r/French Nov 25 '24

Study advice DELF/DALF/TCF/TEF questions masterpost!

104 Upvotes

Hi peeps!

Questions about DELF, DALF and other exams are recurrent in the sub, so we're making this as a “masterpost” to address most of them. If you are wondering about a French language exam, people might have answered your questions here! If you have taken one of said exams, your experience is valuable and we'd love to hear from you in the comments!

Please upvote useful answers! Also keep in mind this is a kind of FAQ, so if you have questions that it does not answer, you're better off making a post about it, rather than commenting here!

If you're unsure what to say, here's what community members have most frequently asked about.

  1. What's the difference between DELF/DALF/TCF/TEF/... and other language certifications? When/why should one choose to take each?
  2. How does the exam go? Please be as precise as you can.
  3. What types of questions are asked, both for writing and speaking parts?
  4. What grammar notions, vocabulary or topics are important to know?
  5. How's the rhythm, the speed, do you have time to think or do you need to hurry?
  6. What's your experience with DELF/DALF/TCF/TEF/..., how do you know if you're ready? Any advice?
  7. How long should one expect to study before being ready for the different DELF/DALF/TCF/TEF/... levels?
  8. Any resources to help prepare for DELF/DALF/TCF/TEF/... specifically (not for learning French in general)?
  9. Can you have accommodations, for instance if you're disabled?
  10. How can I sign up for one of these exams?
  11. Will these certifications help me get into universities, schools, or get a job in a French-speaking country?

Additionally, the website TCF Prépa answers many questions (albeit succinctly) here.


r/French Aug 26 '23

Mod Post FAQ – read this first!

276 Upvotes

Hello r/French!

To prevent common reposts, we set up two pages, the FAQ and a Resources page. Look into them before posting!

The FAQ currently answers the following questions:

The Resources page contains the following categories:

Also make sure to check out our Related Subreddits in the sidebar!


r/French 5h ago

Pronunciation Mastering vocalic R?

5 Upvotes

Hi, I've been passively learning French for a while now and while I never struggled with the initial/prevocalic [ʁ] sound, when it's at the end of a word (as in mère) I've never been able to make it sound right. Does anybody have any advice or resources? I'm coming from an English background.


r/French 5h ago

Films avec le passé simple dans la dialogue

3 Upvotes

Salut tout le monde :) J’apprends le français à la fac et en ce moment on apprend le passé simple. Je cherche des films dans lesquels on entend au moins quelques dialogues au passé simple, peu importe l’année ou le genre.

Si vous avez des idées ou des recommandations, je suis preneuse ! Merci d’avance !


r/French 12h ago

Definition of "10000" found in fr.wiktionary.org

8 Upvotes

This is totally wrong, isn't it?

What does 10000 have to do with 26?

https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/10000


r/French 15h ago

Vocabulary / word usage filler words in french

12 Upvotes

i want to know how french people use words like “literally” or “genuinely”, or smaller filler words like “like”.

i know the basic ones like “tu sais” “bah…” “genre” but when im telling a story i say “literally” a lot and i was wondering if there was a french equivalent. thank you!


r/French 1d ago

How acceptable is a rolled R in present-day French?

72 Upvotes

From what I have read, the Rolled R used to be the standard way to pronounce R in French up until more or less a century ago. And is still present in some regional Quebcois and African dialects that still speak an older version of French. But what about in Metropolitan France, will you get weird looks or will you be hard to understand if you roll your Rs?

I can pull off a guttoral R ocassionally, but at times it just sounds off to me, also a rolled R kind of helps me differentiate between words, since my brain does struggle with the flowy nature of French 😅.


r/French 7h ago

Looking for media Recommendations for French conversation books.

2 Upvotes

Hi, I'm want to learn fundemental daily conversation in French. I already have fundemental knowledge, already have DELF A2 and TCP b1


r/French 22h ago

C1/C2 learners: how do you actually build advanced vocabulary?

13 Upvotes

Hi Everyone, I'm completely new on the platform so I hope this is an appropriate question for this community. I'm currently learning french at an advanced / C-level, and I'm curious how other advanced learners manage this stage of their learning. One thing I'm really struggling with is finding good learning materials. There are plenty of advanced vocabulary resources and thematic vocabulary collections, but I often find them quite dry and disconnected from meaningful context. I can learn the words somehow but it takes me a lot of effort and I don't feel that they stick particulary well. I also spend an enormous amount of time looking things up in dictionaries to make sure that I understand correctly everything. At this point, the preparation sometimes seems to take almost as much time as the actual learning. For those of you around C1/C2, how do you deal with this? Have you found any resources that are particulary good for building advanced vocabulary in context? Or have you developed your own way of learning instead? I'd be really interested to what works for you - and also what you tried and didn't work. From other discussions I already received some tips and best practice info. My situation is preparation for C level exam from B level so I address this question here to the learners who target completing any official exam.


r/French 17h ago

Study advice Best All in One Self-Paced French Courses

4 Upvotes

I'm looking for something similar to Smarter German which is fully online and everything you'd need (reading writing listening speaking) is in one platform with a thorough, self-paced curriculum from A1-C1. Thanks!


r/French 15h ago

Looking for media Any YT channel that focuses on walkable cities, public transportations, etc?

2 Upvotes

Basically I'm looking for the French version of Not Just Bikes or Adam Something, if anyone recognizes them. A channel that analyzes urbanism and transit in French.


r/French 20h ago

Looking for media Any recommended horror video game youtube channel in French?

3 Upvotes

So I'm basically looking for the French counterpart of a channel like ManlyBadassHero. He plays various horror games and he speaks very clearly and calmly. No shouting, no exaggerated reactions, just gameplay. Any recommendation?


r/French 1d ago

Pronunciation Native French speakers: Is this a native speaker?

Thumbnail vocaroo.com
13 Upvotes

Hi,

It sounds like a news clip but is this a native speaker? If so, is she from France or otherwise speaking the same French that people in France speak? Or is she speaking French from another Francophone country?

Thank you.


r/French 21h ago

Meilleures écoles pour apprendre le français en France ?

1 Upvotes

Salut tout le monde ! J'étudie le français depuis 10 ans (mon arrière famille est française) mais j'ai toujours pas beaucoup de confiance pour parler. Avez-vous des suggestions pour des écoles pour apprendre le français en France en tant qu'adulte ? J'ai un niveau plutôt avancé à l'écrit mais intermédiaire à l'oral donc ça serait surtout pour progresser à l'oral... et pas à Paris de préférence mdr


r/French 1d ago

Vocabulary / word usage Listening to an audio book looking for the meaning of something that sounds like “Humanity Bowtie”

6 Upvotes

It sounds like the English word humanity but instead of humani-tee was pronounced “Humani-tay” then a word that sounded like bowtie. For context it was a password that was used to conceal a hidden door of what I assume was a bad guy. Tried googling it but wasn’t having much luck (kept just offering translations of the English words rather then French words that sound similar).

I do know it was French, as the villain is French and the detective notes that his high school French class finally came in handy for once.


r/French 1d ago

Needing help writing a verse in French

2 Upvotes

Hi! I don't speak a word of French but I'm writing a song for my boyfriend and chose to make one verse entirely in French since he grew up speaking the language.
However I've hit a wall since google translate can only get me so far lol
If you're a genuine French speaker please let me know what you think, if the lines make sense, what the lines actually read as XD and what phrases best suit what I'm trying to go for XD Thanks! <3 all comments of help and correction are welcome!

He's the one I adore, how you say me amore,

well actually it's more like je taime celui qui mi vraiment sauve la vie,

je suis rassasie.

etputain, quelcoeur et quel cerveau magnifiques,

mais aussi quel physique!

musclé, bien bâti, épais, trapu, solide, luisant, un beau garçon,

je n'ai plus faim,

(what line pairs best with 'I am not hungry anymore' to make a kind of sexual call back from the 'I am satisfied/full' line at the beginning, I want one closest to the meaning of 'I am full of dat diick')

je suis plein a craquer et pourtant j'en veux toujours plus

or

je suis rempli de toi jusqu'à a en éclater, mais j'en veux toujours plus

r/frenchhelp r/LearnFrenchWithHumor r/learnfrench r/helpme


r/French 1d ago

Grammar how to differentiate if plus is more or no more.

48 Upvotes

if the sentence is: "je veux plus de café" and its written down. how can i differentiate if the plus here is more or no more and the "ne" is omitted?


r/French 1d ago

Does anyone have experience learning French for reading first, and then speaking?

3 Upvotes

Does this affect how you talk at all, did it make the process of learning to speak easier than just going straight into it?

I am learning French for the purposes of reading my favourite poets and authors in the original language, and may be interested in speaking French down the line, will this have negative effects or positive effects on later attempts to learn speaking?


r/French 1d ago

Study advice What does your study routine look like?

1 Upvotes

I need some ideas on how to efficiently study better. For context, my French is sitting around a A2. I watch videos in French I watch cartoons in French. I listen to French music. I do Duolingo (this is mostly for motivation and to keep myself accountable with their streak system) once a week I write a journal entry in French talking about random things I try to include new words that I learned to better enforce it. I also am on French twitter and try to read other things in French. What should I change/include in my studying? How do you improve your understanding of grammar? How did you study to improve your french?


r/French 1d ago

Vocabulary / word usage How to say you like someone or something?

16 Upvotes

I'm a beginner and I don't understand the difference between je t'aime ,je t'adore, j'adore and j'aime. Im super confused .

I would like to know which one to use when you like someone but not in a romantic way. Like a friend. Or maybe when you like a movie or something but not that much.

What word should I use?


r/French 1d ago

How to refer to a musical piece you just played

3 Upvotes

After playing a musical piece, how does one begin a lecture about the piece? Something similar to "The piece I just played ..." or "The piece you just heard..." or "That was..."


r/French 1d ago

Sesufe or Your too sassy spelling

6 Upvotes

Delete this if its not allowed, but my grandma knows french and likes to say "too sassy", kinda like "knock it off" at the same time, in which it sounds like saucy feet. I've done a quick look around to see how to spell it on google but it comes up as different words.

edit: found the word! Ca suffit is what she was saying!


r/French 1d ago

Vocabulary / word usage Quelle est votre façon préférée de terminer un email professionnel ? Et un email personnel ?

10 Upvotes

Bonjour à toutes et à tous ! Ma question est dans le titre. Pour expliquer un plus, quand j'écris un email dans ma langue natale (l'anglais), je termine toujours les emails avec "Merci." Je crois que ça marche aussi en français, mais je voudrais apprendre autres options.

Je connais les termes comme "sincèrement" ou "Passez une bonne journée/semaine ou bon week-end." Je viens d'apprendre la phrase "chaleur humaine" (c'est le titre d'un podcast) et j'ai entendu l'adverbe "chaleureusement" dans un autre podcast. Puis-je terminer un email avec "chaleureusement"?

Merci !


r/French 1d ago

Grammar Revoir les bases de grammaire

3 Upvotes

Bonjour/ bonsoir tout le monde !
Je suis une jeune étudiante qui viens d’être accepter dans un master FLE. Sauf que je me sens pas légitime car je trouve que je fais encore beaucoup de fautes de grammaire de conjugaison et d’orthographe. Je voudrais alors savoir quelle est la meilleure solution pour améliorer son niveau. Je ne trouve pas de ressources pour juste revoir les bases, la plus part du temps c’est pour un public débutant. Je recherche vraiment un site ou une ressource qui compile toutes les règles de grammaire en français. Et aussi si il y’a des profs parmi à vous, pourriez vous me donner des conseils pour créer son cours et l’animer. Merci beaucoup d’avoir pris le temps de me lire !


r/French 1d ago

Rentable / rentabilité

0 Upvotes

Bonsoir à tous. Je connais bien les définitions du dictionnaire pour ces mots, mais je crains que les nuances me passent. Quelqu'un pourrait-il me les expliquer en détail ?