Common French Phrases

Summary: French (Le Français) is a Romance language; that means it came from Latin, like Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, not that it is the best language for an amorous exchange.Yet, French is often thought of as the language of love , perhaps because of the images we remember of the hopelessly romantic Pepé Le Pew trying to capture a certain unfortunate black cat in the arms of his French embrace. Surprisingly, French is the second most popular language for study, the first being English. Non-native students who learn French are predominantly taught the variant known as “français neutre,” or Parisian French, which is mostly erudite and free of regional coloring. Approximately 175 million people speak French worldwide, not only in France, but also the countries of: Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Haiti, Cameroon, Canada, Chad, Congo, Gabon, Madagascar, Niger, Rwanda, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Laos, and Vietnam.

Whatever your use of French is going to be, whether for travel, vacation, or business, learn some common phrases and expressions that can help you get around, book a hotel, take a taxi, buy some aspirin, make a friend, or go to a party. These lessons are given by a native French speaker, and in each clip she speaks the phrases slowly and with the proper pronunciation.