The half of a conversation this course has not taught
You can ask for things, thank people and apologise. What you cannot yet do is answer — agree, hedge, decline, or react. These eleven words do almost all of that work in spoken French.
Agreeing, and the register ladder
| word | register | what it does |
|---|---|---|
| ok | informal, everywhere | plain agreement |
| ça marche | informal | works for me — agreeing to a plan |
| avec plaisir | polite | accepting an offer warmly |
| pas de problème | neutral | no problem — after thanks, or agreeing to a favour |
| That works, I am booking a table. | Ça marche, je réserve une table. |
Avec plaisir is the one to reach for when someone invites you. Oui alone is correct but flat.
Hedging and reacting
Ça dépend is the single most useful hedge in the language — it buys you a whole sentence of thinking time.
| It depends on my appointment. | Ça dépend de mon rendez-vous. |
Ça y est marks a thing just completed: there we go, done. Super and félicitations are the reactions — one for a thing, one for a person.
Disagreeing without being rude
Pas du tout is an emphatic not at all, and it is a full answer on its own. Moi non plus is me neither — the mirror of moi aussi, and you must use it after a negative:
| She does not like fish, and me neither. | Elle n'aime pas le poisson, et moi non plus. |
Moi aussi after a negative sentence is a beginner's mistake that French speakers notice immediately.
The tag question
N'est-ce pas turns any statement into a question expecting agreement — English isn't it, aren't you, right, all in one invariable phrase.
| That is your car, isn't it? | C'est ta voiture, n'est-ce pas ? |
