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Il parle mal français.

Il parle mal français.
He speaks French badly.
From Lesson 57:Why and because (pourquoi, parce que)·French

Breakdown of Il parle mal français.

français
French
parler
to speak
mal
badly; pain

Questions & Answers about Il parle mal français.

Why does mal come right after parle instead of at the end of the sentence?
In French, short adverbs like mal (badly) and bien (well) usually go directly after the conjugated verb. So instead of saying 'He speaks French badly' like in English, you say the equivalent of 'He speaks badly French' (Il parle mal français).
Why isn't the word français capitalized here?
In English, we always capitalize languages. In French, languages are treated as regular nouns and start with a lowercase letter. You only capitalize nationalities when talking about a specific person, like un Français (a Frenchman).
Don't languages usually need le or la in front of them? Why isn't it le français?
You're right that languages usually take a definite article, like in J'aime le français (I like French). However, immediately after the verb parler (to speak), the article is almost always dropped.
How does this sentence fit into a lesson about giving reasons with parce que?
This sentence makes a perfect reason! If someone asks Pourquoi est-il timide ? (Why is he shy?), you can answer Parce qu'il parle mal français (Because he speaks French badly). Notice that parce que becomes parce qu' before a vowel, like the i in il.

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