Making mistakes is an inevitable part of learning French for the first time. It’s how you learn, grow and develop a more advanced understanding of a difficult language. Being aware of common mistakes that we make can prevent you from developing incorrect speech patterns. Over time, this can save you from facing difficulties and confusion while using the language. From verb usage to pronunciation and faux amis,(these are other words for false cognates). let’s learn about a few common mistakes we make while learning French from English .
Beginners often use être when they’re supposed to use avoir. This is an easy mistake to make. In English, we’re well used to saying things like “I am hungry” or “she is thirsty” when expressing a feeling. This is why we often seem to say “je suis faim” by mistake. Instead, the correct way to express I am hungry is to say “ J’ai faim “, or I have hunger. Because saying it the other way might sound like saying “I am hunger” which does not make any sense . hence learning to use these verbs correctly plays an important role in the proper usage of the language .
The English language consists of many words that sound the same, yet have different spellings and meanings. For example : deer and dear, hole and whole, son and sun. These words are called homophones, and they occur in the French language as well. Learning how to use these words in the right place and pronouncing them correctly acts as a key aspect when it comes to speaking French fluently. For example :“concert and cancer” have different spellings but they sound similar in French whereas in English they are entirely different in both aspects .
The next commonly made mistake is the usage of possessive articles. We often confuse possession when learning French for the first time. We often use his, her, yours, ours, and theirs regardless of what object we’re talking about in English on the contrary in French we look at whether a French noun is masculine or feminine to determine the correct possessive article. For example : Maria a emprunté mon stylo ( Maria borrowed my pen ) ,Maria a emprunté mes crayons (maria borrowed my pencils) ,Maria a emprunté ma voiture (maria borrowed my car) in these sentences Maria is borrowing something but the agreement changes in each sentence according to whether the noun is masculine (mon) plural (mes) or feminine (ma).
By being aware of the common mistakes we make in French can help you learn the language precisely, grammatically correct and free from errors .
