French Essentials Archives

Episode 44 – How to choose between “tu” and “vous”

12 March 2021 by Caro

Advanced, Beginners, French Essentials, Intermediate

Welcome to the forty-fourth episode of the French Blabla podcast where we will cover tips to increase your fluency while boosting your way of learning. In this episode, we’re going to talk about the intricacies of the pronouns “tu” and “vous”. Today’s title is a bit misleading and I’m sorry about that. My intent isn’t really to have a definite guide of the different uses of these pronouns, instead I would like to go deeper into the complexity of French social interactions. These two words really reflect that. Obviously, as always, I’ll give you some etiquette tips to behave like a French person, but today is more of a cultural episode.

In this Episode

Learn when you can say “tu”
The situation where “vous” is the ultimate insult
A small etiquette guide to the internet

Episode 42 – How to find natives to talk to

19 February 2021 by Caro

French Essentials, Sound like a native, Special

Welcome to the forty-second episode of the French Blabla podcast where we will cover tips to increase your fluency while boosting your way of learning. A few weeks ago, I sent you an email asking you what your biggest struggle was. The answers were overwhelming. Almost everybody asked me how to find natives to talk to. Christine for example told me “finding someone to speak French with”. David, who also answered my email, faces the same problem. “Finding opportunities to practice” he told me. I also received emails directly in my inbox asking me the same question. Today we’re going to go over some solutions we have to finally find where these French people hide. We’ll divide this episode in two parts. In the first one, we’ll explore French people favourite’s hideouts in your town. The second part will apply if you live in the heart of the countryside or in a very small town. We will need to rely on the magic of the internet. Let’s start!

In this Episode

Tips to find natives in your town
Tips to find natives online
A personal story

Episode 33 – Don’t say “yes”, use these words instead!

5 June 2020 by Caro

Beginners, French Essentials, Intermediate, Sound like a native

Welcome to the thirty-third episode of the French Blabla podcast where we will cover tips to increase your fluency while boosting your way of learning. I thought it would be interesting to continue on the topic of words to say when interacting with French people. This time, we will study how to express agreement and we will go beyond our traditional “yes”. You’ll be able to create a more active conversation and to add feelings and nuances. Stay tuned!

In this Episode

Master different ways to show agreement like a native
Add nuances and feelings through agreement
Bonus – how to call the doctor’s office

Episode 32 – Don’t say this to sound like a native

22 May 2020 by Caro

Advanced, French Essentials, Intermediate, Sound like a native

Welcome to the thirty-second episode of the French Blabla podcast where we will cover tips to increase your fluency while boosting your way of learning. We already talked about the important use of “on” vs “nous” in episode 26. If you haven’t listened to it yet, I strongly encourage you to do it because it will completely change your French. Today my catchphrase holds even more true with this episode. We are going to learn together another foundation of fluency, because what you have learnt at school is a sure way to show that you’re a foreigner. Let’s learn how to use question tags the native way. Stay tuned!

In this Episode

Master question tags like a native
Add nuances and feelings through question tags
A challenge for you to shine

Episode 30 – Do you know how to apologize like a native? Let me teach you!

21 February 2020 by Caro

Beginners, French Essentials, Sound like a native

Welcome to the thirtieth episode of the French Blabla podcast where we will cover tips to increase your fluency while boosting your way of learning. I thought it would be interesting to continue on the topic of formal phrases or words to say when interacting with French people. This episode is kind of a follow-up of episode 28, where we covered how to wish but this time we will learn how to apologize. It will be a good opportunity also to explain how to translate “I’m confused” in French. Stay tuned!

In this Episode

Every way to apologize
Stop the confusion of “I’m confused”
A challenge for you to shine

Episode 29 – Mixing “an” with “année” will be a thing of the past

7 February 2020 by Caro

Beginners, French Essentials

Welcome to the twenty-ninth episode of the French Blabla podcast where we will cover tips to increase your fluency while boosting your way of learning. The beginning of the year is the perfect opportunity to study the difference between “an” and “année”. I know that a lot of you get mixed up and don’t really understand how to choose one or the other. Today, let’s cover together a few simple rules that will make your French easier. Stay tuned!

In this Episode

The rules to choose between “an” and “année”
The rules to choose between “jour” and “journée”
A cheat sheet to download with the tips from today’s episode

Episode 26 – “On” VS “Nous” – Let the battle begin

6 December 2019 by Caro

Beginners, French Essentials, Intermediate, Sound like a native

Welcome to the twenty-sixth episode of the French Blabla podcast where we will cover tips to increase your fluency while boosting your way of learning. This episode will clear the mystery around the use of “on” vs “nous” and hopefully will change the way you talk forever. We will unveil the many secrets of “on”. After this episode, you’ll be a master. If you want to sound even more like a native, listen again to episode 15 if you’re a beginner and episode 16 if you’re intermediate or advanced. Stay tuned!

In this Episode

Tips to talk about yourself more naturally
No more confusion with “on” vs “nous”
Instantly sound like a native
A challenge for you to shine

Episode 17 – French Essentials#3 – Stop confusing Connaître and Savoir

5 December 2016 by Caro

Beginners, French Essentials, Intermediate

Welcome to the seventeenth episode of the French Blabla podcast where we will cover tips to increase your fluency while boosting your way of learning. I come back with a new episode in the French essentials series. If you haven’t checked the two other episodes, click here to end the confusion between “bon” et “bien” and here for the difference between “c’est” and “il est”. Today we will study the differences between the verbs “connaître” and “savoir”. You will also discover the magic recipe to always know which one to use. Stay tuned!

In this Episode

A magic rule to always know between your “Connaître” and your “savoir”
A special use of the verb “connaître”
A cheat sheet to download with the tips from today’s episode
A challenge for you to shine

L’heure du conte – Estula et Le passé composé et l’imparfait

22 November 2016 by Caro

Beginners, Fairytale series, French Essentials

Did you like the second part of the Fairytale series? If you’ve missed it, click here and let’s do the second part together. I hope it was helpful to you and that l’imparfait is crystal-clear. Today is the final part of our Fairytale series where we will cover the trickiest part of past tenses: how to combine le passé composé and l’imparfait together in a sentence. You will find plenty of exercises in the study guide but if you have questions, the comment section is all yours.

L’heure du conte – Les trois souhaits et l’imparfait

10 October 2016 by Caro

Beginners, Fairytale series, French Essentials

Coucou à tous,

Did you like the first part of the Fairytale series? If you’ve missed it, click here and let’s do the first part together. I hope it was helpful to you and that le passé composé is crystal-clear. Today we will focus on a new fairytale, less famous than le Petit Chaperon Rouge. With it, we will study our second past tense: l’imparfait. How we use it is very different than with our other past tense and the study guide that I made will help you practice.

TRAINING

Hosted by

Caro, your French
teacher

Coucou, moi c'est Caroline. I've been a French teacher for more than a decade now, both online and in-school. I help you speak more naturally and understand spoken French.

TRAINING

Hosted by

Caro, your French
teacher

Coucou, moi c'est Caroline. I've been a French teacher for more than a decade now, both online and in-school. I help you speak more naturally and understand spoken French.

French Essentials

Episode 44 – How to choose between “tu” and “vous”

Episode 42 – How to find natives to talk to

Episode 33 – Don’t say “yes”, use these words instead!

Episode 32 – Don’t say this to sound like a native

Episode 30 – Do you know how to apologize like a native? Let me teach you!

Episode 29 – Mixing “an” with “année” will be a thing of the past

Episode 26 – “On” VS “Nous” – Let the battle begin

Episode 17 – French Essentials#3 – Stop confusing Connaître and Savoir

L’heure du conte – Estula et Le passé composé et l’imparfait

L’heure du conte – Les trois souhaits et l’imparfait

TRAINING

Hosted by

Caro, your Frenchteacher

Coucou, moi c'est Caroline. I've been a French teacher for more than a decade now, both online and in-school. I help you speak more naturally and understand spoken French.

TRAINING

Hosted by

Caro, your Frenchteacher

Coucou, moi c'est Caroline. I've been a French teacher for more than a decade now, both online and in-school. I help you speak more naturally and understand spoken French.

French Essentials

Episode 44 – How to choose between “tu” and “vous”

Episode 42 – How to find natives to talk to

Episode 33 – Don’t say “yes”, use these words instead!

Episode 32 – Don’t say this to sound like a native

Episode 30 – Do you know how to apologize like a native? Let me teach you!

Episode 29 – Mixing “an” with “année” will be a thing of the past

Episode 26 – “On” VS “Nous” – Let the battle begin

Episode 17 – French Essentials#3 – Stop confusing Connaître and Savoir

L’heure du conte – Estula et Le passé composé et l’imparfait

L’heure du conte – Les trois souhaits et l’imparfait

Caro, your French
teacher

Caro, your French
teacher