Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

FRENCH

How France could make learning French easier

Let's imagine for a moment France decided to make learning French easier for Anglos in a bid to get more people speaking their language. What could the language guardians at the Académie Français do to make it simpler for us? Here's ten ideas.

Published: 21 October 2014 12:33 CEST
How France could make learning French easier
How learning French could be so much easier. Photo: Shutterstock

Imagine if the so-called “Immortals” at the Académie Française – the famed guardians of the French language – had a dramatic change of heart.

Instead of trying to protect the French language by banning English words, the Académie decides to change tactics and make it simpler for us notoriously linguistically-challenged Anglos to learn their tongue, by removing some of the main hurdles.

We asked the IASLFF – International Association of Struggling Learners of French in France, which happens to be based in The Local's office in Paris, to come up with a list of ten ways the folk at the Académie could help us out. Would you add anything else to their report?

Ten ways France could make learning French much easier

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

French Word of the Day: alors

Stumped by what this extremely common French word actually means? Et alors? -- Now you've got the perfect opportunity to find out.

Published: 17 September 2019 20:55 CEST
French Word of the Day: alors
Image: Depositphotos

Why do I need to know alors?

French speakers pepper conversation with alors all the time. It's one of those words that you can go by years without knowing exactly what it means, but will make you sound a lot more natural when you talk. 

What does it mean?

Alors has several meanings. 

It can be used to mean 'then' or 'in that case'. For example, Si tu sais conduire, alors tu peux prendre la voiture. (If you can drive, then you can take the car.)

Or it can mean 'so', 'well' and in informal conversation, 'so then'. 

For example Alors, raconte ce qui s'est passé! (So, tell me what happened!/Well? Tell me what happened!)

Or, Alors, ton nouveau voisin, il est comment? which means 'So then, what's your new neighbour like?'
 
Alors can also be used as part of an expression, such as in the case of Ça alors! which is used to express shock and is the equivalent of 'goodness!', 'my goodness!' and 'goodness me!', or even 'well,well!' in English. 
 
Or you might hear someone shout in an exasperated manner Merde alors! which means 'For crying out loud!' or 'For goodness' sake!'
 
Another common expression including alors is Et alors? which means 'So what?' and is often said in a sarcastic tone. 
 
For example you might say Tu n'y crois pas? Et alors? (You don't believe it? So what?)
 
How is it pronounced?
 
Remember to make sure you can hear that French 'r' when pronouncing alors. 
 
Here's a YouTube video to help you pronounce it perfectly. 
 
For more Swiss language articles, see our full list here.
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

SHOW COMMENTS