The five French phrases that do 80% of the work
First time? Do this
- Audio is built in. Tap any phrase to hear it in a native voice — pre-recorded and cached, so it just works offline, no setup. (The voice bar can still pick a phone voice as a backup.)
- Phrases — drilled by situation: the bistrot, cafés, directions, the winery. Hit play, then say it back out loud.
- Sounds — nine letters unlock almost everything. Ten minutes here pays off the most.
- Customs — the unspoken rules. This is where tourists actually give themselves away.
- Practice — hear / read / recall / speak. Use it on the plane.
Right thing, right moment.
Tap a chip to jump to a scene — or just search. Common holds the go-anywhere basics (hello, thanks, where's the toilet); a few phrases like drinks live under more than one scene.
Common — useful everywhere · greetings · basics · the toilet
Greetings & manners · the social handshake
At the bistrot (restaurant) · ordering & dining
bistrot bee-STROH — a small neighbourhood restaurant, short menu, no ceremony
Cafés & nights out · your scene
At the winery · tasting & buying
Finding your way · asking directions
Taxis & getting around · rides & fares
On the water · ferries & boat days
Shops & getting by · everyday
Sea & scenery · quick vocab
Numbers 1–100 · prices & ordering
Same alphabet, different rules.
French writes far more than it says: most final consonants are silent and the R lives at the back of your throat. Get four or five sounds right and everything else follows.
Knowing what a letter sounds like isn't the same as being able to make it. These five are where English mouths actually go wrong: what to do, what to stop doing, and a native recording you can slow down and copy.
What your mouth doesThe back of your tongue rises toward the soft palate and the air scrapes gently past — the place you gargle, not the tongue tip. Keep it small and soft: merci is "mehr-SEE" with that light scrape, not a growl.
The mistakeThe English R, tongue bunched in the middle of the mouth — the single loudest tell of an anglophone. Rolling it on the tip is just as foreign.
What your mouth doesou is the easy one, the oo of food: bonjour. For u, say "ee" and — keeping your tongue exactly where it is — round your lips into a tight whistle: une rue has it twice.
The mistakeUsing the food-oo for both. rue (street) with the wrong one becomes roue (wheel) — whole pairs of words differ only by this vowel.
What your mouth doesSay the vowel and let the air escape through your nose, and never close the n — your tongue stays down. cent is "sahn" with the n dissolved into the vowel; Santé ! starts the same way.
The mistakeLanding the n like English "sant". The written n or m is a flag telling you to nasalise the vowel, not a letter to pronounce.
What your mouth doesFinal s, t, d and x almost never sound, and a final e mostly just softens what came before: trois is "trwah", deux is "duh". Say the word, then stop one letter early.
The mistakeSounding them out — "troyss", "ducks". The written ending is grammar for the eye; the spoken word ends on the vowel.
What your mouth doesgn is the "ny" of canyon: champagne is "shahm-PAHN-yuh". ill after a vowel is a pure y: bouteille is "boo-TAY", no l anywhere.
The mistakeSaying the g or the l's. "cham-PAG-nee" and "boo-TAY-luh" both add consonants the words lost long ago.
- Final consonants stay silent. You write them, you don't say them: Paris ends "pa-REE", petit ends "puh-TEE". The usual survivors are c, r, f and l.
- Words run into each other. A silent final consonant wakes up before a vowel — vous avez = "voo-za-VAY", les amis = "lay-za-MEE". That linking is why spoken French sounds like one long ribbon.
- Stress lands late, and lightly. Every syllable gets an even beat and the last one leans a little. Never front-load a word the English way.
- A nasal vowel is not an N. In vin, pain and bon the n is a direction, not a sound: send the vowel through your nose and stop before your tongue lands.
- Accents change the vowel, not the stress. é is "ay", è is "eh", and the hat on hôtel is just a fossil where an s used to be.
The rules nobody prints on the menu.
Your French rarely outs you. These do. Read once, and you'll move differently.
Bonjour is the entry fee
Say Bonjour (bohn-ZHOOR) the second you cross a threshold — bakery, pharmacy, taxi, train compartment. Skipping it is the single thing that gets travellers written off as rude, and most of the famous French coldness is just this.
And say goodbye on the way out
Au revoir, bonne journée (oh ruh-VWAHR, bun zhoor-NAY) as you leave a shop, even empty-handed. The exchange is a small ritual with a beginning and an end.
La bise: cheeks, not lips
Friends greet with light air-kisses, cheek touching cheek — usually two, but three or four in parts of the south. Follow their lead; a handshake is the safe default with anyone new or professional.
Tipping: service is already included
Service compris (sehr-VEES kohm-PREE) is the law — staff are salaried and the bill is complete. Leave a couple of euros or round up for good service, 5% for something special. Never 20%.
The bill comes when you ask
Nobody drops l'addition (la-dee-see-OHN) on your table unprompted; rushing a diner is the insult. The table is yours until you catch an eye and ask.
Ask for the carafe d'eau
Every restaurant must give you free tap water in a jug. Say une carafe d'eau (ewn ka-RAHF doh); say just "water" and a €6 bottle of Evian appears.
Don't expect dinner at 5pm
Kitchens serve lunch roughly 12–2 and dinner from 7:30 or 8; in between you get drinks and maybe a croque-monsieur (krohk muh-SYUR). Shops in smaller towns also shut for a long lunch.
Don't be the loudest table
French restaurants, metros and trains run quieter than American ones. Volume, not accent, is what marks a table as tourists.
Flâner explains the pace
Flâner (flah-NAY) means to wander a city with no destination, purely for the pleasure of it. It's a respected way to spend an afternoon — the two-hour café coffee is the same instinct.
L'apéro is the real start of the evening
Around 6–8pm, drinks and olives before dinner — l'apéro (lah-pay-ROH) is an institution, not a warm-up. If you're invited, bring wine or flowers and arrive fifteen minutes late, never early.
The plates and glasses worth going out of your way for — each with the name as you'd say it out loud.
Test the four channels.
Understanding French by ear, reading, recall, and your own mouth. Quick rounds — do them twice.