I searched on internet and found out that it should not be done. But I didn't find out why, as 'u' is vowel. So what's the rule here? (e.g. tu aimes / t'aimes. Tu habites/ t'habites) And if you know other important facts and rules about Élision which are not mentioned a lot then please feel free to share !

Edit: Thank you to each one of you who took time to answer my question. Each answer was very helpful and I now have gotten clear about the case of 'tu' and Élision. I am glad and feel lucky to receive help from such a lovely community. Frankly speaking it's hard for me to thank everyone individually on each comment thats why i addressed each of you through this edit :)

I want to read and improve since I'm a beginner and I found this one website but it was seized by the US government.

I like watching French-language shows like Lupin and HPI. Are there any good French Canadian shows with a similar vibe? I watched a little of m'entends-tu? but I was looking for something a bit lighter. Merci!

Bonjour !

I have a quick question about the preposition that follows the verb tenter. I was under the impression that it always took de—for example: j’ai tenté de vous appeler.

But then I came across this sentence:

On a tout tenté pour le sauver.

I tried searching online to understand what grammatical mechanism allows for tenter pour instead of tenter de, but I couldn’t find anything.

Would anyone be able to explain what’s going on here?

Thanks in advance!

I recently joined this subreddit. I'm a Muslim Lebanese who can only speak Arabic and English, but my Lebanese peers and Friends speak French and I feel left out and I've been wanting to dip my toes into learning French and maybe start pursuing it to become fluent in it.

What are ways I can start ways into learning French for free right now and how far can I go with the knowledge until I decide to start investing into the language to further improve my skills in French like writing as well?

I hope that I don't sound dumb but I wanted to ask you guys because I like to gather your knowledge, mistakes and your support into this and what the best thing to do without instantly losing interest fast.

Funny thing to mention, I'd also want to learn French because one of the rappers I listen is Zola (French rapper) but that's not my main motivation, just for fun so I'd like to use him as a scale to know where I am at in understanding French in a fun way too.

Thank you for taking your time in reading this and I appreciate your support! <3

I have decided to enroll for a course at Alliance Francaise as I have been living for a couple years in Belgium, but never bothered learning French as my university courses are all in English, and to a certain degree the vocabulary and the sound of the language is similar to my native language, so I was always able to find a way to communicate in my daily life. I have recently done my placement test and from what they told me I got B1.2 and they suggest taking the B2 level. But honestly the grammar part and the verb’s conjugation was a nightmare. I could barely do anything, thankfully vocabulary, listening and mcq got me a higher level. I am afraid B2 level would be too advanced as I am looking for a course that helps me with my grammar and speaking, but maybe it isn’t. Anyone here that studied at Alliance Francaise could help me?

Speaking first and then other parts?

Is it usually used as the possessive "their"? My french dictionary shows it as the pronoun "them" as well. Should you always use ils / elles in sentences like this?

This is for linguistic nerds mostly. Or those who really want to reach a perfect pronunciation.

This vowel chart shows the actual realization of my vowels, based on an audio analysis with Praat. I am from the Paris region. I realized 2 verbs ending with ai and ais to see what it gave me; they mostly align with é and è.

The 2nd image is a representation of the graph that simplifies it and gives indication on what words use what sound (which also indicates how I transcribe the sound on the chart). It's actually a graph that I had made before, but I updated it based on what Praat gave me.

I can re-summarize how French vowels work like this:

There are 3+1 levels of heights. "a" is the lowest vowel, and it is central.

We have 3 unrounded front vowels, 3 rounded front-central vowels, and 3 rounded back vowels, with 3 levels of heights. Additionally, we have 3 nasal vowels. "in/un" is a nasalized form of "a" (central), "on" is a nasalized form of "ô", and "an/en" is a nasalized form of a back "a", or maybe of "o".

In my native language, we always say “bless you” when someone sneezes. One time, when I was in French class, someone sneezed and my friend said “à tes souhaits” to the person who had sneezed (we talk to each other in French in class). Our teacher briefly smiled after this interaction. After that, I paid attention and noticed that he smiled every time when someone said “à tes souhaits” to one another. I was wondering if this was because of a cultural difference. Is it not common to say bless you to someone in French?

I'm looking for books by authors Yves Meny and Edward Said (politique comparé et l'orientalisme) in pdf format so I can read them for uni since they're not available in my country

I'd like to read some french books of like romance and shi, it's my way to actually learn a language lmao. does anyone have recomandation of recent books? nothing too complicated pls 🙏

For some reason, I’ve always struggled with saying « let me know » in French.

In Quebec, there’s « fais/faites moi savoir. » Everywhere (I believe), you can say « tien/tenez moi au courant », but for some reason this one I don’t hear very often and so I feel a bit apprehensive using it. I also wonder if it’s a tad more formal?

But I’ve heard « tu me dis » and « tu me diras » quite a lot. I’m starting to wonder if maybe this is a more common way of saying let me know?

Other post got me thinking. I make a lame joke saying "bless me" when I sneeze, mostly because it annoys my wife and slightly amuses me. Does "a mes souhaits" accomplish this similarly? If not, what would you recommend?

This distinction French makes between savoir and connaître, I just don't get it. Both translate to "know" in English, and it's confusing. I've looked up some explanations and I feel like I am somehow stupid because I can't seem to keep it in my brain

How do you all split the difference between these verbs with similar meanings?

J'adore dire oulaloulalilalô quand j'en ai besoin ! Oulaloula parfois. Qu'avez-vous créé comme phrase ?

j’entends tout le temps à l’écrit et à l’oral l’expression « encore heureux que (tu fais/il fait etc)… » et j’ai rien compris, est ce qu’il est un peu ironique ou sarcastique ? genre comme « oui trop bien que ça existe » ? est ce que quelqu’un peut m’expliquer le contexte dans lequel tu l’utiliserait ? merci xx

I've been studying french lazily for around 2 years but have recently started to be more involved, and am now filling in gaps in my knowledge. I have a b1(ish) level of vocabulary, I do not struggle with listening or speaking for my level, but I just cannot manage writing. I'm good with tenses, but I dont understand prepositions. I can't tell when itll be À, au, en, de, etc. Also, i'm not sure if this is anything to do with prepositions, but the phrase 'j'en' blows my mind every time. Most times i see it its in a sentance of 'j'en ai' .. i have no idea what this means and i just cant understand it no matter how many lessons i do. j'ai = i have, but when the 'en' goes in my mind goes blank. EG. 'j'en ai l'envie' - why is 'en' there??? please someone try explain or if anyone has any tricks to remember these, it'd be hugely appreciated.

hi! can someone please explain the meaning of/differences between/usage of “qu’est-ce que”, “qu’est-ce qui”, “qui est-ce qui”, and qui est-ce que”? I’m sooo confused and lost. I’m trying to understand, and I just can’t.

Can anyone please explain to me why the answer to the first blank in the exercise is «elle revenait d’Algerie» and not «elle était revenue d’Algerie»?

I’m normally pretty good at identifying tenses, but I’m feeling a bit stumped with this one.

if you’re someone with a different native language, when you became fluent what changed for you like how did you realise you were fluent?

idk if that make sense but like for example, when im watching tv in english i dont have to fully pay attention to get the gist of whats going on. but in french i have to pay attention to every word so i can translate it in head. so im wondering if when you’re fluent do you still have to filter everything through english? or do you just hear the french and understand it without making the switch from english to french?

I'm learning French in anticipation of meeting my French-American boyfriend's French family in 6 months. I just started and I'm using the apps Duolingo and Busuu daily and listening to the podcast Coffee Break French a few days a week. I recognize that having a native speaker who is willing to help me learn (for free!) is a privilege and I don't want to squander it, so I'm wondering what the best "use" of my boyfriend is. He wants to be helpful but isn't a natural teacher, so I need to present him with specific asks for assistance. We can't have conversations yet because I barely know the language. Some ideas of "games" I've had so far are: - point at things and ask "what's ___ in french" - try to say every number I see in French, and ask him to say numbers in French to me

Any other suggestions? Thanks for any help, and sorry if this is a weird question!

Edit: thanks for all the suggestions! This is super helpful. Merci!

How long did it take you become one? What’s the pay and work like?

I’m signed up for the Middlebury immersion program this summer and hope to make a career change into interpretation/translation.

I have a BA in French but haven’t done anything with the language for 10 years.

Anglophone ici. J'ai une petite question au sujet de cette tournure de phrase. Mon collègue utilise souvent les mots « machin truc » ensemble pour décrire une chose qui n’a pas besoin d'être décrite. Parfois, il les met à l’envers : « truc machin. » Je suis trop gêné pour lui demander de quoi il parle, donc j’ai eu l’idée de venir ici pour trouver une définition. Merci d'avance !