Beginner Mistakes When Learning French

When you begin studying a new language, there’s always plenty to remember. Since you’re not likely to be a sponge that can absorb every morsel of information thrown your way, you’ll remember some, forget others and misunderstand a few.

If you’re currently working your way through French classes or a French language software, there are many things you’ll likely find yourself struggling with, especially at the start. The good news is, none of them are insurmountable. If you’re willing to put in the work, you’ll likely clear every single one of these hurdles as you progress in your language training.

Gender

In French, all nouns have gender. That is, they’re either masculine or feminine. This is a far cry from the English language, where nouns only take on gender when they refer to living things, making the concept a difficult one to grasp for many second language learners.

Don’t think you can interchange gender and get away with it either. Gender is a crucial element of French nouns: use the wrong gender and you’ll create confusion. In many cases, you’ll end up communicating a different message entirely, since a different gender can alter the meaning of some nouns.

Accents

Accents (those lines and dots you see in French words) are required, not optional. They are used to indicate the correct way to pronounce a word, so make sure to pay attention to them when learning to read or write in French. Since they’re not used in the English language, there’s a good chance you’ll struggle with them a bit, especially at the start of your language study.

To Be

The literal equivalent of the verb “to be” in French is “être.” However, it’s not to be used exclusively in forming “to be” constructions. Instead, many French expressions can also be formed using the verbs “avoir” (to have) and faire (to do). Make a point of memorizing these three verbs and understanding how they are used within the context of different expressions.

Contractions

Contractions aren’t optional in French — they’re required. If you’re used to avoiding contractions when writing in formal English, you have to make sure not to carry over that habit. Learn the rules for contractions, which usually occurs when a short word like “je,” “me” or “la” precedes a word that starts with a vowel, and make sure to keep them in mind.

Liaisons and Enchaînement

When strung together, French words tend to flow from one to the next. It makes sentences sound flowing — it’s one of the reasons why French is regarded as a beautiful speaking language. However, it’s also a big cause of problems for second language learners, as it renders both pronunciation and listening comprehension just a tad more difficult than they should be.

The French R

The “r” sound in French is probably the trickiest for English speakers to learn, as the sound tends to come from the back of the mouth (or, even more accurately, the throat area). Make sure to pay particular attention to the use of this sound in your language learning software, as you’ll need to practice making the “r” sound several times before getting the hang of it.

The French U

While not as confounding as the “r” sound, the “u” sound can also be challenging. This difficulty is further compounded by the fact that it flows very similar to the French “ou” sound. Oh yeah, this sound doesn’t exist in English, so you’ll literally have to learn it from scratch. Just like the French “r,” make sure to follow instructions in your language software and practice this multiple times.

Tu/Vous

French uses two words for “you,” which isn’t bad on its own. However, their meanings are very different, so you’ll need to know which one to use at any given time. The main difference is plurality — tu is used when referring to one, while vous is used during instances of two or more. However, they also have connotations — tu is used when speaking to someone with whom you can interact with closeness and informality; vous is more formal and suggests respect to the person you’re talking to.

The French H

In French, “H” comes in two varieties: aspirated and mute. Both are silent, with one difference — aspirated H acts like a consonant (no contractions or liaisons) and mute H acts like a vowel (requires contractions and liaisons).

Nasal Vowels

Nasal sounds aren’t unique to French. In English, both M and N are nasal consonants, requiring you to nasalize the vowel that precedes it (as in “own” or “am”) during use. As such, employing nasal vowels shouldn’t be all that hard, provided you can learn the different nasal vowels in the French language.

Making nasal vowel sounds are done by expelling air through the mouth and nose without obstructing the output with lips, tongue or throat. A few practice sessions should be all you need to get this down pat.

Que

You’ll probably hear “que” (or that) used frequently in French sentences. In the language, it’s required to be used in any sentence that involves a subordinate clause, with “que” used to join the two clauses together. Unlike in English, conjuctions (in this case, “que”) aren’t optional in French, so you need to use them every time to connect separate clauses.

Auxiliary Verbs

Both avoir and être are used as auxiliary verbs to expand the semantic meaning of specific verbs in the language. Each one should be used with different verbs, though, so make sure to use when to use which. The rules are clear cut, so all you have to do is memorize which group of verbs to use with either one.

Silent Letters

A lot of French letters are silent. And if you’ve worked through French vocabulary to some extent, you’ll notice a lot of these silent letters occur at the end of words. Do note that not all final letters are silent, just as silent letters don’t always occur at the end of words. You’ll likely have to learn these one by one. As long as you keep the above distinction in mind, though, you should be fine.