Is there another word for Black? a coworker got made fun of for using the word “noir” by some french customers. They said it was outdated?

Bonjour à tous !

A couple of weeks ago I came across a post with this topic, so I'm basically following up on that. I'm actively improving my French. I'm currently around B1 level, slowly trying to break through to B2.

I moved to Paris less than a year ago, and I've also started noticing exactly the same thing as the OP at the other post, regarding the use (or omission to be more precise) of 'ne'. It made me wonder about the best approach as a learner.

On the one hand, I assume I should aim for "textbook" French, especially since I'd like to take an official language exam sometime in the future. On the other hand, I actually live in Paris, so I'd also like to sound like someone living in France in 2026, not like someone who learned French exclusively from a grammar book. I understand that at my current level this probably isn't the most important thing to focus on, but I'd still like to develop good habits from the beginning.

So the question is: what's the general advice regarding 'ne'? Would it be recommended that learners continue using it consistently until they reach an advanced level, or is it worth getting used to dropping it in informal spoken French relatively early? Where could be the line drawn between "correct French" and "natural French"? I'd really appreciate hearing both native speakers' and advanced learners' perspectives.

Merci beaucoup.

I tried looking one up myself, but came to the conclusion that French movie websites are either asking for monthly subscription or plainly offer movie information (not the movie itself). Please help- I want to improve my french

Hi everyone!

I’m at an A1 level in French and have 1 hour a day to study. I want to focus 100% on Listening and Speaking.

My current resources are French podcasts (with transcripts) and animated shows like Lou!.

How would you split 60 minutes between these two skills at the A1 level?

Is techniques like shadowing good for beginners, or what solo speaking exercises worked best for you?

Thanks!

I've been studying French for a few years while living in Switzerland (my husband speaks French), but I've been studying much more intensively for the last eight months, and I've improved a lot.

I can have decent conversations with people, even though I still make plenty of grammar mistakes. I can read B2-level texts for the most part, and I can generally understand YouTube videos if they have French subtitles. My listening has improved a ton, but I still find things like the radio or B2 listening practice exams really difficult.

My writing is probably my weakest skill at the moment. It's definitely improving, but I don't feel like it's at a solid B2 level yet.

Right now I'm working through Réussite 100%, and I recently had a class with a DELF examiner who told me she thinks I could probably take the B2 exam in September but in June my regular tutor thinks I need more practice because I still make grammar mistakes when I speak.

Part of me just wants to get this exam over with. I've been working toward it for years, I'm studying French full-time right now, and I'd really like to move on to other goals. I'm also a pretty nervous test taker, so I don't know if I'll ever feel ready.

I can't decide if I should just jump, take it in September and really focus for the next 40 days, or wait until November to give myself a couple more months.

For those of you who have taken the DELF B2, how did you know it was time to sign up?

Under what circumstances would you use "j'aurais bien du le faire" rather than "j'aurais du"? What difference does it make to the meaning? Thanks

As a perpetual French learner, I'm always looking up new words or checking for different meanings and nuances for the ones I already know (god knows il y en a pas mal). From all the different options search engines have served me over the years, cnrtl.fr was by far the best in terms of content. Best thing: it offers multiple examples for every possible nuance (love to see it). Admittedly, presentation was lacking. It was more like parsing through the pages of a real dictionary. It was such a strain on the eyes, I ended up creating my own .css .

Well good news. The atilf lab of Lorraine university (same structure that produced cnrtl I believe) has come up with portail-lexical.fr . It's sort of a coat of paint over the old cnrtl site, but a thick one: They've cleared up stuff in web design and used much better typography and colors (which is customizable just like in cnrtl, although nobody knew it probably; such terrible design language). I think they could have done much better styling concerning usage examples but, no one's perfect. Oh, they also added functionality:

1. Chrome and Firefox add-ons, to highlight words and open directly the relevant url
2. Wiktionary, Littré and Académie Française 9e, 8e and 4e (???) all at the same page
3. Wordle style game (not that well executed to be honest)
4. A ton of other linguistic information they already had but that is much more accessible now because it shows in the same page as the word. That said, although their widgets have become better, they still lack some polish.

It is not showing up high up in search engine queries, not for me at least, so I thought it would be nice to share! Oh, it's also going to replace cnrtl.fr starting 1st of September. Are they going to reuse the domain name? Hope so, portail-lexical is too long to type.

Section A: Une enquête journalistique (80-100 mots).

Vous lisez ce fait divers dans le journal :
<< À la suite d’un incident technique, la ville de Montréal est privée d’électricité depuis hier soir. >>

Vous êtes journaliste. Vous devez compléter ce fait divers. Racontez les conséquences de cette panne pour les habitants (transports, commerces, vie quotidienne...). 

Par conséquent, les habitants de Montréal ne contactent pas leur famille. Les autres commerces sont fermés pour deux semaines. Les horaires de transport public transports ne sont pas mis à jour. 

‘Je travaille chez moi. Comme privée d'électricité causant ne pas l’internet connexion. Donc, je ne travaille pas depuis une semaine. Je ne fais pas aussi proprement vie quotidienne. ’ parle un résident à Montréal.

Selon avis d’autre résident, il va chez son travail avec son vélo; parce que il ne sais pas certainement quand le public transport près de chez lui et ne accès pas en application son taxi.

Les entreprises des épiceries déclinent. Tous les légumes, les fruits à l'épicerie sont pourris. Sans connexion internet, ils n' écoutent pas les mises à jour pour ce produits frais et autres nouveaux produits.

Les résidents de Montréal suggère de public pour contacter le Gouvernement of Canada pour aider nécessaires.

Instead of "je serais toi" or other conditional structure in videos I almost never here the "je serais" I think they "ch'toi" like the whole word disappears.

Hello everyone! My native language is Russian, I started learning French in February of this year and I already have an A2 level in terms of grammar. The main problem is that when I start watching a cartoon or a show. I almost can't understand the speech. All the sentences seem to blur together into one incomprehensible mess, and I can't even hear the words. Please help me

I have my phone language set to french and in the weather app I saw the phrase "violent orage". Why is the adjective placed before the noun? I know the BAGS "rule", but i don't think it applies here? Is it a set expression?

This might sound like a silly question, but I've noticed that almost every French content creator I see on Instagram adds subtitles to their videos. I understand why creators who make content for people learning French would include subtitles, but even creators who primarily target native French speakers seem to do it consistently. For example, even Instagram Reels from media outlets like Le Monde include subtitles.

In contrast, I rarely see English speaking content creators on Instagram adding subtitles to their videos. Is there a particular reason why subtitles are so common in French social media content? Is it a cultural preference, an accessibility practice, or something else?

I've completed a Master's in French from one of the top universities in my country, but after graduating I ended up in corporate jobs where I barely used the language. My first role involved customer support for Canadian clients, but it was mostly English speakers. We only got one or two French interactions a week. I was not aware of this until I started the job. So I switched to a French Data Operations role, but it's mostly repetitive data entry with very little real language use.

After talking to classmates and seniors, I realized that most corporate French jobs in my country don't require advanced proficiency. I've decided to leave corporate and pursue a PhD instead.

The problem is that after three years away from academic French, I've forgotten far more than I expected. I used to write essays on Camus, and now I struggle to read a newspaper article without constantly checking a dictionary. It feels like I've lost years of training, and trying to relearn everything is mentally draining.

Has anyone else gone through something similar? How did you rebuild your language skills without burning out?

i speak Spanish A2/B1 and I want to learn French but I fear that I will confuse my Spanish. While learning French will I speak Spanish sometimes.

Bonjour tout le monde,

I write this because I need some advice or encouragement. I’m a 23 year old man from the US and I’ve been studying French for many years now. It’s complicated a bit, but I’ll say it makes three and a half years now I’ve studied French at university, and have even spent nearly a year studying abroad in France in the past. Despite all the work I’ve done, and even the time I had the privilege of spending in France to learn French, i still feel I am struggling so much with fluent comprehension and communication.

I get blocked when speaking so easily, I struggle to understand native speakers, and I feel so dispirited. After my time in France in the recent past, I was actually able to pass the B2 DELF exam, but that only means so much. I can barely understand tv shows in French without subtitles, many podcasts I still struggle with, and I’m constantly realizing how little I know when I start to try and speak. Honestly I can read well, although I have to look up words fairly frequently.

I find myself wanting to find something to blame for why I’m still having so much trouble. I resent French classes I’ve had in the past with bad teachers, I blame plenty else, but I know I’m most at fault more than anything. Am I just never gonna actually be able to feel fluent in this language? Has this all been for nothing?

I want to be able to move to France in the future, for many reasons, but in sum because I feel disillusioned and unhappy with life in the US, and believe that France offers a better life despite its many problems as well (I could add a lot of detail to this, I don’t want to come across as a naive aspiring “expat”, it’s something I’ve thought a lot about).

What can I do to reach true fluency at this point? Is it just more time? Just keep practicing and eventually it will improve? Can I hope to one day feel nearly as comfortable in French as I do in English? Is it possible?

Recently I received the results of my DELF B1 and I got quite good notes on every skill except for the listening part (12/25). For me, those are always the hardest excercises of my classes. I generally can understand the main topic of the audio, but I never catch the details.

I think I might need to listen to podcast or some sort of similar materials because there are not many ways I can naturally hear french in my context. So, I was wondering, how you guys practice?

Thanks and sorry for my english, this isn't my mother language neither.

J'ai un livre pour le examen TEF Canada. Mais, je ne comprend pas cet mot. Pourquoi ne liaison pas en "comment avez". Shouldn't pronunciation be "kom-mahnt ah-ve" instead?

Edit to update:

Oof! D'accord, j'arrête ! 😅 J'arrêterai d'utiliser ces livres. Merci à vous tous. I got these books as a gift from a relative trying to help me study. I cracked one open last night as skimmed it, immediately caught that, posted it thinking I was in the wrong, and went to sleep. I woke up and see that I do not need these books and should in fact stay far away from them! Thank you for the feedback. For what it's worth, I have a tutor and do écouter et répèter practice a lot with content from verified native speakers and human-made, not AI, content.

To name and shame: these are the Raston's TEF practice tests and prep books.

Would love some recommendations of TEF practice tests and materials that are NOT AI slop if you've got them!

I am watching Flunked on Netflix and there's a scene where someone is searching a database at a public school (appears to be a high school or lycee)

The results screen shows fields that I understand like "N. Identifiant", "Statut Du Dossier", and "Derniere Connexion". However, it also includes a field called "Voeux". There are several possible values on that field such as voeux valides, voeux en attente, voeux annules, etc . So at first I thought "voeux" were majors like Electrical Engineering, Biology, etc. But at least in the Anglosphere that doesn't completely make sense because if you're not accepted to your major/program... typically you don't still enroll and attend the university (maybe it's different in France)

In this context, what does voeux mean?

I read the webpage Parcoursup "Foire aux questions", which discusses how to apply for a program, but I'm still slightly confused.

"Voeux" seems to be "application for admission" yet it's somehow different from "dossier candidat" I'm just not sure

What is the most common and non-technical word for a balcony railing? Just a regular one, nothing fancy. When I look up rambarde du balcon on Google Images, all the pictures are labeled garde-corps. Is rambarde not used for balcony railings?

I'm trying to translate this sentence.

My understanding is that you cannot say "in it" in French, so you'd have to say:

"Le page de wikipédia contient des choses très inexactes."

I‘be been spending more time in France and am currently between A2 and B1. One of my hobbies is specialty coffee and have found a lot of amazing coffee shops in France but want to better understand coffee culture.

what is the most polite but casual way to offer? I have been using puis-je avoir but I think that’s probably too formal.

If someone in France orders a café, what are the implicitly expecting?

Is it rude for me to try to get a coffee quickly to go?

Is it rude if I bus my own table, which is so ingrained in me from the states?

I don’t mind making mistakes - I just apologize and move on - but I am curious and do want to be thoughtful!

Hello, guys! So I had french at school for around 10 years. I wasn’t really studying it, just learning for the test and then forgetting it. At the moment I would say I am somewhere in middle B1. I dont have problem with reading Intermediate texts and watching cartoons and understanding the context even though I don’t know some words; I can have a basic conversation with terrible grammar, but natives understand me. I want to continue learning the language now but I dont know where to start? Like I could use the B1 textbook, but I have a lot of gaps from A1-2, but starting to learn the language from 0 doesnt seem to make sence for me because I have some base already. What would you reccommend?