Spoken vs written French

Syllable rhythm, not word stress

English and German are stress-timed: strong syllables hit hard, weak ones get swallowed (PHOtograph, ANruf). French is syllable-timed: every syllable gets roughly the same length, like a sewing machine, ta-ta-ta-TA. The only stress comes at the end of a rhythmic group (a short chunk of meaning), with a slightly longer last syllable:

• On va au ci-NÉ / ce SOIR ?
• Je pré-pare un a-pé-RO / sur la ter-RASSE.

Tip: don't stress the first syllable of journaliste or responsabilité as you would in English. Keep it flat and lengthen only the last one: /ʒuʁnaˈlist/, /ʁɛspɔ̃sabiliˈte/.

The vanishing e (e muet)

In fast speech the unstressed e /ə/ drops whenever the consonants around it can still be pronounced:

Classic reductions

Note the voicing trick: je before a voiceless consonant (p, t, k, s, f) becomes /ʃ/: je pense /ʃpɑ̃s/, je crois /ʃkʁwa/. German speakers do the reverse assimilation all the time, so this will feel familiar.

Rule of thumb: you should understand all of these. Using chuis yourself is fine with friends, but say je suis in a meeting.

Textbook French and street French are two registers of the same language, a bit like Hochdeutsch vs relaxed Umgangssprache. The rules below are not mistakes: every French speaker, including the president off-camera, uses them.

1. On replaces nous

In speech nous as a subject is almost dead. On + 3rd person singular verb does the job, like German man but meaning we:

• On va au resto ? Shall we go to a restaurant?
• On s'est bien amusés hier. We had a great time yesterday. (participle may agree with the real people: amusés)
• Nous, on préfère la mer. We prefer the sea. (nous survives as a stressed pronoun)

2. Ça replaces cela (and often il/elle)

• Ça marche ! That works! / Deal!
• Ça me plaît pas. I don't like it.
• Le boulot, ça va ? How's work? (topic first, then ça, like German Die Arbeit, wie läuft's?)

3. Ne disappears

The real negation word is the second part. Je sais pas. C'est pas grave. On a rien mangé. Il vient plus. You will still see ne in all writing, news and formal speech.

4. Contractions: t'as, t'es, y a

T'as and t'es are also written like this in texts and chats.

5. Questions without inversion

Inversion (Où allez-vous ?) is for writing and formal speech. In conversation, keep normal word order and just raise your voice, with the question word often at the end:

Note: que becomes quoi at the end. Tu fais que ? is impossible.

6. Everyday slang (le langage familier)

• Il est sympa, ton mec. Your boyfriend is nice.
• J'ai trop de boulot. I have too much work. (trop = very / too much, used everywhere)
• C'est quoi, ce truc ? What is this thing?

Careful: familier is fine with friends and colleagues of your age. In a job interview, an email to a client or with your landlord, switch back to standard French (lesson 38).

Spoken French loves to chop off the end of long words, just like English lab, ad, fridge or German Uni, Kita, Abi. Usually you keep the first two syllables; often an -o is added (apéro, dico). The clipped word keeps the gender of the full word and takes a normal plural -s (des restos).

In chats: SMS French

You'll read these on WhatsApp: slt (salut), stp / svp (s'il te / vous plaît), bcp (beaucoup), dsl (désolé), jsp (je sais pas), pk (pourquoi), mdr (mort de rire = LOL), A+ (à plus).

Traps

• la pub is not a pub (that's un bar); it means advertising.
• le bac = the school-leaving exam (Abitur), from baccalauréat.
• Gender follows the full word: la météo (météorologie), la photo, la moto (motocyclette), even though they end in -o.
• sympa takes a plural -s: Ils sont sympas.