Learn Hardcore French: Nous parlons français pendant la pause-café.

nous parlons
- More formal or neutral.
- Common in writing, in careful speech, and in school textbooks.
- Very clear, standard subject pronoun.
on parle
- Literally means "one speaks", but in everyday French it very often means "we speak".
- Very common in casual spoken French.
- Conjugated like il/elle: on parle, not on parlons.

In a real conversation, many French speakers would naturally say:
On parle français pendant la pause-café.
But for learners and in written examples, Nous parlons français... is a good, clear model.

How is parlons formed? What are the other forms of parler in the present tense?

Parler is a regular -er verb. The stem is parl-, and you add the present endings:

je parle – I speak / I am speaking
tu parles – you speak (singular, informal)
il/elle/on parle – he/she/one/we (spoken) speaks
nous parlons – we speak
vous parlez – you speak (plural or formal)
ils/elles parlent – they speak

Pattern: parl + e, es, e, ons, ez, ent

In the sentence Nous parlons français..., parlons is the nous form of parler in the present tense.

In English we say “we are speaking” for a current action. Why is French just nous parlons and not something like nous sommes parlant?

French usually uses the simple present for both:

Nous parlons français.
= We speak French.
= We are speaking French (right now).

The form nous sommes parlant is incorrect.

If you really want to emphasize that it’s happening right now, you can add en train de:

Nous sommes en train de parler français pendant la pause-café.
= We are in the process of speaking French during the coffee break.

But most of the time, simple nous parlons is enough for both meanings in French.

Why is there no article before français? Why not nous parlons le français?

After the verb parler, French normally drops the article before a language:

Je parle français, anglais et espagnol.
Ils parlent allemand à la maison.

So:
✅ Nous parlons français pendant la pause-café.
❌ Nous parlons le français pendant la pause-café. (sounds odd in normal speech)

You might see le français when it means the French language as a subject or object of study, not just “speaking French”:

J’aime le français. = I like French (the language as a subject).
Le français est une langue difficile pour certains.

But with parler + language, the usual pattern is no article.

Is français here a noun or an adjective? And why is it not capitalized?

In Nous parlons français, français functions as a noun meaning the French language.

French rules:

Nationality / language as an adjective (describing a person or thing)
- Not capitalized:
  - un professeur français – a French teacher
  - des étudiants français – French students
Nationality as a noun (person)
- Capitalized:
  - un Français – a Frenchman
  - une Française – a Frenchwoman
Name of the language as a noun
- Usually not capitalized in French:
  - le français, le chinois, l’allemand

So français is not capitalized here because in French, language names are normally written with a lowercase initial.

What exactly does pendant mean here? Could I use durant or lors de instead?

In this sentence, pendant indicates the time period during which the action happens:

Nous parlons français pendant la pause-café.
= We speak French during the coffee break.

Alternatives:

durant
- Very close in meaning to pendant.
- Slightly more formal or literary, but often interchangeable:
  - Nous parlons français durant la pause-café.
lors de
- Means “on the occasion of / at the time of”, more formal and used with nouns:
  - Nous parlons français lors de la pause-café. – We speak French at the time of the coffee break.
- Feels more written/formal or used for specific events, meetings, conferences, etc.

For everyday speech, pendant is the most natural here.

Could I say pendant la pause-café, nous parlons français? Does changing the word order change the meaning?

Yes, both are correct:

Nous parlons français pendant la pause-café.
Pendant la pause-café, nous parlons français.

The meaning is the same: We speak French during the coffee break.

The difference is only in emphasis:

Starting with Pendant la pause-café puts more focus on when it happens.
Starting with Nous parlons puts more focus on what you do (speaking French).

In writing, when the time phrase is at the beginning, you usually follow it with a comma:
Pendant la pause-café, nous parlons français.

What does pause-café mean exactly? Is it just a literal “coffee break”?

Yes, la pause-café literally means “the coffee break”, but it can be slightly broader:

Typically a short break at work, at school, or during training.
People might drink coffee, but they might also just chat, stretch, check their phone, etc.

Grammar and vocabulary notes:

It’s feminine: une pause-café, la pause-café.
It’s a compound noun: pause
- café, joined with a hyphen.
You’ll also see pause déjeuner (lunch break), pause cigarette, etc.

So in context, pendant la pause-café is during that informal break time.

Why is it la pause-café and not le pause-café?

Because the word pause is feminine in French:

une pause – a break
la pause – the break

When you make the compound pause-café, the gender comes from pause, not from café. So the whole expression stays feminine:

une pause-café
la pause-café

Just like:

une pause déjeuner – a lunch break
une pause pub – a commercial break (on TV)

How do you pronounce the whole sentence Nous parlons français pendant la pause-café?

Approximate guide with English hints (not perfect, but helpful):

Nous → [nu]
- Like “new” but without the y-sound; closer to “noo”.
parlons → [par-lon]
- r is the French guttural r in the throat.
- -ons is a nasal sound [õ]; you don’t pronounce a clear n at the end.
français → [fran-sè] roughly [frɑ̃-sɛ]
- fran- has a nasal vowel [ɑ̃], like “frahn” through the nose.
- Final -s is silent.
- Final -ais here sounds like open è [ɛ].
pendant → [pan-dan] roughly [pɑ̃-dɑ̃]
- Both en and an are nasal, similar to “pahn-dahn” through the nose.
- Final t is silent.
la → [la]
pause → [poz]
- Like “pose” in English.
café → [ka-fé]
- Stress naturally falls towards the end; é is a clear [e], like “ay”.

Join it smoothly:

Nous parlons français pendant la pause-café.
[nu par-lõ frɑ̃-sɛ pɑ̃-dɑ̃ la poz ka-fe]

Could I say à la pause-café instead of pendant la pause-café?

You can, but there’s a nuance:

pendant la pause-café
- Focuses on the whole duration of the break.
- Implies that during that period, you speak French.
à la pause-café
- More like “at coffee break time / at the coffee break”.
- Can sound more like a point in time or an occasion.

Both can be understood, but for the idea “we speak French during the coffee break”, pendant is the most natural standard choice.

Do we always have to use the subject pronoun nous in French? Can it be dropped like in Spanish?

In standard French, you must use the subject pronoun. You cannot drop it:

✅ Nous parlons français.
❌ Parlons français. (this is wrong as a normal sentence; it would only work as an imperative: “let’s speak French!”)

Unlike Spanish or Italian, French verbs usually do not carry enough information by themselves to allow you to omit the subject pronoun in normal sentences. So:

Je parle, tu parles, nous parlons, etc. → pronoun is required.

Is Nous parlons français pendant la pause-café talking about a habit or just one specific occasion?

The present tense in French can express either:

A habit / regular action:
- Nous parlons français pendant la pause-café.
  = We (normally) speak French during the coffee break (every day / usually).
A current action (right now):
- Someone asks what you’re doing, and you say:
  Nous parlons français pendant la pause-café.
  = We are speaking French during the coffee break.

Context will decide whether it’s a habit or a current, one-time situation. The sentence itself can cover both.