Common Mistakes

I have been teaching French online since late-2013 and one of the most common mistakes I’ve heard students make is confusing ordonner commander. In short, ordonner means to order a person to do something and commander means to order something in a restaurant or bar. This post will provide some great example sentences.

One of my intermediate French students recently asked me to do a lesson explaining the difference between “avoir besoin de”, “il me faut” and “devoir”. These are all ways of expressing what you want or need. While they’re kind of synonymous there are some subtle differences, which are important to know. J’ai besoin de really …

Bonjour! Over the past several years I’ve been teaching French to students of all levels over the Internet. One of the questions that’s come up over and over is: “What’s the difference between sortir and partir?”

  Over the past three years I’ve been teaching French online and have heard students make this mistake many times. The mistake is to add the word “suis” when trying to say “I am” doing something. For example, to say “I am speaking” I will often hear students say, “Je suis parle”. This is totally …

There are two verbs in French that can often cause a bit of confusion and are worth contracting: Penser and Réfléchir. Both verbs mean to think but their meanings are totally different. Réfléchir translates to “think over”, “ponder” or “mull”. Another translation is to “reflect”. Penser, however, is to think on a much more superficial …

One of the most common mistakes I’ve seen over the years since I’ve been teaching French online is confusing the two words for time: le temps and la fois.