Spoken French Vocabulary: French People Would Never Say These 5 Words

Are the words you’re using actually used by French people? Let’s find out, so you can improve your fluency (and sound less like a tourist.)

0:00 - Intro
0:30 - 1) Real words that we never use: Sacrebleu and more
3:56 - 2) Words and expressions that don’t exist: Jour de la Bastille
5:35 - 3) Words and expressions that aren’t used this way: “Bien fait.”
7:23 - 4) False friends (“les faux amis”): La chair
9:04 - 5) Fake “French” stuff: “French doors”
11:00 - Recap & Practice

Many of my students want to learn more and more French vocabulary. And it’s true that expanding your vocabulary will help you better express yourself, improve your comprehension, and even be better understood when speaking French. But what happens if the words you’re learning aren’t used by French people?

Using fake French words, or words that aren’t really used, is a sure way to sound more like a tourist and less like a sophisticated, knowledgeable French speaker. In today’s lesson, I’ll introduce you to 5 types of words that you should scrap from your vocabulary if you want to sound more authentically French in your everyday conversations.

Take care and stay safe.
😘 from Grenoble, France.

Géraldine

[raymondrowe]

I remember using préservtive for preservative and a french lady said to me, "I think, monsieur, that is what you cal the French letter." Whoops.

[sagg]

Merci beaucoup pour enseigner et expliquer cette nouvelle thème du debut de fin de semaine et très splendide samedi dans le matin

[janitsch]

The one i was waiting for is "ooh la la" used to indicate something special, terrific. In French "oh la la la la" is more like OMG or something..almost the opposite of how Americans use it.

[enlightenedanalysis]

Merci Geraldine! A great video. A question: Is Hercule Poirot wrong to say “Mon Ami” to his friend Hastings in the Agatha Christie novels?

[nursejoed]

They do say "Bon matin" in Quebec- it's particularly charming with their diphthong...

[SabotsLibres]

On the point of correct grammar; in English we don't 'use something wrong', we use it 'wrongly' (it is an adverb and as with many, albeit not all, adverbs, it takes the adjective and adds 'ly')

[lunarmodule]

Bon matin sacrebleu ! Si le jour de la Bastille on mange trop de frites et qu'en plus on repose sa chair sur la chair, on se retrouver avec le popotin rond et bien fait !

[annepoitrineau]

un autre exemple "pas de chance", utilises par les etrangers pour "Cela ne risque pas", alors que pour nous, pas de chance=unlucky.

[sportswriter]

Chére Géraldine, mil mercis por tout tes vidéo, Amicalement

[fsinjin]

Toilette was the most disappointing to lose use of. I worked so hard to get rid of the US pronunciation. Now it’s WC, which is harder to pronounce: Du bleh vay ceh.

[Subsbench]

Can you clarify, the word bof, I thought was meant to mean like "OK", "not bad", so in your example "ouais, bof, moyen" I took to mean yeah, OK, not bad, or something like that. But the clip you showed which had the English translation translated it as "not great", which is a different meaning altogether. How is it used?

[SabotsLibres]

and how about «pas terrible» which actually means «sacrébleu, c'est terrible!!!»

[totoff]

bien fait is more like sarcasm ; if you use it it can be felt like you 're laughing at the person, like you're mocking and making fun of like a mean person would. So we dont use bien fait when talking about a persons action .

[LisaSoulLevelHealing]

I want to stay my friend. So i use mon ami 😂 what would you suggest?

[debramoss]

May I point out that the clips used are predominantly American and not British.
I don't know if you have heard of 'Only Fools and Horses' a BBC Comedy, but the main character tries to elevate his status by speaking French - badly.
Two of the phrases of exclamation, that had in a heap of laughter were, "Bonnet de douche" and "Frappez mes dents" . The latter had me aspirating my coffee.

[johnheffernan]

12:31 “It takes a long time to make friends with a french person” Ah bon! Ça n’en vaut pas la peine.

[snowstrobe]

So basically, most these words/terms are now actually English.

[katefox]

What’s a relaxed way ro say good to meet you? Or what else to say when you’re introduced to someone? In the movies it’s enchanté but got a feeling French people in this century don’t say that!

[JonathonV]

As a Canadian who learned France French before the French of his own nation, imagine my surprise (and revulsion) when I learned that « bon matin » is completely normal to hear in Québec, as well as responding « bienvenue » or « t’es le/la bienvenue » for « merci ». 😖 It just sounds so wrong to me!

There are also expressions in French that English speakers have invented to sound fancy, like « enfant terrible » or « double entendre », which aren’t (to my knowledge) actually used by French speakers.

[nicholasjagneaux]

2:09 - Americans are swearing more, too. That's a shame. It is sign - along with a degraded sense of clothing style and fashion - that our cultures are degrading to the lowest common denominator. In the effort to liberalize every thing - from language to clothing to personal behavior - we've lost the example that would elevate society to its better nature.