If you’re planning a trip to France, learning some basic French should be high on your list of things to do before you go.
But if you want to make the most out of your trip, you should take the time to learn some basic French.
Doing so will let you explore the country beyond well-known tourist areas and experience the culture more like a local would.
Importantly, you don’t need to become fluent in the language.
On the contrary, you’ll find locals more than happy to help you along once they see you’re trying to communicate in French.
Here are some of the best ways to pick up some common French vocabulary and phrases before your trip.
Simple French Basics for Beginners
Take a moment to think about an average day where you live. You’ll likely realise that few situations call for in-depth dialogues with the people you encounter.
The same will hold in your travels through France. There are just a handful of key words and phrases you’ll need to use regularly.
The three phrases you’ll use most are Bonjour, Merci, and Au revoir.
They mean hello, thank you, and goodbye, respectively.
Knowing those three simple phrases will help you every time you visit a business, museum, or café.
If you want to expand on those, consider memorising the phrase bonne journée. It’s how you tell someone to have a good day after you say goodbye.
You’ll be shocked at how warmly locals will respond to a tourist saying it.
There are some additional useful phrases you should also add to your vocabulary, which include:
- S’il vous plaît – Please
- Pardon – Excuse me / Sorry
- Où est…? – Where is…?
- Je voudrais – I would like
It’s also worthwhile to learn basics like numbers and the days of the week.
Those come in handy when you’re getting directions or speaking to locals about lodgings.
And you’ll find that knowing all these basic phrases will dramatically reduce how often you’ll need to consult a translator app during your vacation.
Moving Beyond the French Basics
Unless you’re beginning your learning journey well in advance of your trip, you likely won’t have time to master conversational French.
However, you can do some things to understand common pronunciations and cadence.
That will make it easier to pick out words you do know during conversations, so you can at least understand the context of what someone’s saying.
To do that quickly, you should seek out resources in slow French. They speak at a pace that’s slower than a native-spoken conversation. That way, you can get used to the sounds and sentence structures of spoken French.
The free podcasts section at Coffee Break French is a great place to start. They cover many of the basic words and phrases you’ve already memorised and teach you how to use them in useful sentences.
After you’ve listened to some of those, you might consider listening to Journal en français facile from RFI, which is a news program geared specifically toward beginner French speakers.
Free Online Courses and Resources
If you have more time to study French, there are some excellent free resources to help you do it. For example, TV5Monde’s “Apprendre le français” provides level-based language learning exercises.
It relies on a blend of situations pulled from the daily news and everyday French life that contextualise the language in a way that aids learning.
Listening to French-language media with subtitles can help reinforce your learning while providing some entertainment.
For that, TV5Monde’s YouTube channel is an excellent starting point. It even contains clips of children’s programming, which can help learners absorb the language quickly.
French-Canadian media is another useful option if you’re trying to pick up some French.
Radio-Canada, Télé‑Québec, and TVA typically feature clear diction and slow-paced delivery.
However, if you don’t live in Canada, some of them may not allow you to access video and audio clips. In that case, a Canadian VPN can help you bypass location restrictions and access the content you’re looking for.
It’s important to remember, however, that the French-Canadian dialect differs from traditional French. So, you shouldn’t make it the sole basis of your language learning. But no matter the dialect, the more spoken French you listen to before your trip, the better.
It will help you better adapt to the pace of native speakers, which will make using what you’ve learned much simpler.
Practising With Language Exchange Partners
If possible, you should try to practice using the language skills you’ve learned before your trip.
The simplest way to do that is to try to have a conversation with a French speaker.
Apps like Tandem and HelloTalk can help you do that. On either app, you can find French speakers who wish to learn your native language. That can eliminate some of the hesitation you may feel when trying to speak French. After all, your partner will be doing their best to speak your language, too!
Having real conversations with native speakers is the most reliable and fastest way to gain proficiency in French.
Plus, your partner can give you valuable insight into which phrases and words you can expect to use most often, besides the basics covered here.
Their insight will help you make the most of the time you have to learn before your trip.
Ideally, it will also help you feel more comfortable trying to communicate with locals once you arrive.
Enjoy Your Trip
Doing the work to learn some French before visiting France is an excellent way to ensure you have the best possible time there.
Locals will open up to you in ways that would have been impossible with a language barrier between you. And you’ll have a richer and more rewarding experience interacting with the French culture.
Beware, however, that you may have such a good time that you won’t want to leave!
