Uploaded December 2023 | Updated September 2026, 5 hours ago

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💡 If you’ve spent any amount of time in France, or even just speaking to native French speakers, you’ve probably picked up on the fact that actual spoken French is almost a completely different language than technical written French.

If you learned French in a school setting, you probably learned some formal words like “cependant” or “néanmoins.” But, just like how you almost never use the word “therefore” in everyday English, we don’t really use this formal, technical language in our everyday conversations.

In today’s lesson, we’ll cover some of this outdated vocabulary and use it as an opportunity to learn more simple words, so you can sound more confident in your French conversations.

0:00 - Intro
0:34 - Adverbs of written French
2:43 - Simpler Alternatives
7:51 - Even more alternatives
13:37 - Quick Recap and pronunciation practice

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* Read, save and/or print the full written lesson here (free) - commeunefrancaise.com/blog/formal-french-words&source=youtube



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* Actual spoken French is almost a completely different language than technical written French, which is what you were taught in schools. We specialize in everyday spoken French: speaking and understanding it, at all ages and levels. - commeunefrancaise.com

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At Comme une Française, we specialize in everyday spoken French. We focus on three unique aspects that are different from school French, self-study books, Duolingo, etc:
1. We focus only on the specifics of speaking/understanding/being understood in everyday French and have unique ways to help you learn it properly & faster.
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😘 from Grenoble, France.

Géraldine