In this video I show you 10 mistakes that the French make themselves. But don't worry, everyone makes French mistakes, it's normal. You have to make mistakes to progress in French and don't be afraid to speak or write in French 🙂

Transcript of the video

Hi everyone, I hope you're doing well and that your learning French is still going very well. Today we're going to take a look at 11 mistakes, 11 errors that the French often make themselves. I've already made a video on the differences between spoken and written French.

We'd seen that certain sentence formulations were accepted orally. It was just a little less chic, a little less sustained language. Here, today, we're really going to see some real mistakes made by the French themselves.

Before you start, remember to enable subtitles. It will be easier for you to understand the video. If you are new, subscribe to the channel to receive all my videos.

Let's start right away with the first mistake, the first error that the French often make when speaking. "La voiture à papa". This is a mistake. You don't say "la voiture à papa". You should say "la voiture de papa".

This error has gradually become part of everyday language, but if you hear this formula, for example, "c'est le parapluie à Sarah" or "c'est le jouet à Thomas", it's a mistake. When you have two nouns in a row and you want to show belonging, you should always use the word de to link the two nouns. So, "Dad's car", "Sarah's umbrella", "Thomas's toy". Let's move on to the second mistake.

"I've been to the movies". This is a mistake. You should use the verb to be, not the verb to have. You should say "I went to the cinema". This is a very common mistake in everyday language. I know myself that it's a mistake I can make. If you're on the move, if you're going somewhere, you should use the verb to be and not the verb to have. I'll say I went to the beach with a friend this afternoon.

There's a notion of movement. "I went somewhere". You can't say "I went to the beach with a friend". Another example might be "I went to the supermarket" to do my shopping this afternoon. You wouldn't say "I went to the supermarket to do my shopping this afternoon". That's a mistake, just as you're going somewhere is the verb to be.

The following error is a very common one, heard in almost every conversation. "I live in Paris" is a mistake.

You have to say "I live in Paris". A lot of people use the expression "sur" to introduce a city, as if to say "dans les environs". But this is a mistake. You say "I work in Lille", not "I work in Lille". You say "je suis en vacances à Marseille" and not "je suis en vacances sur Marseille". When you use "sur", it gives the impression that you're on a plane and about to land. I've made a video on prepositions to introduce country names and city names, and I'll put it above so you have a more detailed explanation for the "à" that introduces cities.

"Si j'aurais su, j'aurais été à l'école". In French, we say that "les si n'aiment pas les rai". Children are taught this rule when they learn conjugation at school, because we know that it's a very common mistake to use the conditional after the si, when the imperfect should be used.

"If I had known she was sad, I would have stayed with her". So we always use the imperfect tense after the "if", and in the second part of the sentence, we use the conditional tense. But remember this rule: "si's don't like rai's". So never put the conditional at the beginning of a sentence.

"As of today". You may hear this expression in your daily newspaper or on television.

That's a mistake. It's like saying "a great giant". It's called a pleonasm. It means putting two words in a row that actually mean the same thing. "As of today" doesn't work. It's just insisting on the fact that it's today. Instead, it's better to say today, now or simply, today.

I'll give you an example of a sentence with the mistake, it would be, "By now we're all confined." This is a mistake. It should read: "To this day, we are all confined" or "today, we are all confined", or "now, we are all confined".

They believe, people, believe that. This is a conjugation error. The verb to believe is conjugated in the third person plural in this way: Buddhists believe in reincarnation. We often hear: Buddhists believe in reincarnation. But this is a mistake.

This error certainly comes from the proximity between the verb to believe and to drink.

The verb to drink is conjugated in the third person plural like this: the children drink apple juice. So we're going to make the mistake of saying they believe in God, whereas no, it's a mistake, the two verbs aren't conjugated the same way, we're saying Buddhists believe in reincarnation.

I'm going to the hairdresser. This is a mistake. We say je vais chez le coiffeur. We only use au to introduce places. When we want to introduce someone's name, a person, a profession, we always use chez. Here's an example to help you understand. I'm going to the hairdresser's, but I'm going to the hairdressing salon. The hairdressing salon is a place, not a person, so we say "au".

But the hairdresser is a person, it's a profession, so we say "at". We say I'm going to the cinema, but I'm going to the butcher's, I'm going to the doctor's, but I'm going to the doctor's surgery. It's a very, very common mistake in everyday language.

The next mistake is one that can only be made in writing. It's about the difference between French, Français, français. The first French refers to the language, the second French refers to the country's inhabitants and the third French is an adjective used to characterize someone or something.

The word "French" isn't always capitalized.

The same goes for other language nouns that are also used to refer to a country's inhabitants or that are used as adjectives. For example, Italian, an Italian and Italian as an adjective, or Spanish, or English.

If you ask French people, it's not at all certain that they know the rule. Many French people make this mistake when writing. Let me explain the rule. When talking about the inhabitants of a country, you must always capitalize it. The French live in France. French is capitalized because it refers to the inhabitants of France. But when we're talking about language, we never capitalize it. J'apprends le français (I'm learning French) is not capitalized.

The same goes for j'apprends l'italien or j'apprends l'espagnol. And finally, the adjective we're going to use to characterize something is never capitalized either. If I say "French cheese", there's no capitalization of French. Likewise, if I say, "François eats a croissant every morning. He's so French!" There's no capitalization, it's used here to characterize him.

The next mistake is "à cause que". You may hear French speakers using "à cause que" instead of "parce que", which is of course a very big mistake.

I'll give you an example so you can understand.

I arrived late because I missed the bus. No, that's a mistake. You have to say, I arrived late because I missed the bus. I'm not going to my sister's because it's too far. This is a mistake. You have to say I'm not going to my sister's because it's too far, so the "because" doesn't exist, it never replaces because.

The next error is again a conjugation error.

The last mistake we're going to see today is: "I made this cake". This is a mistake. You have to say that I made the cake. The subject of this sentence is me. So the verb agrees with the first person. It's a fairly common mistake, in fact, to agree the verb avoir with what comes after it, i.e. with gâteau, in the third person singular.

If in doubt, replace me with I. You'll see, it's much clearer. The sentence was: I made the cake. If I say I made the cake, there's no doubt. You're not going to say "I made the cake".

That's it for today, I hope you enjoyed this video on the mistakes the French make themselves. If you liked it, don't forget to put a like or a little comment.

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