7/29/2019 Top Intermediate French Mistakes

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French Language

By Laura K. Lawless, About.com Guide

Top 10 Intermediate French MistakesCommon French mistakes made by intermediate-level students

After learning French for a while, whether in a class or on your own, you've probably found that there are some things you just can't figure out how to say, orthat people are always correcting you on. These may be issues that you haven't been taught yet, or concepts that you've studied but just don't get. As anintermediate French speaker, there is still plenty of time to fix these mistakes before they fossilize in your mind. Here are ten of the most commonintermediate-level French mistakes with links to lessons.

French Mistake 1 - Y and En

Yand en are known as adverbial pronouns - they replace the preposition or de plus a noun, respectively. They consistently cause problems for intermediateFrench speakers, though I'm not sure whether this is because they are not adequately taught in French classes, or simply because they are difficult to master.Regardless of the reason for the difficulties, the fact is that both yand en are extremely important in French, so be sure to study this lesson.Y and En | French prepositions

French Mistake 2 - Manquer

The French verb manquer(to miss) is a tough one because the word order is the opposite of what you probably expect. For example, "I miss you" translatesnot asje te manque but rather tu me manques (literally, "you are missing to me.") Once you understand the proper French word order, you'll never miss thisone again.

Manquer | Regular -ER verbs

French Mistake 3 - Le Pass

French past tenses are definitely tricky. Thepass compos vs imparfaitissue is a constant struggle until students truly understand each of these tenses andthe differences between them. There's also the matter of thepass simple, which needs to be understood but not used. Get past this confusion with theselessons.Imparfait | Pass compos | Pass compos vs Imparfait | Pass simple

French Mistake 4 - Agreement

Agreement of adjectives and tre verbs may seem pointless and aggravating, but it's part of the French language and needs to be learned. There are severalkinds of agreement; the ones intermediate students really need to watch out for are agreement of adjectives with the nouns they modify, and agreement ofthe past participle oftre verbs with their subjects in thepass compos and other compound tenses.

Adjective agreement | tre verbs | Compound tenses

French Mistake 5 - Faux amis

There are thousands of French words that look a lot like English words, and while many of them are true cognates (i.e., mean the same thing in bothlanguages), a lot of them are false cognates. If you look at the word actuellementand think "Aha! That's the French translation of actually," you're going tomake a mistake, because it actually means "currently."Actuellementand hundreds of other faux amis are explained on my site, so take the time to learn themost common ones and thus avoid common pitfalls.Vrais amis | Faux amis

Beginning French Mistakes 1 - 5 | Beginning French Mistakes 6 - 10Intermediate French Mistakes 1 - 5 | Intermediate French Mistakes 6 - 10High-Intermediate French Mistakes 1 - 5 | High-Intermediate French Mistakes 6 - 10

Advanced French Mistakes 1 - 5 | Advanced French Mistakes 6 - 10

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http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/pron_adverbial.htm1.http://french.about.com/library/weekly/bltopicsub-prep.htm2.

http://french.about.com/library/weekly/aa081900.htm3.http://french.about.com/library/weekly/aa101199.htm4.http://french.about.com/library/weekly/aa010200.htm5.

http://french.about.com/library/weekly/aa010100.htm6.http://french.about.com/library/weekly/aa060799.htm7.http://french.about.com/library/weekly/aa122999.htm8.

http://french.about.com/library/begin/bl_adjectives.htm9.

http://french.about.com/library/weekly/aa082399.htm10.http://french.about.com/library/weekly/aa102000.htm11.

http://french.about.com/library/vocab/bl-vraisamis.htm12.http://french.about.com/cs/vocabulary/a/falsecognates.htm13.

http://french.about.com/od/mistakes/a/beginning.htm14.

http://french.about.com/cs/beginning1/a/mistakes_2.htm15.http://french.about.com/od/mistakes/a/intermediate_2.htm16.

http://french.about.com/od/mistakes/a/intermediate_3.htm17.

http://french.about.com/od/mistakes/a/intermediate_4.htm18.http://french.about.com/od/mistakes/a/advanced.htm19.http://french.about.com/od/mistakes/a/advanced_2.htm20.

Intermediate French Mistakes http://french.about.com/od/mistakes/a/intermediate.htm?p=1

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