If you watch a B1 learner and a near-native speaker of French answer the same question, the grammar will often be identical — the verbs conjugate correctly, the agreement holds, the gender is right — and yet the near-native answer reads as French while the learner's answer reads as English-translated-into-French. The difference, more often than not, is which member of a near-synonym set the speaker reached for. I know him — je sais lui (transfer error) versus je le connais (correct). I left at five — je suis sorti à cinq heures (sometimes wrong) versus je suis parti à cinq heures (often what was meant).
French has a dozen high-frequency cases where English uses one word and French splits it into two or three. The split is not arbitrary; in each case, French is making a real semantic distinction that English has erased or hidden. Mastering these distinctions is one of the most cost-effective things a B1 learner can do — a small set of pages, each with a clear rule, fixes hundreds of small errors in everyday speech.
This page is the index to the cluster. Each of the splits below is drilled in its own page; here we sketch the distinction so you can recognize the family of error and jump to the right reference.
What this cluster does and doesn't cover
The pages in this cluster handle lexical choices — picking the right verb (or the right tense of one verb) when English vocabulary leaves you with several plausible French candidates. They do not cover:
- Pure grammar choices like indicative vs subjunctive (those are in the verbs/subjunctive cluster).
- Pronoun selection (those are in the pronouns cluster).
- Article choice (nouns/articles).
When the choice is between two verbs that mean almost the same thing in English but carry different semantic loads in French — that is what this cluster is for.
Past tense: passé composé vs imparfait
The single most important choice in spoken French. Every event you put in the past forces a decision: did it happen as a discrete completed action (passé composé) or as an ongoing state, habit, or background (imparfait)?
Hier, j'ai mangé une pizza.
Yesterday I ate a pizza. (PC — completed event)
Quand j'étais petit, je mangeais beaucoup de pizzas.
When I was little, I used to eat a lot of pizzas. (impf — habit)
The passé composé pushes the action forward; the imparfait holds it in place. The full drilldown — heuristics, narrative use, time markers — lives at choosing/passe-compose-vs-imparfait.
Knowing things vs knowing people: savoir vs connaître
English has one verb, know. French splits it. Savoir is for facts, information, skills, and how-to knowledge. Connaître is for acquaintance with people, places, and works of art.
Je sais que tu es fatigué.
I know (that) you're tired. (fact — savoir)
Je connais bien Paris.
I know Paris well. (acquaintance — connaître)
Tu sais nager ?
Do you know how to swim? (skill — savoir + infinitive)
Je connais cette chanson.
I know this song. (familiarity — connaître)
The test: if you could substitute be aware of, have learned, know how to in English — savoir. If you could substitute be acquainted with, be familiar with — connaître. Full coverage at choosing/savoir-vs-connaitre, including the meaning shifts in the passé composé (j'ai su = I learned, j'ai connu = I met).
Leaving in three flavors: partir, quitter, sortir, s'en aller
English's leave covers four distinct French verbs.
- partir — leave for somewhere, set off (no direct object usually; sometimes partir de + place)
- quitter — leave a person, place, or job (transitive — takes a direct object)
- sortir — exit, go out (often of a building or context)
- s'en aller — be off, take off (informal, sometimes emphatic)
Je pars demain pour Lyon.
I leave for Lyon tomorrow. (partir — set off)
Elle a quitté son mari l'année dernière.
She left her husband last year. (quitter — leave a person)
On sort de la réunion à six heures.
We get out of the meeting at six. (sortir — exit a place/event)
Bon, je m'en vais, à demain !
Right, I'm off, see you tomorrow! (s'en aller — informal taking leave)
These are not interchangeable. Je sors mon mari would mean I'm taking my husband out (sortir transitive = take out), not I'm leaving my husband. The full drill is at choosing/partir-quitter-sortir-s-en-aller.
Speaking, saying, telling: dire vs parler vs raconter
Another three-way split where English uses say, speak, tell less systematically.
- dire — say (transitive — takes the content as direct object)
- parler — speak, talk (intransitive — describes the act of speaking; takes à for the addressee)
- raconter — tell a story or extended account (transitive)
Il m'a dit qu'il viendrait.
He told me he'd come. (dire — report content)
Je parle français et un peu d'allemand.
I speak French and a bit of German. (parler — describe ability)
Il m'a parlé de son voyage pendant deux heures.
He talked to me about his trip for two hours. (parler — extended speaking)
Raconte-moi ce qui s'est passé.
Tell me what happened. (raconter — narrate an event)
The pattern: dire takes a content object (a quote, a que clause, a thing said). Parler doesn't take a content object — it describes the act. Raconter takes a story-shaped object (a tale, an experience, an event sequence). Full drill at choosing/dire-vs-parler-vs-raconter.
Seeing vs watching: voir vs regarder
The cleanest of the splits. Voir is passive perception — the image hits your retinas. Regarder is active looking — you direct your gaze.
Tu vois le chat sous la table ?
Do you see the cat under the table? (voir — perception)
Je regarde un film ce soir.
I'm watching a film tonight. (regarder — active viewing)
J'ai vu Marie à la boulangerie.
I saw Marie at the bakery. (voir — encountered/perceived)
Regarde ! Il y a un arc-en-ciel.
Look! There's a rainbow. (regarder — direct attention)
The same split lives in écouter (listen, active) vs entendre (hear, passive). Drill at choosing/voir-vs-regarder.
Feeling: se sentir vs sentir vs ressentir
Three verbs all translatable as feel in English, each with its own slot in French.
- se sentir
- adjective — feel a state (fine, sick, sad)
- sentir — perceive a sensation (a smell, a vibration, a presence); also sentir
- bare adjective = smell (intransitive)
- ressentir — experience an emotion (deeply, often)
Je me sens fatigué aujourd'hui.
I feel tired today. (se sentir + adj — state)
Tu sens cette odeur de café ?
Do you smell that coffee? (sentir — perceive a smell)
J'ai ressenti une grande émotion.
I felt a strong emotion. (ressentir — experience emotion)
Ça sent bon !
That smells good! (sentir + adv — give off a smell)
The trap: je sens fatigué is wrong — it would mean I smell tired. To say I feel tired, French requires the reflexive je me sens fatigué. Full coverage at choosing/se-sentir-vs-sentir-vs-ressentir.
Living: vivre vs habiter
Both translate as live. Habiter is reside — I live in Paris in the address sense. Vivre is broader — be alive, lead a life, experience life.
J'habite à Paris depuis trois ans.
I've been living in Paris for three years. (habiter — reside)
Mon grand-père vit encore, il a 92 ans.
My grandfather is still alive, he's 92. (vivre — be alive)
J'ai vécu une expérience incroyable.
I lived an incredible experience. (vivre — experience)
Vivre à Paris, c'est cher mais c'est vivant.
Living in Paris is expensive but it's vibrant. (vivre — lead a life)
In the simple I live in [place] sense, both verbs work, but habiter is more common in everyday speech. Vivre à Paris is fine and slightly more philosophical. Full drill at choosing/vivre-vs-habiter.
Time durations: depuis, il y a, pendant
Not a verb choice but a near-synonym set that English lumps under for and ago.
- depuis — since / for (an ongoing situation that started in the past and continues)
- il y a — ago (a specific point in the past)
- pendant — for (a completed duration)
J'apprends le français depuis trois ans.
I've been learning French for three years. (depuis — ongoing)
J'ai commencé à apprendre il y a trois ans.
I started learning three years ago. (il y a — ago)
J'ai vécu à Lyon pendant cinq ans.
I lived in Lyon for five years. (pendant — completed duration)
The verb tense changes with each — depuis takes the present (the action is still going), il y a takes the passé composé (the starting event happened), pendant takes the passé composé (the duration is closed). Full coverage at choosing/depuis-il-y-a-pendant.
Future: futur proche vs futur simple
French has two main ways to talk about the future, and they overlap heavily.
- futur proche — aller
- infinitive — the dominant future in conversation
- futur simple — the synthetic future (je partirai) — used in writing, formal speech, and slightly more distant predictions
Je vais partir dans cinq minutes.
I'm going to leave in five minutes. (futur proche — speech default)
Demain, je partirai à l'aube.
Tomorrow I'll leave at dawn. (futur simple — slightly more formal/written)
Un jour, l'humanité voyagera dans les étoiles.
One day, humanity will travel to the stars. (futur simple — distant/formal)
For most spoken predictions in the next few hours or days, French uses the futur proche. The futur simple is preferred in writing and for distant or scheduled events. Full drill at choosing/futur-simple-vs-proche.
Devoir across tenses
The verb devoir itself doesn't have synonyms competing with it, but its meaning shifts dramatically across tenses, more so than most French verbs. Each tense corresponds to a different English modal.
| Tense | Meaning | English |
|---|---|---|
| Présent | obligation / probability | must, have to / probably is |
| Imparfait | past obligation / supposition | had to / was supposed to |
| Passé composé | obligation that was carried out | had to (and did) |
| Conditionnel présent | recommendation | should |
| Conditionnel passé | past recommendation regretted | should have |
Tu dois finir avant midi.
You must finish before noon. (présent — obligation)
Il devait passer ce matin.
He was supposed to come by this morning. (impf — past intent)
Tu devrais te reposer.
You should rest. (cond. présent — recommendation)
Tu aurais dû lui parler.
You should have spoken to him. (cond. passé — past regret)
Memorize devoir by tense, not by translation. Full drill at choosing/devoir-tenses.
C'est vs il/elle est
The choice between c'est and il/elle est is the single most discussed grammar point in beginner French. The rule is roughly:
- c'est
- noun (with article), pronoun, name, or general adjective
- il/elle est
- adjective alone, or profession/nationality without article
C'est un médecin.
He's a doctor. (presents him as one — c'est + indefinite article + noun)
Il est médecin.
He's a doctor. (states attribute — il est + bare profession)
C'est intéressant.
It's interesting. (general comment — c'est + adj)
Elle est intéressante.
She's interesting. (specific person — elle est + adj)
Full coverage at choosing/c-est-vs-il-est.
What unifies the cluster
Most of these splits share a common logic: English has erased a distinction that French still tracks. Know used to be split into wit (know facts, savoir) and know (be acquainted, connaître) in older English; the distinction collapsed. Say and tell are still distinct in English but partly overlap; in French dire and raconter are sharper. See and watch are distinct in English; voir and regarder are sharper still.
A second pattern: French often distinguishes active vs passive versions of a sense. Voir (passive perception) vs regarder (active looking). Entendre (hear) vs écouter (listen). Sentir (perceive a sensation) vs se sentir (feel a state — internal, reflexive). When you don't know which to pick, ask: am I describing something happening to me (passive — voir, entendre, sentir), or am I directing my attention (active — regarder, écouter, se sentir + adjectif)?
A third pattern: French splits what from whom more carefully. Savoir takes facts and skills; connaître takes people and places. Dire takes what was said; parler takes the act of speaking; raconter takes a story. Picking the right verb of each pair often means asking is the object a piece of content (fact, story, statement) or a person/place?
Common Mistakes
❌ Je sais Marie depuis dix ans.
Incorrect — savoir is for facts; for knowing a person, use connaître.
✅ Je connais Marie depuis dix ans.
I've known Marie for ten years.
❌ J'ai parlé qu'il viendrait.
Incorrect — parler does not take a content clause; use dire for that.
✅ J'ai dit qu'il viendrait.
I said he'd come.
❌ Je sens fatigué aujourd'hui.
Incorrect — that means 'I smell tired.' Use the reflexive se sentir for state.
✅ Je me sens fatigué aujourd'hui.
I feel tired today.
❌ J'ai vécu à Paris pour cinq ans.
Incorrect — for a closed duration in the past, use pendant, not pour.
✅ J'ai vécu à Paris pendant cinq ans.
I lived in Paris for five years.
❌ Je regarde un oiseau dans le ciel.
Often incorrect — if you're just noticing it, use voir; regarder implies sustained attention.
✅ Je vois un oiseau dans le ciel.
I see a bird in the sky.
How to use this index
Each of the choices above has its own dedicated page with full coverage — every sense, every register, every common error. Use this overview to identify which family of confusable you are dealing with, then jump to the specific page. The pages are deliberately short and focused so you can drill them one at a time.
If you find yourself making the same error repeatedly, write a flashcard with the incorrect version and the corrected version side by side. The transfer errors that come from English are surprisingly stubborn — they often persist for years even after the rule is intellectually clear — but a few weeks of targeted flashcards will move them out of your speech.
Key Takeaways
French has roughly a dozen high-frequency lexical choices that English speakers consistently get wrong because English collapses the distinction. The main families are: know (savoir vs connaître), leave (partir, quitter, sortir, s'en aller), say/speak/tell (dire, parler, raconter), see/watch (voir, regarder), feel (se sentir, sentir, ressentir), live (vivre, habiter), time (depuis, il y a, pendant), future (futur proche vs simple), devoir (different meaning per tense), c'est vs il est, and the master past-tense choice passé composé vs imparfait. Each is a separate page in the choosing cluster, and together they fix the largest single class of English-to-French transfer errors.
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- Passé Composé vs ImparfaitA2 — The central French past-tense decision. Passé composé reports completed events; imparfait paints background, ongoing states, and habits. Mastering the distinction means learning to think of the past as a film in which the camera either holds steady (imparfait) or cuts (passé composé).
- Savoir vs ConnaîtreA1 — Both translate as 'to know,' but savoir handles facts and skills while connaître handles familiarity with people, places, and things.
- Depuis, Il y a, Pendant: Choosing the Right DurationA2 — Three time expressions, three different relationships between a duration and the moment of speaking — and one notorious tense trap with depuis.
- Futur Simple vs Futur ProcheA2 — Two future tenses, one register split. Spoken French runs on the futur proche; written and formal French keeps the futur simple alive.
- Partir, Quitter, Sortir, S'en aller: Verbs of LeavingA2 — English collapses 'leave' into one verb. French splits it across at least four — partir, quitter, sortir, s'en aller — each with its own syntax, register, and angle on departure.
- Dire vs Parler vs RaconterA2 — Three verbs for putting words into the world. Dire conveys content, parler conveys the act of talking, raconter narrates a story — each with its own syntax.
- Voir vs RegarderA2 — Both translate as see or watch, but voir is passive perception (something enters your visual field) while regarder is active looking (you direct your eyes deliberately). Picking the wrong one is the kind of error that immediately marks a learner — and the imperative forms voilà and tenez carry traces of this same distinction.
- Se Sentir vs Sentir vs RessentirB1 — English collapses three different feeling verbs into one: to feel. French splits them into se sentir (feel a state — 'I feel good'), sentir (perceive — smell, feel a sensation), and ressentir (experience an emotion or aftermath). Picking the wrong one ranges from slightly off to outright weird. This page sorts the three by what kind of feeling they describe, and drills the borderline cases between sentir and ressentir, which are the trickiest pair.
- Vivre vs HabiterB1 — Both translate as to live, but vivre covers the whole arc of human existence (being alive, leading a life, experiencing events) while habiter is narrowly about residing in a place. When the meaning is simply 'where do you live,' both work — with a subtle nuance — but in every other case, only one is right. This page maps the overlap zone, drills the cases where they diverge, and unpacks the prepositions each verb requires.
- Devoir: les Différents TempsB1 — Devoir is the swiss-army knife of French modals: obligation, probability, and regret all flow through it, but only if you pick the right tense. This page drills the five tenses that matter — present, imparfait, passé composé, conditionnel, and conditionnel passé — and shows how each one carries its own distinct meaning.
- C'est vs Il/Elle Est: choixA2 — Both translate as 'it is' or 'he/she is,' but c'est introduces and identifies while il/elle est attributes a quality to a specific referent. The wrong choice produces sentences that sound translated rather than French.