La French Touch!
Make friends with “Faux amis”
Faux amis (pronounced fo.z‿a.mi). The classic definition of a false friend is; a pair of words in different languages or dialects, that look similar and may be related but that differ significantly in meaning. I always encourage my students to recognise the fact that...
Not my “Cup of Tea”
In most anglophone countries, there is little that can not be solved by a “cup of tea”; “une tasse de thé”. Tea may not be quite as popular in France or indeed may not be to everyone’s “taste” - “not my cup of tea”; “C’est pas mon genre” (He/she not my cup of tea. Il...
French; The language of love
The language of love may be universal, but ultimately it is best demonstrated in French! French is often considered to be the most romantic language in the world. It is a flowing, elegant and sonorous language that of course originates from Latin. It is because...
History of the French Language
French is spoken by an estimated 274 million people in the world! It’s an official first or second language of 29 countries across several continents. French is one of the main languages of international communication and it has been for centuries. It is...
6 Top Tips to Learn French
We won’ t lie to you, the French language can be tricky to master. Even Emmanuel Macron, our head of state, recently made not one, but two, grammatical errors when writing in the book of condolences for the late Charles de Gaulle’s 50th-anniversary...
Les Gros Mots
Literally translated as “big words”; “les gros mots” means swear words in French. And there are many of them in French, as there are in all languages. Sometimes they can acceptable, but in the wrong context, with the wrong inclination they can be extremely rude. For...
Give us our daily bread!
French bread is a serious business, bordering on a religion, shortages are what stirred the famous revolution. As such the baguette, could easily be considered the unofficial symbol of France. Did you know that there is even a French bread law! This states that...
Embracing French
Learning and understanding a language is only part of it process. It is not just about learning vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. It is also about the inflections, timing, gestures and references that can make all the difference to a sentence and situation. Often...
