Ways to be informal
19/3/2019
Other than “tu” and other small things, your formal education probably isn’t preparing you for informal situations within the realm of languages. And while it may not seem super important, you might just make a friend in your TL and start speaking to them like you would the Queen. That’s why I’m offering you this (very) limited list of ways to make your speech informal. AND I highly encourage others to reblog this and add their own thoughts. Without further delay, let’s jump into this shit.
Tu vs Vous
This has been beat to death so I won’t bore you too much. When appropriate, switch from Vous conjugations to Tu.
Prepositions
While your French prof probably said you can’t end your sentences with prepositions, you actually can (*notice: limitations apply). You can change your sentence from “Tu viens avec moi ?” to “Tu viens avec ?” and it changes the formality slightly. Another example is “tu es pour cette nouvelle règle ?” to “tu es pour ?” (The stipulation being that someone must have previously mentioned this “règle” of which you speak).
Annoyance
Instead of “ça m’énerve” use “ça me fait chier” or “c’est chiant”.
Filler words
Honestly, a little of this goes a long way. Words like “quoi,” “ben” “euh,” and “genre” can make you seem like you know what you’re talking about. So you can use “quoi” at the end of the sentence to just dangle without having a real meaning: “elle m’a dit ça mais elle a fait qqch d’autre. C’est chiant quoi.” “Ben” and “euh” function like “uhm” in English. “Genre” means “like” so you could say “il est genre euh un fuckboy.”
Bref & ‘Fin
“Bref” means “in short” or the way less formal version of that. So you could say “George a fait ça et ça et ça. Bref, il est con.”
Drop the “ne”
In a formal setting, you might use both the “ne” and “pas” to negate a sentence but in an informal setting, drop that “ne.” Ex: J’ai pas mangé.
Close the Gap
If a verb starts with a vowel, combine “tu” and the verb. Ex: Oui, il a menti. T’as eu raison.
Question inversion
If you want to be fancy and formal, you can invert the subject and verb for questions. However, if you are trying to be informal, DON’T DO THAT. “As-tu mangé ?” is weird so just say “t’as mangé ?”
Ça vs Cela
Please don’t say “cela” in informal settings (or most settings in general). It’s more for writing. “Cela te plaît ?” sounds forced whereas “ça te plaît ?”
Pronunciation
This is a multiple-part suggestion so let’s number these.
- If an un-accented “e” is between two (but no more than two) consonants sounds, drop that “e.” Ex: “Rapidement” > “rapid-ment”
- Il(s) becomes “y” (especially when followed by a consonant-sound).
- “Puis” and “parce que” get shortened to “pis” (don’t pronounce “s”) and “pas que” (pronounce “s”)
As I said above, I want this to an open discussion so please include your own thoughts and observations.
À+ !
(via mykingdomofdreams)