10 French Fluency Shortcuts: Understanding Fast Spoken French

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Salut !

Are you struggling with fast-spoken French? Totally normal. French people speak very fast, and there are a lot of unwritten rules in spoken French that make it very difficult to understand if you’re not a native speaker.

Improve comprehension with my compilation video on understanding spoken French by dedicating 30 minutes to boosting your oral comprehension. Ready?

C’est parti.

1) Understand Fast Spoken French: Missing Letters

1 – First viewing

In the video lesson, you can see a short clip from the movie L’Auberge Espagnole (= “Pot Luck” or “The Spanish Apartment,” 2002). In the clip, a young woman named Martine talks with her boyfriend, Xavier, about an old children’s book.

L’Auberge espagnole is a movie directed by Cédric Klapish, starring actors Romain Duris and Audrey Tautou (the star from the famous French movie Amélie Poulain). The scene’s context is that Xavier is leaving soon to spend a year in Spain, and Martine is upset about that, not the book.

Click here to learn more:

We’ll analyze the clip together in a minute. But on a first, fresh viewing — how much can you understand? Write down the specific sentences you hear.

If you didn’t understand much, don’t worry! They do speak fast and softly, in conversational French. It’s an intimate scene, after all.

2 – Second viewing – correct French subtitles

Now, let’s “cheat” by watching this short clip with subtitles in French at first:

– C’est l’horreur, hein.
– Quoi, c’est l’horreur ?
– Bah tu as vu comment c’est sexiste ? Tu as vu la vision pourrie de la femme ?
– Non, pourquoi ? Tu dis ça parce qu’elle va donner des graines aux poules et qu’elle trait les vaches ?
– Mais non… De toute façon évidemment c’est ton fantasme, ça… La petite fille, bien gentille, avec la petite jupe et les joues toutes rouges ! (Ben, nan…) Quand je pense que mes parents m’ont appelée Martine à cause d’elle ! Pff… Bah ça me fait totalement flipper, là.

How much do you understand now?

Here are some interesting words:

Pourrie = rotten (literally) / lame, lousy (colloquial French),
Flipper = being afraid, freaking out (colloquial French).

Don’t worry if you need a dictionary or an online translation tool to understand the rest of the conversation. Practicing well means starting at your level!

You can often activate subtitles on French YouTube videos. They can be a good tool for you when practicing on your own!

3 – Third viewing – eaten letters

If you’re a more advanced French learner, maybe the informal grammar looked strange. But that’s how French people make sentences in spoken French. They’re often full of Bah, euh, and other filler words!

You may have noticed that the characters eat a lot of vowels. That’s a common problem in understanding spoken French! But there’s a bit of method to it.

a) With pronouns:

  • Tu / Te → T’ (before a vowel)
    Tu as → T’as (= you have)
  • Je → J’ (whenever it’s possible)
    Je pense → J’pense (= I think)
    Je suis → J’suis / Chuis (= I am)
    Je sais → J’sais / Chais (= I know)

We only do this in spoken French. We wouldn’t write this way for anything more formal than a text message.

b) Cutting the “e” whenever possible:

  • Me → m’ (= to me/myself)
    Tu m’prends pour une andouille. (= You think I’m stupid.)
  • Petite → P’tite (= small, little)
    Totalement → Total’ment (= totally; it happens even in correct French)

c)  With common expressions and turns of phrases:

  • Parce que → Paske / Pask (= because)
  • De toute façon → T’façon (= anyway; that is a hard cut!)

Now you’re ready for a third viewing! I’ll slow it down, show you the eaten letters in the French subtitles, and add the translation.

– C’est l’horreur, hein.
That’s dreadful.
– Quoi, c’est l’horreur ?
What do you mean, dreadful?
– Bah tu as vu comment c’est sexiste ? Tu as vu la vision pourrie de la femme ?                                                                                    You didn’t see how sexist that was? Did you see the terrible depiction of the woman?
– Non, pourquoi ? Tu dis ça parce qu’elle va donner des graines aux poules et qu’elle trait les vaches ?
No, I didn’t. Why do you ask? You mean because she’s giving seeds to chickens and milking cows?
– Mais non… De toute façon évidemment c’est ton fantasme, ça… La petite fille, bien gentille, avec la petite jupe et les joues toutes rouges ! (Ben, nan…) Quand je pense que mes parents m’ont appelée Martine à cause d’elle ! Pff… Bah ça me fait totalement flipper, là.
No, that’s not…pff… Anyway, of course, that’s your fantasy…The little girl, nice and polite, with a small skirt and red cheeks. (Ah, it’s not…) Just thinking that my parents named me Martine because of her! Pff… That’s freaking me out right now.

Watch the initial clip again and notice your progress in understanding their spoken French!

By analysing a French resource, you get closer to understanding other spoken French conversations. It’s not passive listening. It’s practice!

2) Understand Fast Spoken French: How To Fill Gaps in Your French Comprehension

4 – The full transcript in French with English translation

Quand on essaye de comprendre le français parlé de la vie quotidienne, le problème le plus amusant, ce sont les expressions imagées familières.
When trying to understand spoken French from everyday life, the most amusing problem is the familiar, imaginative expressions.

Par exemple, quand une Française dit “Ce matin, j’ai la patate !” pour dire “Je suis pleine d’énergie.”
For example, when a French woman says, “This morning, I have the potato!” it means, “I am full of energy.”

C’est du vocabulaire qu’il faut apprendre au fur et à mesure.
That is vocabulary that you should learn gradually.

Vous trouverez d’autres exemples d’expressions dans le billet de blog pour aujourd’hui, en même temps que la leçon d’aujourd’hui à l’écrit.
You will find other examples of expressions in today’s blog post and today’s lesson in writing.

Je parle aussi des expressions du français courant dans mon programme Spoken French Essentials, avec tout ce qu’on va voir ensemble aujourd’hui et bien plus encore.
I also talk about common French expressions in my program, Spoken French Essentials, with everything we will see together today and much more.

Mais le vrai problème du français parlé, c’est la prononciation. Les Français parlent souvent très vite, et ça rend la compréhension plus difficile.
But the real problem with spoken French is pronunciation. French people often speak very quickly, and it makes understanding more difficult.

Par exemple, on “mange” des lettres. Surtout dans les petits mots d’une seule syllabe. Donc “Tu” devient “ T’ ”, “De” devient “ D’ ”, “Je” devient “ J’ ”… Y compris devant une consonne !
For example, we “eat” letters, especially in small one-syllable words. So Tu becomes T’, De becomes D’, Je becomes J’… Even before a consonant!

Quand on parle, “Je vais au marché.” devient “J’vais au marché.” Ce n’est pas comme ça qu’on l’écrit, mais c’est comme ça qu’on le prononce.
When speaking, “Je vais au marché” (“I’m going to the market”) becomes “J’vais au marché.” That’s not how we would write it but how we pronounce it.

C’est pareil avec “Tu as faim ?” qui devient “T’as faim ?” par exemple. Voire même : “De toute façon, j’ai déjà mangé.” qui se dit “D’toute façon, j’ai déjà mangé.”
It’s the same with “Tu as faim ?” (“Are you hungry?”), which becomes “T’as faim?” for instance. Or even: “De toute façon, j’ai déjà mangé.” (= “I’ve already eaten anyway.) which is pronounced, “D’toute façon, j’ai déjà mangé.”

Il faut savoir entendre les consonnes qui restent, pour comprendre quelle lettre a été enlevée. C’est subtil !
You need to be able to hear the consonants that remain to understand which letter was removed. It’s subtle!

Certains son fusionnent carrément. “J” et “S” deviennent “Ch” à l’oral. Au lieu de Je suis sûr, en mangeant le “e”, on a J’suis sûr, mais c’est dur à prononcer ! Donc on dit plutôt : Chuis sûr.
Some sounds fuse completely. “J” and “s” become “Ch” when spoken. Instead of saying “Je suis sûr” (I’m sure), when eating the “e”, we get J’suis sûr, but it’s hard to pronounce! So we say instead: “Chuis sûr” (I’m sure.)

Plus fréquemment encore, on entend “Chais pas” pour “Je sais pas.”
Even more frequently, we hear Chais pas for Je sais pas (= I don’t know.)

Eh oui ! Au lieu de dire le correct “Je ne sais pas”, on enlève le “ne” des négations. Ça arrive tout le temps à l’oral. Et avec ce qu’on a dit plus tôt : “Tu n’es pas d’accord.” devient “Tu es pas d’accord.”, donc: “T’es pas d’accord.”
Yup! Instead of saying the correct “Je ne sais pas” (= I do not know), we remove the “ne” from negations. It happens all the time in spoken French. And by adding what we said earlier: “Tu n’es pas d’accord” (= You disagree) becomes “Tu es pas d’accord”, and so: “T’es pas d’accord.”

D’autres sons disparaissent, et parfois un mot entier. Je pense au pronom “il” impersonnel, dans les phrases : “Il faut”, et “Il y a”. Comme dans “Il faut qu’on se dépêche !” ou “Il y a beaucoup de monde ici.”
Other sounds disappear, and sometimes it’s an entire word. I’m thinking of the impersonal pronoun “il” in the phrases: “Il faut” (= There needs / We must) and “Il y a” (= There is). Like in “Il faut qu’on se dépêche!” (= We have to hurry up!) or “Il y a beaucoup de monde ici.” (= There are a lot of people here.)

En parlant, un Français dirait plutôt : “Faut qu’on se dépêche !” ou “Y a beaucoup de monde ici.” Et bien sûr, en enlevant le “ne”, “Il ne faut pas” devient “Faut pas”, et “Il n’y a pas” devient… “Y a pas.”
When speaking, a French person would rather say: Faut qu’on se dépêche! or Y a beaucoup de monde ici. And of course, by removing the “ne”, Il ne faut pas becomes Faut pas, and Il n’y a pas becomes… “Y a pas.”

Tout cela, ce sont des astuces particulières. C’est bien de les apprendre, mais vous ne pourrez pas être assez rapides pour :
All of these are particular tricks. It’s good to learn them, but you won’t be able to get fast enough to:
1) écouter les phrases en français,
1) listen to phrases in French,
2) réfléchir aux sons qui manquent et
2) think about the sounds that are missing and
3) remettre la phrase dans l’ordre.
3) put the phrase back in order.

Et tout ça à la vitesse d’une conversation en français ! C’est trop rapide !
And all that at the speed of a French conversation! It’s too fast!

Non, il vaut mieux tricher : vous pouvez devenir familiers avec toutes ces prononciations et ces expressions. Tout devient beaucoup plus facile avec de la pratique ! Vous découvrirez même de nouvelles subtilités vous-même.
No, it’s better to cheat: you can become familiar with all these pronunciations and expressions. Everything becomes much easier with practice! You will even discover new subtleties on your own.

C’est pour ça que le vrai moyen de comprendre le français parlé, c’est d’en faire une habitude.
That’s why the real way to understand spoken French is to make it a habit.

Vous pouvez suivre un programme qui vous plaît, comme “Affaire conclue” que j’aime beaucoup, ou “Échappées Belles” pour voyager.
You can follow a program you like, like Affaire conclue (“Done deal”) that I like a lot, or Échappées Belles for traveling.

Click here to learn more:

Vous pouvez aussi profiter d’une étude en profondeur, en écoutant cinq fois de suite le même extrait en français, pour être certains de l’assimiler.
You can also benefit from a deep dive by listening to the same French excerpt five times in a row to be sure to absorb it.

Et surtout, vous pouvez pratiquer le français parlé, pour vous confronter à la prononciation des mots ! Attention, le but, ce n’est pas de parler vite. C’est simplement de comprendre ce que vous entendez en français.
And above all, you can practice spoken French to confront yourself with the pronunciation of words! Be careful. The goal is not to speak fast. It’s simply to understand what you hear in French.

5 – Vocabulary

Tu es d’accord. = You agree.
D’accord. = OK. / Agreed.

Il y a = There is / There are.
Il y a un problème ? = Is there a problem?

Il faut = There needs to be / It’s needed that / We need / I need
Il faut faire quelque chose. = Something needs to be done! / We need to do something!

Le truc en plus : “Il y a” and “Il faut” follow conjugations, tenses and modes too!

– Il y avait = There was
– Il y aura = There will be
– Il faudrait = I / You / We would need (conditional)
– J’ai peur qu’il faille sortir. = I fear we need to get out. (subjunctive)

– “Chais pas” (spoken French) / Je ne sais pas. = I don’t know.
– Carrément = squarely (literally), literally (figuratively), directly, outright, downright, totally
Je vais te parler carrément. = I’m going to speak to you frankly / I’m going to be frank.
Il est carrément nul. = He’s downright bad at it. / He’s completely useless.
– De toute façon = anyway.
D’toute façon, chuis pas là demain. / De toute façon, je ne suis pas là demain. = Anyway, I won’t be there tomorrow.
– Y compris = Including
– Au fur et à mesure = gradual (two French “U” sounds). This expression is the only way we use the French word fur, meaning une mesure, a mesure.
Vous avez la patate ! = (literally: “You have the potato”) = You’re full of energy!

We also use other familiar expressions with striking images, for instance:

  • J’ai la pêche. = (literally: I have the peach.) = I’m feeling full of energy.
  • J’ai la banane. = (literally: I have the banana.) = I’m feeling happy, I’m smiling!
  • Raconter des salades. = (literally: Telling salads.) = Lying, telling false stories.
  • Pas la peine d’en faire tout un fromage. = (literally: No need to make a whole cheese out of it.) = No need to take it too seriously / don’t make a whole thing out of it / no need for a dramatic scene.

And now, you can watch the video lesson without watching the subtitles. What more do you understand now?

3) Ready-made French sentences for when you don’t understand

6 – What to say when you don’t understand French?

Formal “correct” French:

  • Je n’ai pas compris. = I didn’t understand.
  • Qu’est-ce que t’as dit ? = What did you say?
  • Je n’ai pas compris ce que vous avez dit. = I didn’t understand what you said.

Informal French with friends:

  • J’ai pas compris. = I didn’t understand. (Informal French: cut the “ne” !)
  • J’ai pas compris ce que t’as dit. = I didn’t understand what you said. (With “tu”)

Click here to learn more:

For politeness, you can start with “Excusez-moi” / “Excuse-moi” (= Excuse me, with “vous” or “tu.”). And for extra-Frenchness, you can also use “venir de” (= just) about the recent past.

Excuse-moi, j’ai pas compris ce que tu viens de dire. = Excuse me, I didn’t understand what you just said.

Click here to learn more:

You can also use the present tense:

  • Je ne comprends pas ce que vous dites. = I don’t understand what you’re saying, or I don’t understand when you speak.

It’s great to use it when there’s a thick glass panel, a broken microphone or a mask that makes words unintelligible.

The conjugation of the present tense of the verb “Comprendre” (= to understand):
Je comprends = I understand.
Tu comprends = You understand.
Il / Elle comprend = He / She understands.
On comprend = We understand (informal)

Nous comprenons = We understand.
Vous comprenez = You understand.
Ils / Elles comprennent = They understand.

Le passé composé (= the past participle) is different:
J’ai compris. Tu as compris ? = I understood. Did you understand?

7 – What to say when you’re really lost in French?

If you’re lost, you can also say:
Je suis perdu(e). = I am lost.
Je suis complètement perdu(e). = I am completely lost.
J’ai rien capté. = I didn’t understand anything. (informal)
J’ai rien pigé. = I didn’t understand anything. (informal).

Like in English, we have in French a magical word that we can use in this situation. It’s “pardon” (with a nasal sound “on”).

Click here to learn more:

“Pardon” is short and polite, much more than its alternatives “Quoi ?” or “Hein ?”
We use all these three words when we don’t hear what someone said. But there are longer, more polite options.

Le truc en plus: In the video, I use a clip from the 1972 song “Fais comme l’oiseau” (= Do like the bird) by French singer Michel Fugain. It’s a French adaptation of the 1971 Brazilian hit “Você abusou.”

8 -What to say when you didn’t hear something they said in French?

If you didn’t hear something in an informal situation, you can say:

  • Excuse-moi, je n’ai pas entendu. = Excuse me, I didn’t hear.
  • Vous pouvez parler plus fort ? = Can you speak louder?
  • Parle plus fort ! = Speak louder!

Make a combination of all of them if you’re comfortable:
Excusez-moi, je n’ai pas entendu ce que vous venez de dire. Vous pouvez parler plus fort, s’il vous plaît ? = Excuse me, I couldn’t hear what you just said. Can you speak louder, please? It’s formal and elegant!

Or with a friend:
Pardon ? J’ai pas compris. J’entends rien, parle plus fort ! = Sorry? I didn’t understand. I can’t hear a word. Speak louder!

This uses the verb entendre = to hear. It follows the same conjugation as comprendre = to understand.
Entendre :
J’entends = I hear.
Tu entends = You hear.
Il / Elle entend = He / She hears.
On entend = We hear (informal)
Nous entendons = We hear.
Vous entendez = You hear.
Ils / Elles entendent = They hear.

Le passé composé (= the past participle) is different:
J’ai entendu. Tu as entendu ? = I heard. Did you hear?

Le truc en plus: “Entendre” is a false cognate in Spanish (and other Latin languages). It didn’t use to be that way, though! In French, “to understand” used to be “entendre” (like the Spanish “entender”) and “to hear” used to be “ouïr” (like the Spanish “oir”). However, a shift happened: “comprendre” took the place of “entendre”, “entendre” took the place of “ouïr”, and “ouïr” simply fell out of fashion. You might still stumble on these older definitions in old novels or some (often formal) French expressions.

9 – How to ask to repeat something in French?

  • Vous pouvez répéter ? = Can you repeat?
  • Vous pouvez répéter, s’il vous plaît ? = Can you repeat, please?
  • Tu peux répéter ta phrase ? = Can you repeat your sentence?

And don’t hesitate to call for a stop, with Attends / Attendez (= Wait):

  • Attends, tu peux répéter ? = Wait, can you repeat ?
  • Attendez, je n’ai pas compris. = Wait, I didn’t understand.

Ask them if they could speak slower:

  • Vous pouvez parler plus lentement ? = Can you speak slower ?
  • Plus lentement, s’il te plaît ? = Slower, please?

French people love to speak fast, though. They might speak slower for a few sentences if you ask them… but I’m afraid they’ll quickly pick up the pace. At this point, you’ll also need to understand better spoken French altogether.

Click here to learn more:

10 – “What does it mean in French?” and “How do you spell it?”

Sometimes, you just lack the vocabulary. You can ask:

  • Comment on dit “[thing]” en français? = How do you say “thing” in French?
  • Comment on dit “[thing]” en français, déjà ? = How do you say “thing” in French, again?

Le truc en plus: I added “déjà” in the second question above. It means “already”, but at the end of a question, it means “Again? / Remind me? / By the way?”

Click here to learn more:

 

  • Ça veut dire quoi “[machin]” (en français) ? = What does “something” mean (in French)?
  • C’est comme ça qu’on dit ? = Is that how you say it?
  • C’est correct ? = Is that correct?

Finally, spoken French is complicated not only because it’s fast but also because it’s not written. So you might need to ask:

  • Comment ça s’écrit ? = How do you write that?
  • Comment ça s’épelle ? = How do you spell it?
  • Vous pouvez l’épeler ? = Can you spell it?

For example, in a full sentence:

  • Attends, c’est quoi ce mot ? Tu peux l’épeler ? = Wait, what’s that word? Can you spell it?
  • Attendez, je ne comprends pas ce mot [raisins]. Vous pouvez l’épeler, s’il vous plaît ? = Wait a minute, I don’t understand that word. Can you spell it, please?

Be careful here, though: “raisins” means “grapes”. And “Vous pouvez l’épeler, s’il vous plaît ?” sounds exactly the same as “Vous pouvez les peler s’il vous plaît ?” (= Can you peel them (for me) please ?).
So yeah, that’s a pun for the blog readers who read this far. Tell me about it in the comments! 😉

Recap and examples:

  • Let’s practice together. How would you say the following sentences in French?
    Can you speak slower, please? (vous) = Vous pouvez parler plus lentement, s’il vous plaît ?
  • Sorry, I didn’t understand what you just said. (tu) = Pardon, je n’ai pas compris ce que tu viens de dire.
  • Can you repeat, please? (tu) = Tu peux répéter, s’il te plaît ?

Click here to learn more:

4) Extra Resources (blog only):

Congrats!
Keep learning more everyday scripts to prepare for your trip to France or reconnect with the language!

Click here to get your next lesson:

À tout de suite.
I’ll see you in the next video!


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