When you’re in France, sometimes, you encounter problems.
Not necessarily big ones.
I’m talking about small ones.
Small annoying ones.
Where you’d happily welcome a helping hand.
A little help from a local.
How can you politely ask for help using the appropriate, well-constructed sentence in French?
Click to watch « How to ask for help in French »:
>>> There’s a « coquille » in the video: we say « serre la main » (from « serrer ») not « sert la main » (from « servir »). Sorry for this.
Et toi ?
In what situation did you ask for help in France?
What did you say?
Did the person help you?
Share and exchange tips in the comment section with the Community.
Thanks for watching, reading, and talking to: it’s wonderful to see you all improve your French.
A très vite,
Géraldine
Oui..c’est souvent que je dois demander de l’aide a monter ma valise…et j’ai dit probablement, “s’il vous plaît, monsieur, pouvez-vous m’aider avec ma valise?” C’est correcte ou non? Merci!
Bonjour Kate,
Oui, c’est tout à fait correct !
Fabien
Comme Une Française Team
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You’ve used the word coquille to mean a typo? Is that right? I’m curious since I’ve never heard it used that way before. Merci!
Bonjour Marianne,
Oui tout à fait : une coquille est “a typo”. Coquille means “shell”.
We also say “faute de frappe”.
Geraldine, je vois que la plupart des examples employ le forme “tu-toi.” Je ne comphrends pas pourquoi c’est est correct. J’ai pense que ce n’est pas polite. Pouvez-vous m’expliquer? Merci.
Bonjour Miriam,
Thanks for your question.
Vous is the most polite form. The one you’ll use with an older person, someone higher in your hierarchy at the office, someone you don’t know…
When you use “tu” with someone, you are know this person. But you can be either polite with this person by using “s’il te plaît” and “merci” and using nice sentences.
Using “tu” doesn’t mean being impolite, at all. 🙂
Géraldine,
Dans votre dernière livraison en ce qui concerne une demande d’aide en français, vous avez commis une erreur. On ne sert (de servir) pas la main, mais on la serre (de serrer).
Arthur
Oh zut ! Oui bien sûr ! Une coquille s’est glissée dans la vidéo.
Merci Arthur de me l’avoir signalée. Je vais de ce pas glisser un erratum sous la vidéo.
Several years ago, my husband and I visited Malmaison, the home of Josephine and Napoleon. On our way back to the station to return to Paris we became hopelessly lost in a residential area. I finally spotted a middle-aged lady out for a walk. I crossed the street and rushed over to her. “Pardon, Madame,” and in my very “best’ French demanded ” Ou est la guerre?” I thought she was going to faint! She grabbed her head, turned pale and became somewhat agitated. Obviously, I had made a grand error! I had asked for the war rather than “la gare”. So I blurted out in English “Station, Madame! Station”. She recovered from the “shock” and was very gracious in getting us to “la gare”.
Bonjour Barbara,
Merci for sharing this anecdote!
Yes, some words can be very distressing. 🙂
Please excuse my misspelling typo of SIGHT”:”An incredible sight” is what I should have written~ apologies…jp
Voila~
I had a terrible experience my last day in Paris~ I needed to get myself alone to the airport,with only my metro pass(and no cash for a taxi), I had to tromp with all of my baggage- 3 bags(valise) and 2 big boxes of artwork( I was in an exhibition) on a hand truck. Quite an incredible site.I could not find my way to l’auto bus at Opera, to the airport so I stopped a woman on the street with my baggage in near tears: ” puvez vous m’aider SVP ” je voudrais trouver l’autobus de la Aeroport tout suite..je suis perdu…sniffle….?” She began to give me directions en francais, but I was distraught and could not follow so I asked here to please tell me in English, and she said in english: “oh you dont speak french, so I dont know” and then walked away… I then found some mechanics working on a metro bus at the side of the road, and proceeded to ask for help.They said I was crazy, go away, and to piss off….they were horrible..I begged them in tears to please tell me where is the bus for the airport, and one nicer man said they really did not know….It was across the street…..In my 3 months living in France I never experienced something like this from the public…I was heartbroken.
Hi Jenny,
How sad… 🙁
I hope you did recover from this bad experience and will come back to Paris again.
Merci Geraldine! naturellement! cette situation etait en seule, mais je etait etonne! ils etait y a rien comme cette Au cours de ma temps avant cette en Paris..tous le monde gentile. tres bien! Je voudrais retour de de la France tout suite! : )
ouf !
Excellent video and selection of phrases.
Before asking for help, I always begin my sentence with “excuses-moi de vows déranger…”
My understanding is that if you acknowledge that you are interrupting someone by asking a question, he/she will be more likely to help and not think you rude.
I am a fluent French speaker but I have gotten mixed results in a supermarket when asking for help with understanding a particular product or what exactly is in a can/box of some food we don’t have in the US. Either a wall goes up and the person responds with barely a sentence or I wind up in a conversation with the person about the particular food!
Hi Jacqueline,
Thanks for sharing! Yes, “Excusez-moi de vous déranger” works very well!
Have you ever thought of making a CD to use in the car, like most people today I spend an awful lot of time in traffic jams. But don’t always have the time to study, but it would be possible to do a listen and repeat in the car (last night spend 1 hr 15 mins) due to road works,
I am sure some of it would sink in my old brain.
Bonjour Gee,
Good idea! I will think about it.
Bonjour Géraldine!
Thank you for this very helpful video on how to get some help! My husband and I moved from California to Grenoble four weeks ago and we have had a lot of fun exploring the city and learning French (slowly). I studied some French in school but it is hard for me to understand people when they speak fast. We are students of the culture and we learn something new every day! I have been wondering, is there a polite way of telling someone right away that my French is very limited? I say Bonjour and can sometimes order in French but if I am asked further questions I am caught off guard and can’t think what to say. This happens almost every day. Thank you for your help!
Bonjour Emily,
You live in Grenoble too! How wonderful.
The post “Don’t speak French very well? Say it!” should help: http://www.commeunefrancais…