7 COMMON MISTAKES in FRENCH I StreetFrench.org

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[@Street_French]

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[@cdaswift9947]

This is very helpful.. Especially the verb "visiter". ☺☺☺

[@Street_French]

Glad you found it helpful! :D

[@joanlynch5271]

Could you say rester? Je vais rester avec mon Amie Christina.

[@TheAnaphylaxy]

@@joanlynch5271 We would use it in specific cases, I'd say it's similar to "to stick with someone", for example if you're at Christina's place, and one of the guests is leaving, if he asks you "are you leaving too?" you can reply "Non je vais rester avec Christina" but it has a different meaning from "to visit". Maybe StreetFrench can say if I'm right or wrong!

[@sacharaymond8810]

je suis etudiant , j'ai toujour des bonnes notes

[@salamparadise9183]

Also "I'm hot" translates to ''J'ai chaud''. Never ever say Je suis chaud.

[@Street_French]

haha yeah :)

[@hugodeblois336]

Je suis chaud au Québec peux vouloir dire que quelqu'un est dans un état d'ébriété assez avancez LOL

[@eigrontopediax]

Why not?

[@cindys2995]

A lot of these are similar to Spanish, so as a native English speaker who is fluent in Spanish, I don't often make these mistakes...thank Goodness!

[@drmichaelelinski6992]

Une deuxième partie de cette vidéo serait très bien. Allez-y...merci beaucoup....🙏

[@Street_French]

merci :)

[@tinaselinsky8301]

Suis d'accord

[@harryfear]

We need part two! On a besoin de la deuxième partie de cette série !

[@emmat5119]

This is a great one. Thanks so much 🌾✌🏼

[@TheCinnamondemon]

your voice gets so nasally and deep in french, but i mean that in the best way possible. french is so beautiful. ta voix est tellement nasale et profonde en français, mais je le dis de la meilleure façon possible. le français est si beau.

[@Street_French]

Ahaha I know what you mean! Some French women have the deepest voices xD it's so interesting!

[@ankurgupta10121990]

You made my day! Thanks

[@Street_French]

de rien!

[@slingrio]

Salut! Waouh! I've been studying French for 2 years and after watching this video, I just realized I was saying things wrongly. Definitely subscribing! Merci beaucoup!

[@Street_French]

Salut! Ohhhh trop bien :) merci!!

[@jaapstobbe589]

Passer un examen

[@SaurabhKaisare]

Salut !! Thanks a lot for the video. And Part 2 would be great.

[@Street_French]

De rien!

[@shenweiartist]

This is so helpful!

[@Street_French]

I'm so glad! ☺☺

[@0sofio0]

Your lessons are honestly one of the most helpful things I could find on the Internet to improve my French! Videos of this kind are sometimes deceptively relieving though, as you speak of mistakes English speakers do, and my first language is Russian, so many of them don't apply to my case. I certainly do have some interference with English on the level of the lexicon but it mostly doesn't apply to phrases, e. g. "passer un examen" is closer to how we say it in Russian, so I don't have any problem here. In English, they just have this difference between taking an exam and passing an examen meaning that it was taken with success, and in Russian, the latter is expressed with the perfective aspect of the same verb ('pass'). And can it be expressed with just one verb in French? Like, can you say "- Have you passed the exam? - Yes, I actually did pass it!" without using 'bien' and using just some verb? Thanks for the video!!

[@slicksalmon6948]

What I have learned from this site is that everything I was taught about speaking French was wrong. Everything. It's very discouraging to have spent hundreds of hours learning the wrong thing.

[@kiacarter93]

I enjoyed this video :) Part 2 would be great !!

[@Street_French]

ah thanks !:)

[@eigrontopediax]

Thank you it's very helpful. Can you please make one about hospital terms or when visiting a clinic or emergency? Thank you.

[@pauljburgin340]

Useful, thanks ....

[@Street_French]

You're welcome :):)

[@tan319]

A really great subject

[@Street_French]

:))

[@jesuisshirley0716]

Tu est mignon! I'm English speaker and I am going crazy between English and French grammar as well! C'est difficile ! Merci beaucoup pout your teaching!!!

[@Luiblonc]

I am a new sub and love your videos!!! Thank you!

[@Street_French]

ow thanks, glad to hear that 😊

[@sophie-ti3rl]

your videos are the absolute best

[@Street_French]

merci! :)

[@irmaperez2869]

Oww j’ai l’adoré! Merci bcp Pour l’aide! Je demande le part dois!☺️

[@Street_French]

ah cool de rien :)

[@dijrajakumar9768]

Merci beaucoup

[@Street_French]

De rien !!

[@stevemorse108]

Your explanation of visiter was very good. You are a very good teacher. How did you reach such a level in english? You have a bit of a Julie Delpy vibe...i.e. relaxed, unpretentious and charismatic.

[@izj2894]

Your videos are pretty helpful. I'm a native Spanish speaker, I speak English to, but I have to improve my grammar, I know some Italian and now I'm learning French. Thanks for helping me in a unconditional way. Merci beaucoup pour tout

[@Street_French]

ah cool de rien :):)

[@lifeby2044]

Thank you

[@Street_French]

you're welcome :)

[@ylee247]

t'es géniale, la prof de français formidable 👏🏻😘

[@Street_French]

:)

[@JulesMoyaert_photo]

Tu parles bien! Dans les deux langues! Bravo!

[@Street_French]

merci :)

[@royclayjr.1828]

Merci beaucoup! By the way your English is very very good. Quite inspiring. (I’m a native speaker of English and I’ve been teaching it for 15 years...)

[@Street_French]

Ah thank you! and glad you've enjoyed the video😃

[@biggirlbathingsuits8210]

In French books and in French class we only learn, "Je m'appelle" to say My name is, but in French class we all said our names this way, except one Spanish girl said, "Je suis Maria." The teacher didn't say it was wrong or make any comment about it. I've always wondered if this phrase is correct or possible or used at all.

[@Street_French]

ah yeah we rarely say "je m'appelle ....", "je suis ..." works :)

[@eyquemesque]

@@Street_French that's strange, I'm a native french speaker from Belgium and I never heard "Je suis..." instead of "Je m'appelle..." ; "Je suis ..." is maybe not really wrong, but it sounds very weird.

[@Street_French]

@@eyquemesque ah yeah now that I think about it, "je suis..." does sound wrong. I would actually say "comment tu t'appelles? ah enchanté. moi, c'est Maïa" 'moi, c'est..." "je suis" ça marche pas du tout lol

[@Syl75]

"Je suis..." is used when someone is expecting you. For example you arrive to an appointment, or to a private party where you are registered on the checklist, you say "Bonjour, je suis..."

[@Adriana-bx2xz]

It's because in spanish we often use "Soy" To introduce which mean "je suis". In french we say "je m'appelle...." or "moi c'est...." BUT if you're not very comfortable with that when someone asks your name you can also directly reply by your name ! Eg - Comment tu t'appelles? - Adriana, enchanté ! Et toi? - Moi c'est Paul !

[@angelyagudeloescobar9668]

Loved this video! I'm a Spanish native and I have forgot sometimes to say J'ai 19 ans instead of Je suis, because I learned English first and although French is very similar to Spanish, one has learned English all the life and is used to its structure.

[@Street_French]

Ah cool! Thanks for watching :D

[@L.Spencer]

I'm a native English speaker who learned Spanish, and now that I'm learning French it's "curious" to see when they are similar and how they differ.

[@Mr.Edd3905]

Is there a part 2 yet for this? It basically works the other way round too: Most people from countries who use the verb 'to have' when saying their age say 'I have 23 years old' when saying in English. It's just a really hard nut to crack because of the L1 interference. I always learn so much more French when I am in a French speaking country, because you basically need to hear the complete phrases at first hand. It's not really a language you can just translate from English. All these example like 'Je visite' and 'Je suis bien' etc are a result of not having heard the French phrase enough times (or ever) and then just directly translating the sentence. It's nice to know here what the false anglo translated phrases actually mean in French. That's really interesting. Shame I don't live in Paris, because I could really use some lessons.

[@Street_French]

Ah yeah we gotta do a part 2 xD but maybe you could take lessons with us via Skype :) thanks for watching!

[@cyberjynx]

Beautiful earrings on you! Love your videos!

[@Street_French]

merci :)

[@WHALEx3]

“It sounds like your going inside him” Lmaooo

[@Street_French]

haha :)

[@PpAirO5]

I once wrote with a french girl... it was difficult, cause she was writing in french, and the "media" we used made a poor/direct translation, which made it hard to understand the sentence correctly 😅

[@Street_French]

ah yeah corrections can be quite bad ^^

[@PpAirO5]

Bonjour 👋🏻😀 Sometimes when i hear french people speak/write english, i believe they use this Feminine/Masculine gramma stuff (Not really into it 😅). Eksample... I read a comment about (military) tanks (Char), and this french guy stated that, this tank "HE" is heavyer than the other tank. Which he was right about, but he called the tank a "He" (Masculine) 😄 I just find it a bit funny... a lot of french people do this mistake... it seems like 😄

[@Street_French]

AHAHA I never noticed that xD I'll listen for it next time I speak English with a French person

[@eth3rn4l]

French people have a strong tendency to do that because in French there is no specific neutral grammatical gender. It is merged with the masculine, which does not mean that every non living thing is designated with a masculine article or pronoun. As far as I know there is no way to guess the gender of a noun. In German for instance, a noun that would be masculine in French can be any of the three genders. ^^

[@carleneziegler3622]

Think of visiter as to do a site visit

[@Street_French]

yeah exactly ^^

[@unisakekudaconteh2335]

Merci beacoup

[@Street_French]

de rien!

[@thomascool1335]

Sorry for to many question, can you make a short vid about how to read french word like like oi, aux, au,ï, etc?

[@Street_French]

Ok we'll keep that in mind!

[@eth3rn4l]

The exam part can be especially confusing, because "passer un examen" means "take an exam" and "avoir eu un examen" (litteraly having had an exam) means "having passed an exam". Anyone interested in the origin of "bien aller"? You may find it nasty, but it's an old saying, though still used. It relates to how things go for one in the bathroom (toilets), because it was seen as a important part of health. "Comment allez-vous (à la selle) ?" Cheers!

[@Street_French]

ow so interesting :))

[@user-wi6vj7wn1c]

Salut! Can you please make a video about fashion, clothes etc? Stay safe 🙏👍☺️

[@carai6083]

Interesting I didn’t know that about visiter.

[@Street_French]

:):)

[@bertoldriesenteil1430]

To pose a question also exists in English, but it is reserved for more formal or general situations. Scientists and politicians pose questions for example.

[@Street_French]

ah interesting I guess British English is way closer to French and still uses a lot of expressions and words that come from French :)

[@bertoldriesenteil1430]

@@Street_French Well around 30 percent of English words are French ones just pronounced wrong and many others up to 30% too that are of Latin origin may have got to Britain through French.

[@bertoldriesenteil1430]

@@Street_French To pose a question is not necessarily specifically French. Consider a question as an object. One can give it to someone in which case one asks him or her the question. Alternatively one can pose it as in poser in French, that is to say just place it somewhere, like in a retorical question. Germans also do this when they say eine Frage stellen. Stellen means to place something. So placing and posing questions might be German too. In Breton one does a question with the use of the verb to do (ober). Questions can also beg an answer and are thus embued with subjectivity which is also interesting.

[@sallieannwestbrook9769]

I think of “visiter “ as “I go look at.” Does that seem correct?

[@vs9950]

Salut 🤗 I noticed you dropped the "ne" in je ne sais pas. Is this commonly used or is it slang? Could it be used in written French as well? Love your videos! They are really helpful 😊 👍

[@Street_French]

yeah in spoken french we say "je sais pas" all the time. But you have to write properly in letters and email. so it's : "je ne sais pas" for written french

[@gilguerin72]

You can use, as well, a "50% solution" which is a good compromise while speaking : "Je n'sais pas". It sounds better than "Je sais pas"

[@rocksteadyjk9657]

@@gilguerin72 or you could make it even quicker par example « ché pas » it's the québécois way of saying idk

[@mydogdeli]

I have a feeling that there is a difference between English and French about attending schools/universities. In English, you'd say, "I go to XX school", or "I went to XX university", but I don't think that those sentences translate directly. How would you say them in French?

[@stevemor165]

At 2 min 15 sec, why no liaison like je suis zalle? Thanks for your interesting and informative videos!

[@Street_French]

because that's how we speak in french. we don't do all the liaison, it sounds too formal and weird ^^

[@rebeccamcfarlin8199]

Comment dire en français? Prendre un cours??

[@mpagan606]

Thanks for the tips. My prof said I can not say, “J’ai visité la salle du sport. Isn’t that the same as visiting the museum?!

[@erinc9672]

Hm. I'm interested to see the answer for this one. Maybe "visiter" has more of a meaning of looking around and exploring a place (like a museum), in which case I suppose one could "visiter une salle de sport" in the contexte of deciding whether to get a membership there. ...? Whereas if it's your gym that you're already a member of, maybe you'd just say "aller à la salle de sport"...? I can't keep straight when to use "chez" (like for the hairdresser? The doctor?)

[@Street_French]

no I explain in the video the difference between "visiter" and "rendre visite

[@catchoupiote]

It depends on what you mean. To make things simple, "Visiter" means " to have a good look at " and so generally contains the idea of discovering something new ( a museum, a city...). So, as Erin explains, you can' t say "J'ai visité la salle de sport", except if you were there to have a look at everything and decide wether to get a membership. If not, you just say "je suis allé à la salle de sport".

[@catchoupiote]

@@erinc9672 Yes, you use "chez" when it's a person, not a place : "Je suis allé chez le docteur" ; "je suis allé à la gare, au supermarché, au cinéma...".

[@mpagan606]

catchoupiote merci!

[@Reazzurro90]

Interestingly enough, this is a mistake that is also taught often by native English professors of French. "Je vais bien" was never emphasized, but "je suis bien" was commonly accepted. At least that was my experience.

[@Street_French]

ah yeah they teach "je suis bien" to say "I"m doing well" ?? that's so wrong ... TT

[@stefanreichenberger5091]

Je faisais la même erreur avec "visiter" jusqu'à ce que des amis français m'ont expliqué que "visiter quelqu'un" a un sens sexuel...

[@Street_French]

haha oui :)

[@dancleary578]

Maïa et Charlie, In re-reading "Le Petit Prince", I just noticed that the author, (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry), refers to his best friend in the feminine singular in the book's dedication. Specifically, he writes "... cette grande personne habite la France où elle a faim et froid. Elle a bien besoin d'être conssolée..." Is this correct grammar (?) because the word personne is feminine? Earlier, he refers to his masculine "... meilleur ami ...", whom is Leon Werth, bien sûr! Slightly confusing? Oui? French language is tricky... Merci!

[@Street_French]

haha yeah, you can do that in literary French because of "une belle personne" personne being feminine. But we don't talk like that :))

[@dancleary578]

Merci! Enjoy your videos a lot. :-)

[@fredericroy]

"Une grande personne" here means an adult. So it's either a man or a woman. Exemple : "Je demande pardon aux enfants d’avoir dédié ce livre à "un adulte" (une grande personne) J’ai une excuse sérieuse: "Cet adulte" (cette grande personne) est le meilleur ami que j’ai au monde. J’ai une autre excuse: "cet adulte" (cette grande personne) (...) etc

[@jadorealissawhite-gluz5706]

I've heard many teachers on iTalki saying mon nom est in their introduction video. Is it incorrect or just a less popular way of saying my name is?

[@Super4585454]

I'm SAL from what I heard, it’s just a little less popular and maybe a bit “stiff” if you know what I mean. I mostly hear je m’appelle

[@Cormorant0512]

Part II s’il vous plaît

[@Street_French]

Ok we'll add it to the list of videos to make :)

[@JeeWeeD]

Two comments: "Je suis bien" in that case would be the answer for me to give, because that is usually the case :-) And: 'passer un examun' sounds like you've already nailed it before even "prendre" it :-P

[@Street_French]

Haha nice ;)

[@mapofg6095]

Hi, je peux poser une question? Tu a dit " passer un examen" means "take an exam". Comment on dit " to pass en exam" ?? Merci beaucoup

[@monpopotama9416]

«to pass an exam» se dit «réussir un examen» ou même «avoir son examen» ou «obtenir son examen» (obtenir son diplôme)

[@Street_French]

we say "j'ai eu une bonne note" or "j'ai réussi mon examen" :)

[@joanlynch5271]

I want to say that I live near a city in California. How do I say near? In the sense of close by but not in. J'habite pres de Sacramento?

[@Street_French]

yes that's it :) check out wordreference.com or linguee.fr

[@gilguerin72]

An equivalent : "J'habite à côté de Sacramento" ... ou "J'habite dans la banlieue de Sacramento"

[@toninnoin]

Okay just some advice. Never use "Tu" with stranger okay. Always use "Vous" as it's a faux pas.

[@julietenh5560]

Merci beaucoup Professor..

[@Street_French]

De rien Julie!

[@MsCankersore]

What do you mean the expression is aller bien or aller mal? Je aller bien then?

[@Street_French]

je vais bien, il va mal etc...

[@xouxoful]

Yes for visiter! But we say "visiter un malade" or "visiter un prisonnier".

[@Street_French]

;)

[@JeeWeeD]

Exactly what I was thinking of: I'm Dutch but immediately I was thinking of a doctor visiting you...

[@Street_French]

@@JeeWeeD Ah cool :)

[@bertoldriesenteil1430]

I am good is American. In English we say I am well or I am fine, or I am ok. I am good actually means je suis bon.

[@Street_French]

ah ok cool, yeah I guess we talk about american english a lot because Charlie is American ^^

[@bertoldriesenteil1430]

@@Street_French Who is Charlie ? I know many famous Charies but none of them were American.

[@cass324]

Could you also say in response to "Comment ça va?" "Ca va bien, et toi?"

[@Street_French]

Oui ;)

[@CommeUnFrancais]

Examun?? Not exactly lol! Examen***!!!

[@Street_French]

oops ;)

[@gilguerin72]

@@Street_French Allez Maïa, corrige nous ça, une petite retouche (texte sur l'image) de la vidéo et hop, on en parle plus ;)

[@creatifetudes8553]

Part 2,3,4,5 etc svp

[@Street_French]

ah cool :)) will do !

[@cmolodiets]

"j'ai visité un ami" est tout a fait correct; peu employé mais correct

[@Street_French]

Euh non c'est pas correct ;)

[@cmolodiets]

@@Street_French ben si, ça l'est :( www.notrefamille.com/dictionnaire/definition/visiter/

[@Street_French]

@@cmolodiets Haha xD

[@fredericroy]

@@cmolodiets C'est l'académie française. Ici, je pense qu'elle donne des leçons pour parler le français de tous les jours pas celui des vieux de l'académie :)

[@lydiafife8716]

You can hear it all the time in Québec Perhaps it’s old fashioned for les français but not so much here And we still do say Comment-allez vous to be polite or to a group or for fun to a friend

[@cardaveux]

I say a lot: Je me sens bien ;-)

[@sacharaymond8810]

bonjour je suis français , je parle toujour en français avec mes parents et je progresse de jour un jour

[@amiralihomayoni6243]

Excusez-moi quand on dit (on utilises plus le verbe habiter) ça veut dire ( we don't use the verb habiter anymore) Ou bien ça veut dire (we use the verb habiter more)???

[@Street_French]

it means "we don't use anymore"

[@gilguerin72]

to say "more" you say "plus" and pronounce the final "s"

[@xiaoyisi]

I wonder why "Mon nom est Maïa" is not correct, since "Quel est votre nom" is a correct question to ask one's name, no?

[@jamesangus8504]

How do you say you passed an exam?

[@hsnhsn3982]

🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@timkimware3537]

“examun”? hmmm spellcheck :)

[@Street_French]

oui merci ! :)

[@beautifulsincera]

Cute!

[@doncan1446]

haha imagine this conversation je vais te visiter ohh you mean rendre visit a moi? non tu as bien entendu :O

[@christopherfairs9095]

I'm good is American English.

[@ehmaho]

I make everyone of these mistakes :)

[@Street_French]

it's ok ^^ that's why we're here :)

[@ehmaho]

StreetFrench.org 🙂

[@obviouslyimright9134]

la raison d'être des Français est de dire au reste du monde que nous le faisons mal

[@gordonroberts8353]

Ça va? Think of it as “how’s it going” in English

[@alexanderpapazov5441]

Could somebody say "J'ai visité chez mon ami"?

[@Street_French]

no. "je suis allé chez un ami" or "j'ai rendu visite à mon ami"

[@clairedevos2851]

examen et non examun

[@Street_French]

uh hu ;)

[@numanumafanbaseyangsing128]

I thought you could say "Mon nom est" it's just not common?

[@mathistoto]

you could say that, but we usually say "je m'appelle..." even when we speak we say "J'm'appelle ..." it's more used by french people :)

[@abrahamcusters2987]

Visiter quelqu'un ça veut plutôt dire la vérification par un douanier si on porte les drogues dans son corps.

[@kritiomre6625]

You look so beautiful❤

[@dancleary578]

Please change word to consolée... :-)

[@Street_French]

which word?

[@frankparis9408]

Le docteur visite ses patients.

[@Street_French]

il rend visite à ses patients * :)

[@GabrielOliveira-nd7so]

Anyone who's looking for a language partner??

[@Kolvatn]

C'est drole, moi j'dit "j'ai visité mes grand-parent."

[@Street_French]

ah c'est pas correct en fait ^^

[@mizek8680]

On peut dire par contre: « un médecin visite ses patients »

[@0sofio0]

n'est-ce pas " un examen " ? pas " un examun "

[@76CMario]

Many francophones around the world might say, «Mon nom, (c’)est Timothée. » Haitians never say « Je m’appelle... ». But it is not as beautiful.

[@Street_French]

:)

[@xouxoful]

"examun" mes yeux saignent 😁😁

[@bruh5601]

One day, I will understand the French jokes in the comment

[@Street_French]

haha That's a good goal to have^^

[@jean-mariecalvat9402]

Les anglais « pass an exam » quand ils réussissent à un examen ! Donc risque d’erreur dans le sens français vers anglais !!!

[@Street_French]

:)

[@ritagaston1556]

Why not translate comme ca va for English speakers as How is it going ... We can remember that as how are you

[@Street_French]

both works, it's the same meaning ^^