How to sound more fluent in French

10 ways to sound more natural and Québécois

I’m obsessed with the idea of speaking in a more idiomatic, natural-sounding way. Not just the “correct” French you find in textbooks, but the kind you hear in real conversations cafés across the French-speaking world.

If that’s your goal too, here’s the good news: You don’t need a perfect accent or a massive vocabulary to sound more fluent. You just need to avoid a few common habits that instantly give you away as a learner.

By paying attention to a few rules, you can make your French sound more fluent, no matter what your level is.

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How to sound more fluent in French

Photo by A K on Unsplash

1. Master the basics

As your French improves and your vocabulary increases, it’s a smart idea to revisit the basics. For example:

• Common greetings

• Talking about likes and dislikes

• Talking about what you love

• Talking about your work

• Answering simple chitchat questions, such as “How was your weekend?”

It’s too easy to revert to translating from English or another language in your head. Instead, make sure these foundations are solid. How?

Write down sample dialogues you have regularly. Double-check with your teacher.

Can you identify these mistakes?

• Tu as passé un bon week-end? Oui, c’était bon

• Je m’intéresse pour l’histoire

• Comment ça va? Oui, ça va

• Trois semaines passées, je suis allé en Espagne

Here’s what you should say instead

• Comment était ton week-end? Oui, super!

• L’histoire m’intéresse.

• Comment ça va? Ça va!

• Il y a trois semaines, je suis allé en Espagne

Even the most skilled musicians work on the fundamentals every single day. Do the same with your French.

2. Be careful with “c’est bon”

Stop saying “c’est bon” to mean "it’s okay” or “I’m okay."

• Comment ça va au travail?

• C’est bon! Ça va bien!

However, you can use “c’est bon” to mean “that works for me.”

• Peux-tu venir jeudi prochain?

• Oui, jeudi, c’est bon (Yes, Thursday works for me.)

3. Be careful with the word “oui”

Be careful not to answer “oui” to a question that starts with: “comment, quoi, etc.”

If the question is:

• Comment s’est passé ta semaine?

• Don’t answer: oui, c’était bon

• Just say: Très bien!

It will sound more fluent only to answer “oui” to a yes/no question.

Native speakers can get away with using “oui” with a particular intonation, as almost a way to pause and say “eh.” But as a French learner, it’s likely to sound different, so it’s wiser to stick with the rules and save oui for questions that require a yes/no answer.

• Est-ce que t’as aimé le film?

• Oui, j’ai trouvé ça très bon.

4. Avoid saying “comment dit-on”

One of the most common phrases you'll use in French is “how do you say ____ in French?”

Since you'll be using this so often, get it right from the start!

Don’t ask a French speaker: comment dit-on?

Using inverted questions sounds outdated.

Instead, say:

• Comment on dit ça?

• Comment ça se dit?

• Comment est-ce qu’on dit?

5. Avoid using “nous”

One piece of advice I give my students who want to sound more fluent is to stop using verbs with “nous.” When you study French, you learn to conjugate every verb tense, including “nous.”

However, in conversation, using “nous” constantly is a dead giveaway that you learned your French from books, and not from real life.

In the real world, in 99% of cases, “nous” is replaced by “on,” in conversation and even in business settings.

For example, instead of saying:

• Nous avons passé un bon week-end

You could say instead:

• On a passé un bon week-end

Here, “on” means “we.”

Of course, I refer to conjugating verbs with “nous.” You can use the direct object pronoun “nous,” such as in the example:

• Tu viens avec nous?

6. Avoid the double negative

Another tip to sound more natural when speaking French is to avoid using double negatives. I suggest using the double negative when learning French. When you feel you can carry on a conversation with a certain degree of fluency, you can drop the “ne.”

Remember to drop only the “ne,” not the second negative.

A common mistake made by Spanish speakers and speakers of other Romance languages, as well as people who have studied them, is that they often drop the second negative, but retain the “ne.”

• Je ne peux y aller

This is a crucial mistake to correct.

In the case of a double negative, you can only remove the “ne,” not the second negative word. You have to say, when using a simple negation:

• Je peux pas y aller

7. Don’t use inverted questions

Returning to the topic of questions, you should know that there are three ways to ask questions in French.

1. You can use an inverted question. Es-tu content?

2. You can keep the same word order, but change the inflection. Tu es content?

3. You can use est-ce que. Est-ce que tu es content?

Inverted questions are less common nowadays, especially in France. In Quebec, they are still used, but in a limited way only.

Using “est-ce que” is the best way to ask a question.

8. Use the word “ça”

I often say that the most underutilized word French learners should add to their vocabulary is “ça.”

Yes, the simple word “ça!”

For example, if the question is:

• Est-ce que tu aimes le café?

The answer can’t be:

• Oui, je l’aime!

The answer should be:

• Oui, j’aime ça!

So, when do you use the article and when do you use “ça”?

Generally, the idea is to use “ça” whenever there could be confusion in meaning, or to talk about something in general, not something specific.

For example, say:

• Je l’aime (I love him/her)

But to say you love something, you say: J’aime ça.

• Est-ce que t’aimes la pizza?

• Oui, j’aime ça! J’adore ça!

9. Don’t end a sentence with a number without doing this

Generally, you can’t end a sentence in French with a number.

For example, if you’re buying oranges at the market, you can’t say:

• Je veux trois

You have to say either:

• Je veux trois oranges

• J’en veux trois

The word “en” is complicated to use, but here, it refers to quantity. The best way to start using it is never to end a sentence with a number. Always precede the verb with “en.”

10. Know your indirect pronouns

One of the first grammar points you should work on is indirect object pronouns.

A common mistake is to say:

• Je vais donner à elle

You have to say, for both genders:

• Je vais lui donner

Lui is the indirect object pronoun for masculine and feminine.

Leur is the other indirect object pronoun to remember. It means to them.

• Je vais leur donner

  I will give it to them

The other indirect pronouns are the same as the direct object pronouns.

• Tu vas me le donner

• Je vais te le donner

• Je vais vous le donner