Transcript

Are you doing Christmas in Paris? Are you? Are you doing Christmas in Paris this year?

If you say "excusez-moi?", the person will naturally understand that you're asking them to repeat themselves. These expressions sound a little more natural in French than "pouvez-vous répéter?

Hi everyone, I hope you're feeling well and motivated for this new French lesson. Today, we're going to look together at some words or expressions to use when you don't understand someone speaking, or when you can't hear someone speaking and want to ask them to repeat themselves.

You may ask someone to repeat something simply because you didn't hear, or because the person is speaking too softly, or because there's noise around, or because you simply didn't understand the words they used.

Perhaps you've learned at school or from books to use the expression "can you repeat, please?" "Could you repeat that, please?" Or even more politely, "Could you repeat that, please?"

Could you repeat that, please? Of course, these expressions are completely correct. We'll understand you, and grammatically, they're correct. But they're not expressions that the French will naturally use.

So today we're going to look at some formal, polite expressions to use instead of "can you repeat please?" And at the end of the video, we'll look at some more informal, colloquial expressions to use with your friends when you want to ask them to repeat something.

So, the first expressions we're going to look at, you can use them in a restaurant, at the bakery, with the ticket inspector on the train, for example. You can really use them with anyone. These expressions will sound a little more natural in French than "pouvez vous répéter?".

The first is pardon? Pardon? For example, if you're at the bakery and you ask for "a croissant please", and the baker says something to you and you don't understand, you can simply say "pardon?".

And then she'll repeat. For example, "Would you like anything else?" With strangers, you can also use the expression "excuse me".

If you say "excuse me", the person will naturally understand that you're asking them to repeat themselves. And it's the same with forgiveness. When you say "I'm sorry" to someone in this context, the person will naturally understand that you're asking them to repeat yourself. At the supermarket, for example, you're at the checkout and the cashier says something to you and you don't understand. Would you like a bag? Excuse me? Would you like a bag? Ah yes, thank you.

If you're on first-name terms, either because it's someone you know, such as a colleague, or if you're in a situation where someone is on first-name terms with you, for example, this can happen in bars in Paris. To be a little cool, a little friendly, the waiter may say "tut" to you. Then you'll be on first-name terms too. And instead of saying "excuse me? you can say "excuse-moi" to ask the person to repeat himself.

So, for example, if you're in a bar and the waiter says "do you want to pay cash or card?" And you don't understand, you can reply "Excuse me?"

He will then repeat, "Do you want to pay with cash or card?"

Finally, one last expression, always very polite, a little more colloquial in my opinion, but you can use it with just about anyone because it's still quite polite. It's simply using the word "how".

For example, if your colleague asks you a question and you don't understand, you can say "how?" He'll then repeat. Do you want to get something to eat, or have you already brought your lunch? How? Did you bring your lunch yet, or do you want to go out and buy a sandwich?

Let's move on to informal expressions. These are colloquial expressions. Do not use them with people you do not know.

With your friends, who you talk to informally, you can use the words we're going to look at. So, if you don't understand something, you can say "what did you say?"

"You said what?" Or even you can simply use "what".

If you simply say "what?", the person, your friend, will understand that he has to repeat. Do you want to have pizza tonight? What? Do you want to have pizza tonight? Ah yes, with pleasure! Have you heard from Christophe? What did you say? Have you talked to Christophe lately?

Even more informal, you can simply say "huh" huh.

I'm sure you've heard French people use this word, this interjection. Do you do Christmas in Paris? Huh? You're doing Christmas in Paris this year? Ah. Yes, I'm doing Christmas in Paris. You can also simply say "I didn't understand" or "What did you say?"

What's more, "What did you say?" can sometimes be transformed into "What did you say?

So there's the "que" that we forget to pronounce. Are you hungry? Are you? What did you say? Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat? Ah yes, I'm super hungry.

That's it for today. I hope you've enjoyed this video, and that you've been able to learn some new expressions that will come more naturally to French people in France.

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See you soon!