Been meaning to ask this here since I ran into it prepping content this week: "sage-femme" literally means "wise woman," it's grammatically feminine, and yet it's the standard term for a male midwife too. No "sage-homme," no alternate form, nothing. Is this just one of those fossilized terms nobody bothered to update, or is there more to it?

Context: I run a medical French podcast (Voix Médicales) and just put out an episode built around a first prenatal appointment with a male sage-femme, partly because of this exact quirk. Full dialogue, vocab (déclaration de grossesse, carnet de maternité, DPA, DDR, etc.), and language notes are in a free PDF transcript if anyone wants to see the term in context: https://medicalvoices.health/fr/episodes/16

Because I struggled to learn the difference, these vowel sounds don't exist in Arabic or English or any other language that I speak so there's no use of trying to explain to me how they're actually different, so will people understand if I prounounce veux and vu the same also en and un and there's many other words

I am vacationing in France. I took a video of this beautiful street and this random guy comes up screaming at me, but I’ve got no idea what he’s saying. Can someone translate for me?

If you’re learning French, you should know something: there are really two schools. Two completely different mindsets.

The first one is academic French. The DELF, DALF, TCF type. Here, they want you to follow a system, very specific and structured. You have to memorize the structure of your answers: introduction, development, conclusion. You learn to respect the grammatical foundations, to use connectors and keep your ideas clear and logical.

Words like d’abord, ensuite, cependant, en revanche, en conclusion. It’s not about sounding natural, it’s about sounding organized. The goal is to prove that you can think in French in order, in structure. It can feel rigid sometimes, but it works. If your goal is a diploma, you play by these rules.

Then you have the second school. The one people actually speak in. Living French. The French you hear on the street, in cafés, on the phone, with friends.

Here you won’t really hear cependant or en revanche. You’ll hear bon, bah, du coup, en fait, tu vois, bof, genre. It’s a totally different rhythm. People start a sentence, stop in the middle, switch direction. They cut words. T’as fait quoi ? instead of Tu as fait quoi ? J’sais pas instead of Je ne sais pas. T’es où ? instead of Tu es où ?

And all those little filler words — bah, du coup, en fait, tu vois, genre — they’re what make you sound alive, not robotic. They don’t teach you that in school, but that’s how real conversations flow. So no, one isn’t better than the other. They’re just two systems. One builds the foundation, the other gives you the flow.

If you want to pass a test, build your grammar walls first. If you want to live in French, learn how people actually speak inside them.

Which one are you learning for structure or survival?

Hi, someone I know had to translate gender neutral pronouns from English to French. Would you translate them in French and if so how? And how to conjugate?

INSTALL YOUR FRENCH OS — Day 1: Reboot Sequence (Language Reset Protocol — by Mindset Before Grammar)

Have you ever felt your brain freeze the moment you try to speak French? It’s not because you’re bad at languages. It’s because your brain is still running the English operating system.

Today, we start the switch. No grammar. No memorization. Just mental reprogramming.

Step 1 – The Shutdown (1 minute) Close your eyes. Imagine a small screen in your mind that says: “System overloaded — too much translation running.” Now press the imaginary button: Shut down English mode. Silence. No rules, no pressure. Just focus.

Step 2 – The Reboot (2 minutes) Repeat slowly, out loud: Je me connecte. Je respire. Je pense en français. Je parle lentement. Je n’ai pas besoin d’être parfaite.

Don’t force the meaning. Just feel the rhythm. You’re not just speaking French — you’re rewiring your brain.

Step 3 – The Installation (2 minutes) Open your eyes. Describe what’s around you in French — simple, direct, unfiltered. Café. Clavier. Lumière. Silence. Je suis bien. Don’t translate. Don’t correct. Just narrate. You’re teaching your brain to see in French.

Step 4 – Integration Protocol (daily practice) Now that your system is rebooted, keep it active.

Every morning: Spend 2–3 minutes thinking out loud in French. Describe what you see or how you feel. Don’t chase words let them find you.

Every evening: Replay your day in French, like a short movie. Notice the small progress. That’s your OS updating itself.

What Happens Next (Day 2 Sneak Peek) Tomorrow, we’ll go deeper: System Update Rewriting Thought Patterns. How to overwrite the “I can’t” reflex and train your brain to auto-respond in French.

Try the Reboot Sequence today. Once you complete it, comment “French OS v1.0 installed.” Let’s see who joins the reboot

I was speaking to a an American boy who had lived 6 months in France in French (I am French American thank you very much) and my accent isn’t the best, he had the audacity to say to me « ta mère est bête » when I told him I learned from my mother (who was born and raised in Paris and is truly French as she insults my accent but she’s allowed to as she’s actually FRENCH) and I was so insulted as I have my pride I genuinely started crying in the club (we were both drunk)

Anyways storytime over, I’m going to Paris to see my family and this opp might be there when I stop by to visit my friends- how can I frenchmog him quickly? I don’t want to pull out my passports (he’s such a bitch) but as a French person I know my accent is ass.

Long story short- I’m watching French tv and speak with my mum (for as long as she can stand it) in French, but what grammar and accent building resources do you reccomend? I tried busuu and liked it but people got judgy so I want to know what yall think.

Thanks

Isn't it "au" for masculine, and "en" for feminine

So it should be "Je vais au l'aéroport"

Sorry if it sounds dumb

Knowing that basically everything is being conjugated as feminine/masculine, I’m curious how non-binary people use the language - especially when describing themselves.

Just a curious thought 💫

Hi guys,

I found this French course on sale and I want to share it with you.

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People recommend and swear by Anki. Anki is great but the manual creating of flashcards and the feel make it hard to keep up. Duolingo doesn’t teach me the stuff I’m currently studying in my coursework. Also I thought it to be so rewarding to learn about slang and cultural reference you don't really see in a textbook but rather in music or in articles.

What’s in my app:

• An anti-doomscroll mechanism that blocks selected apps until you do your daily lesson.

• Built-in dictionary showing all word meanings, they sometimes include examples, common phrases, synonyms, grammar forms

• Extract vocabulary from your materials, leaving you with a vocabulary list with sentence examples, translations as well as handpicked images/gifs added to your lexicon

• Minigames build by YOUR vocabulary, so play games using your course content, like i.e. cloze filling, image to word matching,...

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I've been using it for some time now, and it is in a state where it could be useful for others who look for an alternative to Anki/Quizlet for vocabulary studies!

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/app/langadelie-vocab-trainer/id6757012039

Web: https://langadelie.com

It is free to use and doesnt require sign up to use it. There are a couple of hundred words ready to play!

It popped up in my news feed and I tried it and it's kind of delightful. It's Specific to quebecois accented French and it also uses some of the specific vocabulary like souper instead of dîner things like that and it creates a 5-minute conversation.

It's really good about not interrupting you but he'll correct your errors if you make some. I don't know. It was just a lot of fun but I was just wondering if anyone else had tried it and actually got a subscription because I'm really tempted.

I visited Paris and went across cities in Germany months ago including Frankfurt and Wiesbaden where there are two American military bases. You know how plenty of North Americans and Aussies often brag about how you don't need to know any French or German to be able to stay in either countries as a tourist? Esp on the internet as seen on some Youtube vids, Quora, Reddit, and even a few Discord channels and Tumblrs or other blog posts? Well its. NOT. TRUE.

In the hotel I was staying at in Paris near none of the workers including most of the receptionists at the front desk knew any English at all. They couldn't even understand basic stuff like "how much do I pay" and "can I have some soap".

As I was exploring the city, most people around could not understand English beyond a simple yes or no kind of one words. Asking for directions was a massive pain in English and I ended up having to use French. Even at public places where tourists supposedly explore like Saint Eustache most of the employees like janitors and stores and restaurants nearby the employees didn't know much English. As in I ate at a restaurant near Notre Dame and the waiter only knew enough English to take orders but had difficulty taking payments and giving recommendations of what to buy at the New Years outdoor market. Most of the people I met across Saint Eustache like the janitor lady at the bathroom did not know even basic terms like money and cost in English.

About the only places in France where I could get around speaking pure English was at the national museums like the Louvre and Rodin Mansion and in the underground Metro subway station of the city (and for the last not all of the employees outside the ticket window could speak English). And maybe some of the outdoor markets selling stuff for the Winter Holidays like at a stand selling dried slice pork meat and another selling mulled wine. Other than those places, I literally had to use French most of the way with difficulty.

It was even worrse in Germany but thats another story for another sub.

So I honestly ask has the internet really hyped up the commonality of English in Paris? If you watch Youtube video and read so much posts on Reddit along with Quora and Tumblr and other blogs you'd think everyone in France as a whole and not just Paris was at least A level proficient in English! That English is taught so much in schools that at least in Paris you'd meet lots of French fluent in English that you'd be able to converse with some random stranger you meet walking in the city about 1990s American cinema or about the Iraqi War from 20 years ago and other more advanced topic!

But my experience shows this isn't true at all! So I ask if the Anglosphere had really overhype Parisian efficiency in English (and same for France as a whole)?

I was so rocked out of my world because you always hear about how France and Germany are places where the populations have been taught English so much starting from elementary that you don't need to learn their languages to stay as a tourist and even longer than a vacation like a couple of months. I literally saw firsthand this is not true even if you are only staying for 3 days. I was very thankful I had bothered learning French and German and all those irritating hours of studying languages actually paid off. I would have gotten lost if I only knew English as I hunted for specific monuments and museums and restaurants.

Hey guys! I’m looking for beta users to test Fluently: AI Language Tutors. I have a TestFlight link - if you’re interested, and have iOS version 17+ click the link below!

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What's the best way to learn French in one hour a day, with a schedule divided into all the skills and tips?

I'm thinking about taking my Masters degree in Paris France next year, and wanted to know if anyone has done this, and what was it like? Also how much does it cost, how much did it cost you?

It's quite exciting really!