Conversational French

Le français de la conversation courante

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It’s an unfortunate reality that the French you learn in school is not at all the same language as what you encounter when speaking to people in real life. The foundations are the same of course, but there are all kinds of shortcuts, informalities, and other differences that you need to be familiar with in order to carry on a conversation. Check out some resources that focus on how French is actually spoken.

Idiomatic Expressions

Idioms, or idiomatic expressions, often consist of words that make no sense when you consider their literal meaning. It’s important to study and memorize idiomatic expressions because you’ll hear them constantly. This site has detailed lessons on hundreds of French idioms (with a new one added every Friday): Lawless French expressions.

Also, take a listen to these audio articles featuring lots of idioms:

• Histoire d’animaux (idioms with animals)
• Histoires d’argent (idioms about money)
• La main dans le sac (general idioms)
• Romance au marché (food idioms)

Informal French

Speaking like a native means loosening up your grammar – just a little bit. Here are some key areas to help you speak and understand informal French:

• Informal negation
• Informal pronouns
• Informal questions
• More informalities

Pronunciation

By now you should be familiar with required liaisons, as in vous êtes. To improve your French conversations, you need to spend some time on optional liaisons, using them or not as the register of your conversation dictates.

Same deal for the e instable: knowing the rules for its optional pronunciation will help you speak more like the natives do.

French Conversations

To help you in your effort to speak and understand French as it’s actually spoken, here are some audio files and videos that feature conversational French, whether in the form of a news report, interview, phone call, commercial transaction, or friendly chat. Just click any link to access the audio or video with transcript and translation. (Explanation of levels)

Level A1
Cher journal		Entretien avec un vampire
Level A2
Dans les coulisses du Moulin Rouge		Équipe de France Paralympique 2018
Hajj		Il y a un monstre sous mon lit !
Un mauvais numéro		Mon répondeur
Petit Ours Brun fait des crêpes		Le Salon du chocolat
Level B1
6 juin 1944 : voyage à travers le temps		À quoi ça sert de recycler ses déchets ?
Au Restaurant de la Plage		Les bouchons, plaie de la route des vacances
Les cours d’anglais – Gad Elmaleh		Devant un match de foot
Divali à Vancouver		Marie Curie  (children speaking)
Menton’s Lemon Festival		Nutella : bousculades, pagaille
On va camper ce weekend		Quand je serai grand  (children)
Rosh Hashana		Soirée d’Halloween
Level B2
Allô les urgences vétérinaires ?		Les animaux en vacances
Au secours ! Je n’ai plus internet !		Autumn at the Landerneau market
Beaujolais nouveau		Le DELF-DALF en témoignages
Fête de la musique : Jack Lang		Fête des Lumières à Lyon
Les Français vus par les étrangers		Halloween in France
Héritage de Johnny Hallyday		Hommage à Louis de Funès
Taxi !
Level C1
Dix pour cent : la bonne recette		Festival des cerfs-volants
Omar Sy – Interview Cinéma		La Saint-Valentin
Le ski – Têtes à Claques		Vendée Globe
Very Low Cost Airlines		Visite de Marseille

 Also try out Lawless French Immersion, which adds a dictionary, transcript, and translation to "real-life French" videos.

Dictées

If you’re subscribed to Premium Progress with Lawless French, you can get a more intense conversational French workout with dictation exercises.

Level A1

• Au marché
• Ça ne va pas !
• Choisir le dîner
• La météo des amies

Level A2

• Bonjour
• Un mauvais numéro

Level B1

• Allô les pompiers ?
• Des révisions utiles

Level B2

• Au restaurant de la plage
• Laissez un message
• Recommendations en vacances

Level C1

• J’ai besoin d’aide, Docteur
• Je n’ai plus d’argent

 Related features

• French speaking tips
• Finding people to talk to
• What is fluency?

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