Top Intermediate French Mistakes

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

French Language
Top 10 Intermediate French Mistakes
Common French mistakes made by intermediate-level students
By Laura K. Lawless, About.com Guide

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, or that 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 an intermediate French speaker, there is still plenty of time to fix these mistakes before they fossilize in your mind. Here are ten of the most common intermediate-level French mistakes with links to lessons. French Mistake 1 - Y and En Y and en are known as adverbial pronouns - they replace the preposition or de plus a noun, respectively. They consistently cause problems for intermediate French 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 y and en are extremely important in French, so be sure to study this lesson. Y and En1 | French prepositions2

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" translates not as je 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 this one again. Manquer3 | Regular -ER verbs4

French Mistake 3 - Le Pass French past tenses are definitely tricky. The pass compos vs imparfait issue is a constant struggle until students truly understand each of these tenses and the differences between them. There's also the matter of the pass simple, which needs to be understood but not used. Get past this confusion with these lessons. Imparfait5 | Pass compos6 | Pass compos vs Imparfait7 | Pass simple8

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 several kinds of agreement; the ones intermediate students really need to watch out for are agreement of adjectives with the nouns they modify, and agreement of the past participle of tre verbs with their subjects in the pass compos and other compound tenses. Adjective agreement9 | tre verbs10 | Compound tenses11

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 both languages), a lot of them are false cognates. If you look at the word actuellement and think "Aha! That's the French translation of actually," you're going to make a mistake, because it actually means "currently." Actuellement and hundreds of other faux amis are explained on my site, so take the time to learn the most common ones and thus avoid common pitfalls. Vrais amis12 | Faux amis13

Beginning French Mistakes 1 - 514 | Beginning French Mistakes 6 - 1015 Intermediate French Mistakes 1 - 5 | Intermediate French Mistakes 6 - 1016 High-Intermediate French Mistakes 1 - 517 | High-Intermediate French Mistakes 6 - 1018 Advanced French Mistakes 1 - 519 | Advanced French Mistakes 6 - 1020
This About.com page has been optimized for print. To view this page in its original form, please visit: http://french.about.com/od/mistakes/a/intermediate.htm 2013 About.com, Inc. All rights reserved.

Links in this article: 1. http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/pron_adverbial.htm 2. http://french.about.com/library/weekly/bltopicsub-prep.htm 3. http://french.about.com/library/weekly/aa081900.htm 4. http://french.about.com/library/weekly/aa101199.htm 5. http://french.about.com/library/weekly/aa010200.htm 6. http://french.about.com/library/weekly/aa010100.htm 7. http://french.about.com/library/weekly/aa060799.htm 8. http://french.about.com/library/weekly/aa122999.htm 9. http://french.about.com/library/begin/bl_adjectives.htm 10. http://french.about.com/library/weekly/aa082399.htm 11. http://french.about.com/library/weekly/aa102000.htm 12. http://french.about.com/library/vocab/bl-vraisamis.htm 13. http://french.about.com/cs/vocabulary/a/falsecognates.htm 14. http://french.about.com/od/mistakes/a/beginning.htm 15. http://french.about.com/cs/beginning1/a/mistakes_2.htm 16. http://french.about.com/od/mistakes/a/intermediate_2.htm 17. http://french.about.com/od/mistakes/a/intermediate_3.htm 18. http://french.about.com/od/mistakes/a/intermediate_4.htm 19. http://french.about.com/od/mistakes/a/advanced.htm 20. http://french.about.com/od/mistakes/a/advanced_2.htm

1 od 1

4.8.2013. 1:04