This page is the master diagnostic for anglophone errors in French. If you have a sentence you suspect is wrong but cannot pinpoint the problem, scan the list below — each entry pairs a typical incorrect form with its corrected version, names the underlying rule, gives a one-line mnemonic, and links to the dedicated drill page. The errors are ordered by frequency among learners reaching B1, with a separate section for the higher-level errors that surface only at B2 and beyond.
The premise of every entry on this page: the error is systematic, not random. It comes from a specific structural difference between English and French. Naming the source of an error is half the cure, because once you know why you keep saying ❌ je suis chaud, you can also see why the same logic produces ❌ j'ai vingt-cinq années and ❌ je suis dix ans. Patch the underlying transfer pattern and you fix several errors at once.
Top 20 errors, ranked
1. Avoir vs être for sensations (j'ai faim, not je suis faim)
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Je suis faim. | J'ai faim. | French uses avoir for hunger, thirst, age, fear, sleepiness — anything English expresses with be + adjective. |
Mnemonic: J'ai faim, j'ai soif, j'ai chaud, j'ai froid — chant it as a four-beat phrase. Drill page: errors/avoir-vs-etre-sensations.
❌ Je suis vingt-cinq ans.
Wrong — age uses *avoir*.
✅ J'ai vingt-cinq ans.
I'm twenty-five.
2. Auxiliary confusion: avoir vs être in the passé composé
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| J'ai allé au marché. | Je suis allé(e) au marché. | Aller takes être. The Dr. & Mrs. Vandertramp verbs all take être, as do all pronominal verbs. |
Mnemonic: Dr. & Mrs. Vandertramp — Devenir, Revenir, Mourir, Sortir, Venir, Aller, Naître, Descendre, Entrer, Rentrer, Tomber, Rester, Arriver, Monter, Partir. Drill: errors/auxiliary-confusion.
3. Missing prepositions after verbs (or extra prepositions)
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| J'écoute à la radio. | J'écoute la radio. | French écouter is transitive — the to is built in. |
| J'ai téléphoné Marie. | J'ai téléphoné à Marie. | Téléphoner à requires à, where English uses bare transitive call. |
| Je cherche pour mes clés. | Je cherche mes clés. | Chercher means look for — the for is built in. |
Mnemonic: Écouter, regarder, attendre, chercher — French builds in the English preposition. Téléphoner, répondre, obéir, plaire — French requires à where English uses none. Drill: errors/preposition-after-verbs.
4. Si + conditional (instead of si + imperfect)
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Si je serais riche, j'achèterais une maison. | Si j'étais riche, j'achèterais une maison. | Si in a hypothetical never takes the conditional — only the imperfect. |
Mnemonic: Si gives the condition; the conditional belongs in the result. The two never sit together. Drill: errors/si-with-conditional.
5. Gender errors
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Le maison. | La maison. | Maison is feminine. |
| La problème. | Le problème. | Problème is masculine despite the -e ending. |
| Le voiture. | La voiture. | Voiture is feminine. |
Mnemonic: Never learn a noun without its article. The article is part of the word. Drill: errors/gender-of-nouns.
6. Depuis + passé composé (instead of present)
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| J'ai habité ici depuis cinq ans. | J'habite ici depuis cinq ans. | Depuis + a still-ongoing situation takes the present, not the passé composé. |
Mnemonic: If the action is still happening, use the present. Past tense with depuis means it has stopped. Drill: errors/depuis-tense-confusion.
7. C'est vs il est confusion
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Il est un médecin. | C'est un médecin. | Il est + indefinite article + noun is ungrammatical. |
| Il est médecin compétent. | C'est un médecin compétent. | Modified profession requires c'est un. |
| C'est intelligent (about a specific person). | Il est intelligent. | Specific referents take il/elle est + adj. |
Mnemonic: C'est introduces a noun (with article); il/elle est describes a known referent or names a bare profession. Drill: errors/c-est-vs-il-est.
8. Imperative pronoun position: affirmative vs negative
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Me donne le livre. | Donne-moi le livre. | Affirmative imperative: pronouns post-verbal, me → moi. |
| Ne donne-moi pas. | Ne me donne pas. | Negative imperative: pronouns pre-verbal, moi → me. |
| Donne-moi-le. | Donne-le-moi. | Affirmative: direct object before indirect after the verb. |
Mnemonic: Drill the affirmative/negative pair as one unit: donne-le-moi / ne me le donne pas. Drill: errors/imperative-pronoun-position.
9. Aller + à + infinitive (futur proche has no preposition)
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Je vais à partir. | Je vais partir. | Futur proche is aller + bare infinitive. No à. |
| Je vais à chercher du pain. | Je vais chercher du pain. | Aller chercher is bare-infinitive verb pair. |
Mnemonic: Treat aller in the futur proche as an auxiliary, like will in English — auxiliaries take bare infinitives. Drill: errors/aller-a-infinitive-confusion.
10. Want someone to do (vouloir que + subjunctive)
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Je veux toi à faire ça. | Je veux que tu fasses ça. | Different subjects require que + subjunctive, not an English-style infinitive complement. |
Mnemonic: When the subject changes, French inserts que and shifts to the subjunctive. The English structure I want you to V has no French parallel. Drill: errors/want-someone-to-do.
11. Manquer: I miss you = tu me manques
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Je te manque. | Tu me manques. | Manquer inverts subject and object: the missed person is the subject. |
Mnemonic: Tu (you, the missed one) me (to me) manques (are lacking). The person missed is the grammatical subject. Drill: errors/manquer-i-miss-you.
12. Subjunctive after negated belief
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Je ne pense pas qu'il vient. | Je ne pense pas qu'il vienne. | Negated mental verbs trigger the subjunctive. |
Mnemonic: When you say you do not believe / think / find, the embedded clause becomes hypothetical — and hypothetical means subjunctive. Drill: errors/subjunctive-after-negated-belief.
13. Ne drop in spoken French (and false drop in writing)
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Je veux pas. (in formal writing) | Je ne veux pas. | The ne is dropped in casual speech but must appear in writing and formal speech. |
Mnemonic: Ne is silent in casual chat, mandatory in writing. The two registers do not mix. Drill: errors/ne-drop-confusion.
14. Past participle agreement
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Les fleurs que j'ai acheté. | Les fleurs que j'ai achetées. | With avoir + preceding direct object, the participle agrees with the DO. |
| La porte est fermé. | La porte est fermée. | With être, the participle agrees with the subject. |
Mnemonic: Avoir: agreement only when DO precedes. Être: always agrees with subject. Drill: errors/participle-agreement.
15. Savoir in the passé composé means found out
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| J'ai su le français. (intended: I knew French) | Je savais le français. | The passé composé of savoir means found out, not knew. |
Mnemonic: J'ai su = I found out. Je savais = I knew. Same logic for connaître, vouloir, pouvoir — these stative verbs change meaning in the passé composé. Drill: errors/savoir-passe-compose-meaning.
16. False friends
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Je suis embarrassée. (intended: I'm embarrassed) | Je suis gênée. | Embarrassée means encumbered or pregnant, not embarrassed. |
| Actuellement (intended: actually) | En fait. | Actuellement means currently, not actually. |
| Sensible (intended: sensible) | Raisonnable. | Sensible means sensitive, not sensible. |
Mnemonic: When a word looks identical between English and French, distrust it — the meaning has often drifted. Drill: errors/false-friends.
17. Quand + future tense (English uses present)
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Quand j'arrive, je t'appelle. (intended future) | Quand j'arriverai, je t'appellerai. | French uses the future after quand when the meaning is future. English uses the present. |
Mnemonic: Quand + future = real future. Quand + present = habitual. Drill: syntax/quand-with-future.
18. Plus (more) vs plus (no more) ambiguity
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Je veux plus de pain. (intended: I want more bread) | Je veux encore du pain. | After negation drop, plus sounds like no more; clearer to use encore. |
Mnemonic: Plus with ne = no more (final s silent). Plus alone in affirmative = more (final s often pronounced). When in doubt, use encore for more. Drill: adverbs/quantifiers.
19. Definite article with general nouns
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| J'aime café. | J'aime le café. | French requires the definite article before nouns used in a general sense. |
| Je n'aime pas musique. | Je n'aime pas la musique. | Same rule under negation. |
Mnemonic: J'aime / je déteste / je préfère + always an article. English drops the article for generics; French does not. Drill: determiners/definite-article-uses.
20. Word order with adverbs of frequency
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Je toujours mange à midi. | Je mange toujours à midi. | French places frequency adverbs after the verb, not before. |
| J'ai souvent allé en Italie. | Je suis souvent allé en Italie. | In compound tenses the adverb goes between auxiliary and participle. |
Mnemonic: French adverbs land after the simple verb or between auxiliary and participle. Drill: adverbs/position-rules.
Quick-scan diagnostic table
This table is for fast lookup: read across, find the symptom, jump to the drill page.
| Symptom you wrote | Likely error | Drill page |
|---|---|---|
| je suis before a sensation | Should be j'ai | errors/avoir-vs-etre-sensations |
| j'ai allé / j'ai venu / j'ai parti | Wrong auxiliary, should be être | errors/auxiliary-confusion |
| à after écouter, regarder, attendre, chercher | Drop the à | errors/preposition-after-verbs |
| no preposition after téléphoner, répondre, obéir | Add à | errors/preposition-after-verbs |
| si + conditional | Use si + imperfect instead | errors/si-with-conditional |
| le before maison / voiture / table | Should be la | errors/gender-of-nouns |
| la before problème / livre / verre | Should be le | errors/gender-of-nouns |
| ai habité depuis | Use the present with depuis | errors/depuis-tense-confusion |
| il est un + noun | Should be c'est un + noun | errors/c-est-vs-il-est |
| me / te before affirmative imperative | Should be moi / toi after the verb | errors/imperative-pronoun-position |
| moi / toi after negative imperative | Should be me / te before the verb | errors/imperative-pronoun-position |
| à between aller and infinitive | Drop the à | errors/aller-a-infinitive-confusion |
| je veux toi à faire | Use je veux que + subjunctive | errors/want-someone-to-do |
| je te manque (intended: I miss you) | Should be tu me manques | errors/manquer-i-miss-you |
| je ne pense pas qu'il vient | Use the subjunctive vienne | errors/subjunctive-after-negated-belief |
| je veux pas in a formal letter | Restore the ne in writing | errors/ne-drop-confusion |
| les fleurs que j'ai acheté | Add the agreement: achetées | errors/participle-agreement |
| j'ai su meaning I knew | Should be je savais (imparfait) | errors/savoir-passe-compose-meaning |
| embarrassée, sensible, actuellement used English-style | Look up the false-friend | errors/false-friends |
| quand j'arrive meaning future | Should be quand j'arriverai | syntax/quand-with-future |
Higher-level errors (B1–B2)
The errors above are the high-frequency anglophone problems. As you reach B1 and B2, a second tier of errors emerges — subtler structural mismatches that intermediate learners fossilize without noticing.
Negation expressions: ne ... que, ne ... rien, ne ... personne, ne ... aucun
The ne is part of every negation in standard French. Learners who become comfortable with ne ... pas sometimes forget that other negative expressions also need the ne.
❌ Je veux que du pain.
Wrong — *que* alone is not a restrictive marker.
✅ Je ne veux que du pain.
I only want bread.
❌ J'ai vu personne.
Wrong — *personne* needs *ne*.
✅ Je n'ai vu personne.
I didn't see anyone.
Subjunctive vs indicative after impersonal expressions
Il faut que + subjunctive. Il est possible que + subjunctive. Il est probable que + indicative (probability is judged certain enough). Il est évident que + indicative. The boundary between certainty (indicative) and possibility (subjunctive) is not always intuitive.
Il faut qu'on parte tôt demain matin.
We need to leave early tomorrow morning.
Il est probable qu'il viendra.
He'll probably come. (indicative — high certainty)
Il est possible qu'il vienne.
He might come. (subjunctive — uncertainty)
Sequence of tenses in indirect speech
When the reporting verb is in the past, the embedded clause shifts tense. Present → imparfait; passé composé → plus-que-parfait; futur → conditionnel. Anglophones often leave the embedded tense in the speaker's original time.
Il a dit qu'il viendra demain. (intended: he said he would come)
Wrong — past reporting verb requires shift to *viendrait*.
Il a dit qu'il viendrait demain.
He said he would come tomorrow.
On as the everyday we
Intermediate learners often keep using nous in conversation, where native speakers use on almost exclusively. Nous survives in writing and formal speech; in conversation it is markedly stiff.
On va au resto ce soir, tu veux venir ?
We're going to the restaurant tonight, want to come?
On a beaucoup aimé le film, c'était drôle.
We really liked the film, it was funny.
Pronominal verbs misanalyzed as reflexive
Many se-verbs are not reflexive in meaning — se souvenir, se rendre compte, s'en aller, se moquer, se servir. The se is grammatically required but does not mean oneself.
Je me souviens de toi très bien.
I remember you very well.
Elle s'est rendu compte qu'elle avait oublié son sac.
She realized she had forgotten her bag.
How to use this page
Three practical workflows:
1. Self-correction after writing. When you finish a French sentence, scan the diagnostic table for any of the symptoms in your sentence. If one matches, jump to the drill page and rebuild the sentence correctly.
2. Targeted study by error category. Pick one error from the top-20 list each week. Spend twenty minutes on the dedicated drill page. Then watch native French content (YouTube, Netflix, podcasts) for a week and notice every time a French speaker uses the correct construction. The combination of explicit study and noticing input is what fossilizes the correct form.
3. Pair drilling. For each error, create a pair card — wrong form on one side, right form on the other, with the rule. Review daily until you can no longer remember why anyone would say the wrong form. That blank-mind state, where the error feels alien, is the marker that the correction has stuck.
Common Mistakes
This page is itself a list of common mistakes, but here are five compound errors worth flagging — sentences where two transfer patterns combine to produce especially anglophone-sounding French.
❌ Je suis allé à voyager en Espagne et j'ai été chaud tout le temps.
Three errors: *suis allé* with infinitive should be *vais voyager*; *à* before infinitive is wrong; *j'ai été chaud* should be *j'avais chaud*.
✅ Je vais voyager en Espagne et j'aurai chaud tout le temps.
I'm going to travel to Spain and I'll be hot the whole time.
❌ Si je serais riche, je voudrais que tu venais avec moi.
*Si* + conditional is wrong, and *vouloir que* requires the subjunctive.
✅ Si j'étais riche, je voudrais que tu viennes avec moi.
If I were rich, I'd want you to come with me.
❌ Il est un médecin et il est intelligent — c'est intelligent !
*Il est un* should be *c'est un*; the final *c'est intelligent* should be *il est intelligent* (specific person).
✅ C'est un médecin et il est intelligent.
He's a doctor and he's intelligent.
❌ Donne-moi-le tout de suite, ne donne-le pas à ton frère !
Affirmative order is *donne-le-moi*; negative imperative needs pre-verbal *ne le donne pas*.
✅ Donne-le-moi tout de suite, ne le donne pas à ton frère !
Give it to me right away, don't give it to your brother!
❌ J'ai habité à Paris depuis trois ans et je te manque beaucoup.
*Depuis* + passé composé is wrong; *je te manque* means *you miss me*, not *I miss you*.
✅ J'habite à Paris depuis trois ans et tu me manques beaucoup.
I've been living in Paris for three years and I miss you a lot.
The compound errors are the most useful diagnostic of all, because they show how the individual transfer patterns interact. When you can correct a sentence with three errors at once — naming each pattern as you go — you have moved from rote memorization of rules to genuine structural understanding of how French differs from English. That is the threshold where anglophone errors stop being persistent leaks and start being occasional slips, easily caught in self-revision.
Now practice French
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Start learning French→Related Topics
- Les Erreurs Communes pour AnglophonesB1 — An index of the systematic errors English speakers make in French — auxiliary confusion, preposition mismatches, subjunctive triggers, false friends, and a dozen more — with links to dedicated drill pages for each.
- Confusion sur l'Auxiliaire (avoir/être)A2 — English uses *to have* for every compound past; French splits the work between *avoir* and *être*. A drill on the maison d'être verbs, pronominal verbs, and the transitive switch that flips the auxiliary back to avoir.
- C'est vs Il/Elle Est: confusionA2 — When do you say *c'est intelligent* and when do you say *il est intelligent*? French keeps the two patterns rigorously separate, while English uses *it is* and *he is* almost interchangeably. Drill the four-quadrant decision.
- Position des Pronoms à l'ImpératifA2 — Affirmative imperatives put the pronoun after the verb with hyphens, negative imperatives put it before — anglophones flip the rule constantly. Drill the asymmetry until it feels automatic.
- Aller + Infinitif: pas de 'à'A1 — Anglophones import the English 'going to' as *aller à* + infinitive — but French futur proche has no preposition. Learn when *aller* takes *à*, when it doesn't, and why.
- Le Genre: erreurs fréquentesA2 — Anglophones invent the wrong gender for French nouns more often than any other error — a drill of the high-frequency traps, the misleading endings, and the only learning strategy that actually works.