21 Mistakes French Speakers Make in English - part 1

Le top 21 erreurs d'anglais faites par les Francophones

What are the most common mistakes that French speakers make when speaking English? Here is a list of the top 21. How many do you know?

Watch part 2 here

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TRANSCRIPT

To agree is a verb so do say "I agree with you" and not I am agree with you. 

A business that tries to make a profit is called a company not a society. 

This word is pronounced idea with 3 syllables. an ID is your identity card. 

Information has no plural. so informations is not correct instead say "some information" or count with "pieces for example" for example I've got 2 pieces of information.

you take or sit and exam and if you are successful you pass it.

The two types of food that you might eat are sweet and savoury. Salty means it contains a lot of salt. 

A stranger is a person you don't know while a foreigner is a person from a different country to your own. 

If you are sick you call a doctor. Medicine refers to the drugs the doctor will give you to make you better. 

A bookshop is a place where you buy books while a library is a place where you borrow them. 

It you are talking about dates say "it is the 5th November and not "we are the 5th November"
In English email is the word for electronic correspondence and not "mail" 

These word are pronounced psychology, psychiatry. I'll say it again psychology, psychiatry 

Don't  say the planning when you mean a timetable or schedule.

Don't confuse Tuesday and Thursday. To help you remember Tuesday sounds a little like 2 Tuesday, 2sday and it's the second day of the week

An avocado is a fruit a person in the legal profession is a lawyer. If you say I spoke to an avocado yesterday then you are weird

Don't say I took the  subway if you are in France In Paris you take the Metro, in New York the Subway and in London the underground or tube. 

A dinner is you big meal of the day. A diner is a synonym for a restaurant or a customer at a restaurant. 
A place where you pay little or no tax such as the Bahamas is called a tax haven not a tax heaven.

Look at this picture. What do you call it in English. The correct word is a chateau (if it's in France or in the French style. ) don't confuse it with a castle is for military use and a palace is a royal place of residence such as the Palace of Versailles.

and finally a student asked me "does  London miss you?"  well I don't know the answer to that question you'll have to ask London. You miss something or someone a more common question would be do you miss London?

That's it. Thank you for watching more English language videos coming soon.

Once I heard a french chap saying during his job Interview: "in my previous job, I had a lot of affairs"... while he meant "I brought a lot of business"

[cmlandresc]

The avocat / avocado / lawyer one was great

[pinkhundredwatts]

my french ex partner use to say 'shall I switch off the candles?' instead of 'blow out'. Also 'there is paper on the trees' instead of 'leaves' ... it was very sweet times but educational.

[Maddie-mlef]

I am American and speak english. I find this so interesting! I am beginning to learn french.

[Megrez-Alberich]

Yes, we French people tend to suck at foreign languages. Every time I spend my summer holidays in the south of France, I have a good laugh when I see some restaurant menus translated into English :

- magret de canard déglacé au Banyuls > magret of the duck thawed with the Banyuls

-moules marinières et frites maison > molds marinières with fried house

-salade d'avocat > salad of the lawyers

-jambon cru > believed ham

-loup de mer grillé au fenouil > sea wolf grilled with the fennel

-pommes de terre sautées > jumped potatoes

[elizabethvera]

They also say "I have 22 years" and when you tell them that you are going to take a shower or go drink coffee they tell you "good shower" or "good coffee"

It's so adorable 😊 I love them so much

[petra]

It reminds me of mistakes I used to make in French, having learned English before French. I would always confuse 'travailler' with 'travel' ('voyager').

[acushla_music]

I used to be an English teacher in France and omg these are all so true, very good video!

[causilvestrini]

Although I speak Spanish I found this class excellent!! Thank you so much :-)

[shinystars]

" I spoke to an avocado yesterday " 😂😂😂 I'm crying oh my funny french people😂😂😂 I thought speaking to yourself was weird 😂😂😂 an avocado 😂😂😂😂 seriously!

[bryantgomez]

3:10 I remember when my high school French teacher corrected the class by saying, "[in the legal system] an 'avocat' is not an avocado. And vegetables [sic] make bad lawyers." 🤣

[guillaume.]

My Gooood MERCI MILLE FOIS pour cette vidéo, c'est des trucs qu'on réalise après des mois voire des années de vie en Angleterre, c'est vraiment vraiment utile.
Maintenant faut que je révise tout ça -_-

[shamma]

Ive been an English speaker all my life and think it's so interesting to see how people have trouble speaking the language I've been speaking my entire life

[HuyQuangBui]

3:11 Both "avocado" and "lawyer" mean "avocat" in French

[flamebird]

As a a native English speaker, I couldn't hold myself and sadly burst into tears and laughter.

[saidfarid]

Hello professor
Bonjour professeur
Merci beaucoup pour votre aide et vos conseils.

[yesican]

you are the best english teacher I have ever seen.
thank you very much indeed

[ElizaMogha]

Hi Gideon, another useful video here :)

However, I couldn't help but notice that it's a bit ironic that you're discussing common mistakes made by French speakers, while English speakers totally butcher french words, "Versailles" included! There is a subtle "y" (as in yellow) sound at the end due to the "ll".

I think it's always good to remind people who are trying to learn a foreign language that at the earliest stages of learning (and maybe for a long time to come), when vocabulary is very limited, we tend to translate directly from our mother tongue into the target language, so all these mistakes are very normal to occur. Little by little, we learn to think in the target language and we avoid such mistakes. Once we have more experience of the target language, we try to avoid thinking in our mother tongue first; we think straight in the target language.

Thanks :)

[Nyffs_]

Thank you for your video ! I learn some things (like the difference between castle and chateau) and its help me to remind others. Nice !

[mamanea]

Thanks a lot for this wonderful and instructive short teaching video. We need more, please. From an ongoing English passioned and perfectionist learner.