times where you miss something if someone speaks a little too fast. However, in conversational language, native French speakers will often drop the ne part.ĭon’t be surprised if you notice this when chatting with French-speaking friends, though take care to avoid this yourself in more formal contexts. In French, negative statements are formed by placing ne … pas around a verb (or the first part of a verb construction, as with “ Je n’ai pas compris”). You will see that these phrases use the negative construction ne … pas ( not). I’m sorry, I didn’t understand what you said. Je suis désolé, je n’ai pas compris ce que vous avez dit. You can combine these phrases with some of the vocabulary we covered in our previous post about common courtesies to flesh it out a little.Įxcusez-moi, je ne comprends pas. If you want to say I don’t understand, you can say Je ne comprend pas or Je n’ai pas compris ( I didn’t understand). The word for understand in French is comprendre. In this blog post, we’ll look at some useful phrases to help you when this happens. However, there will likely be times when you might have a problem understanding what’s been said or may not know the right words to express yourself in French, and it’s important that you know how to ask for clarification or information. Learning a new language involves mastering lots of skills, and often our understanding of what’s being said comes before our ability to be able to speak the language and become confident enough to contribute to the conversation. ![]()
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