Blog

French essential key expressions, idioms and verbs

To add to our previous lists of expressions published in our Free eMagazine French Accent Magazine where we provided some “do’s” and “don’ts” of typical mistakes that frequently result from making a direct and literal translation from English to French, we have come up with an additional list.  These common errors are what differentiate a French native speaker from a...Read More

La Rochelle: A Charming French Port that Seduces the English

When you walk around La Rochelle on the weekend and during the holidays, you are surprised to hear English spoken everywhere, along the port, in the terraces of the restaurants, in the centre of the old town, at the market. Among the 3 million visitors each year, which makes this city the third most visited after Paris, Anglo-Saxons are the most numerous. Why do they love it so much?...Read More

How to Use the French Accent Marks

How to use French accent marks, on which letters, how they affect pronunciation… This is certainly one the mysteries  of the French Language that usually puzzles many students who speak a language in which accents do not exist!  And yet, they are very important as they definitely change the pronunciation of the words, and  can  even  change  their meaning. We also give a few...Read More

Gender in French – Masculin ou féminin ?

One of the major challenges that drives many of our students crazy is that every noun has a gender in French! It has a to either masculine (masculin) or feminine (féminin). Globally, there is no specific reason for it; the determination of its gender depends very much on its origin, with the suggestion that the word refers to something which is supposed to be more masculine or...Read More

Top 6 Tips on Learning French

In this article, we would like to offer a few suggestions and tips to help you learn French efficiently. We hope you will find it useful and interesting. When learning a foreign language, we know that it can be exciting, motivating, rewarding and fun but inevitably, at times, it can also be discouraging, frustrating and difficult – it is a bit like a roller coaster. Don’t...Read More

Future Tenses in French – Future Proche, Future Simple, which one to use

The future in French can be expressed in three different ways – le futur proche (aller + infinitive form of the verb), le futur simple or even at times with le présent. The choice depends mostly on whether you are talking about a planned event which will definitely take place; or whether you are thinking about something that could eventually take place one day; or if your...Read More