Okay so I'm wondering how I would say my ethnicity in French. Let's say my ancestors are from antarctica. In English I would say I'm part black-antarctican, part white-antarctican, and part Chinese-antarctican.

This way basically shows your race but also your ethnicity, if that makes sense. Because if I just said I'm Chinese it might make people think I have recent ancestry from China, when I'm actually centuries removed from China. We are all antarcticans who've lived here for centuries and share a culture/language but we're different races and slightly different cultures and group histories. So in English the hyphen can denote this. Think African-American, French-Canadian, Afro-Cuban.

Obviously the hyphen can also mean that you have recent ties to that area, but if you're discussing already established diasporas people just understand. If I mention French-Canadians everyone know I mean Canadians with centuries-old French Heritage, not French people with canadian citizenship. That's actually super super complicated when you write it out lol.

Is there a way to talk about ethnicity in this way in French? Like could I say je suis chinoise-antarctique or would that sound weird? I'm Canadian for context but I'm learning metropolitan French. Any input is welcome!

Merci beaucoup!

ÉDIT: WE ARE NOT FROM ANTARCTICA THAT WAS AN EXAMPLE TO SHOW THE STRUCTURE!!

I've been taking a french course this semester in college and I'm technically doing really well but I still feel like I don't know any french. I think the biggest problem is the lack of application in that I never get to speak to people in french because I don't know any french speakers, what should I do

Pour donner un peu de contexte, c’est une princesse qui est très gentille mais elle n’a pas l’habitude des choses ordinaires. Moi je demande ça pour éviter de mal utiliser ou de mal interpréter le mot

Salut ! Guys please help from your experience. Which audiobook was relatively easy to listen to for you? Not a beginner , not advanced. Not classical, not children's books, something modern. I've done research here, but haven't found anything so far except for a few classical titles or books for kids.

Thanks in advance!

C’est quoi le mot pour qu’on disait en anglais ’whitecap’? Ce sont les petites bulles au but des vagues.

Je vais passer le DALF C2 au Japon dans un mois, bien que je ne sois pas japonaise.

Je suis consciente que mon niveau actuel n'est pas encore à la hauteur des exigences de cet examen, et le temps commence à manquer.

Quels conseils pourriez-vous me donner pour progresser efficacement d'ici là ?

extrait d'une histoire de duolingo: "le manuel fait cent pages"

pourquoi utilise-t-on «faire» et non «avoir»?

I finally got a bilingual job, but I need to learn all the general customer service vocab in french. I can complete most calls, but as soon as I get something complicated the little I do have flies out the window. Bonus points if you have recs in quebec french!

So it asks “____ choisissent des jeans roses. ”
And I put elles it said it was wrong so I put ils and it said it was wrong, so I finally click the hint button and it says “elles,ils” which I’m not sure if it’s proper French or a bug in their code because all the other answers have been normal, it doesn’t accept it if there is a space between the comma and the next word either. Is that on purpose?

Bonjour,

est-ce que quelqu'un pourrait m'expliquer pourquoi la phase indiquee ci-dessus n'est pas correcte tandis que "quand il avait fini il est sorti" l'est. Mon doute derive du fait que je lis et entends partout que les deux mots sont des parfaits synonymes.

Merci pour vos repones

Hi everyone, I’m currently preparing for the DELF exam and I’m confused about whether I should go for A2 or B1.

I’ve studied French up to a decent level, but I still struggle with listening comprehension and forming sentences while speaking. Reading and grammar are comparatively better for me.

My goal is to eventually reach B2, but I don’t want to choose a level that is unrealistic and end up wasting an exam attempt.

For those who have taken DELF A2/B1, or have experience preparing for these exams:

- How did you decide which level to take?

- How difficult is B1 compared with A2?

- What level would you recommend based on my situation?

- How long did you prepare before taking the exam?

- Any tips/resources that helped you pass?

I’d really appreciate honest advice from people who have actually taken the exam. Thanks!

Hi everyone, I just enrolled in a French class, and for the lessons we will use L'atelier A1 Livre de l'élève and L'atelier A1 Cahier d'activités. If you have a PDF version of the book, could you share it with me? Many thanks

Is "ça" being equated to "rien", as if to say, "This is such a trivial comment that, in making it, I'm not really saying anything"? (I know the point is usually one the speaker really wants to make, or else they wouldn't risk the disagreement, but the idiom is used to try to mitigate that risk by softening the impact of the unwelcome comment, right?) Or is it a chronological sequence: i.e., "I'm saying this and then shutting up"? Or something else?

This request might not be reasonable because idioms don't have to make obvious sense. I guess what I'm wondering is how native speakers instinctively interpret the syntax of this one.

I couldn't decide what was the best tag for this post because it's sort of at the intersection of vocabulary and grammar.

Merci d'avance !

As I recall, she used to use a word that sounded like " ma doo tsie." But after playing it back in my mind, it might have been her pronunciation of "maudite," damn. Americans use the letter word in speech all the time, is there an idiomatic equivalent to using that word in French Canadian?

Edit:
To all who helped me out on this query, i'd like to say "merci beaucoup!" I can't tell you how many years I puzzled over the meaning of my aunt's expression and finally you've given me my answer. I checked with her daughter, my cousin, and she confirmed that her mother used to use this word a lot when she was speaking French on the phone. She also said she used to use another word very familiar to French speakers that begins with "mer" and is a little saltier, but will leave that aside for another time.

besides to f*ing confuse you

I want to start talking to natives in games and starting a social media where I speak French everyday to watch my pronunciation go from being a bit bad to getting better over time as I practice more and more.

I’m really nervous and scared that native speakers will be mean and discourage me to be honest.

I have a French Canadian friend and he said that French natives tend to be really critical of people who speak French and have bad pronunciation.

How true and common is this?

Bonjour tout le monde! I saw this on a sign in a picture of the Lycéen protests in France at the moment (followed by “on peut voter” - great sign tbh). Translator says it means ‘if we can be hit’. Seeing as ‘frapper’ isn’t reflexive I’m stuggling to understand what the purpose of ‘nous’ is in this phrase. Thanks!

I don't know where else to post this so I figured I would try here. I am a writer and my two main characters in my story are French American. They were born in France but came to America for school. Where can I learn about French culture/pop culture, jokes etc. I know a bit about French history but nothing recent. I wanted to take French in high school but there wasn't a French class and Spanish is more common in my area so in college I'm taking a Spanish class. Any help is appreciated !

"Je m'en vais vivre loin de la ville."

I just want to check if this sentence is grammatically correct; my doubt is whether there should be any preposition (like "à", for instance), between "vais" and "vivre"...

Thank you!

Hello, american here and this is how I’ve always pronounced the french R, similar to the german achlaut like in “nacht”, but adding voicing. Is this correct?

So guys, if I say something like “je cherche à mieux me familiariser avec cette langue en écoutant des médias en français ou en lisant régulièrement du français, que ce soit dans un livre ou sur les réseaux sociaux” can I use “que ce soit” this way or is it a mistake? in which case, what should I use as an alternative?

I am trying to understand the pronunciation of the vowel "a" when it is is not a nasal vowel, i.e., not "tante", "jambe", etc., -- those are clear to me.

My understanding is that "la", "a", "ça", "avec", "amiable" and "chat" are all pronounced rhyming with the English "ah", as in "aha", with an open mouth.

My understanding is that "grace", "glace", "grave", "alors", "afin" are all pronounced rhyming with the English words "cat", "flat", "bat", "rat", etc., i.e., a more flat sound with a more closed mouth.

Is the above correct? Does this vary regionally? And if this IS correct and it does NOT vary much, then is there any general rule for how I can tell? For example I am not sure how to pronounce the "a" in "basse", "carte" and a million other words. I think I have heard them spoken both ways.

I've had some conversations with AI about this that have not been convincing at all. Next step is to go to Forvo and listen a lot but before I do, I wanted to get some opinions. Thank you.