French registers: from slang to literary French

Four floors of the same building

French has a clear register ladder. Soutenu is for speeches, literature and formal letters. Courant is neutral, good for almost anything. Familier is relaxed speech with friends and family. Argotique (slang) belongs to particular groups and changes fast. Native speakers slide between floors all day; at C2 you need to pick the right one deliberately, and to know when a word you heard on the street would sound strange in an email.

• 🔊Je dois me rendre à mon lieu de travail.I must go to my place of work. (soutenu)
• 🔊Je dois aller au travail.I have to go to work. (courant)
• 🔊Faut que j'aille au boulot.Gotta go to work. (familier)
• 🔊Faut que je file au taf.Gotta head to work. (argot)

Verlan: slang in reverse

Verlan flips the syllables of a word, and often trims or reshapes the vowels. It started as a code in working-class neighbourhoods and some words are now ordinary familiar French. Words can even be re-verlanised: arabe → beur → rebeu. Recognise them; use them only if you're sure of your audience.

• 🔊C'est chelou, ce truc.That thing is weird. (louche → chelou)
• 🔊Il est relou, lui.He's so annoying. (lourd → relou)
• 🔊C'est un truc de ouf !That's insane! (fou → ouf)

Recognise first, produce rarely

Classic novels follow a strict rule: after a past main verb, the subjunctive goes into the past too. Modern French simply uses the present subjunctive instead. You will meet these forms in Hugo, Flaubert, Senghor or Camara Laye, in legal prose and in very formal speeches. Learn to recognise them; only a few frozen phrases are used actively today.

• 🔊Il fallait qu'elle vienne. (moderne)She had to come.
• 🔊Il fallait qu'elle vînt. (littéraire)She had to come.

The pluperfect subjunctive: two jobs

Qu'il eût fait is the past of qu'il fît. But it has a second job: in elegant prose it can replace the past conditional. Il eût fallu means exactly il aurait fallu. This is sometimes called the « conditionnel passé deuxième forme ».

• 🔊On eût dit un prince.You'd have thought he was a prince.
• 🔊Elle eût préféré se taire.She would have preferred to keep quiet.

When ne travels without pas

In formal French, ne sometimes appears alone. With savoir, pouvoir, oser and cesser it is still negative (je ne saurais dire = I couldn't say). In ne… point it's simply an older, stronger negative. You will see both in literature, in sermons and in jokey imitations of old-fashioned speech.

• 🔊Je ne saurais vous répondre.I couldn't possibly answer you.
• 🔊Il ne cesse de se plaindre.He never stops complaining.
• 🔊Va, je ne te hais point.Go, I do not hate you. (Corneille, Le Cid)

The ne explétif: a ne that means nothing

After avant que, à moins que, de peur que, craindre que, empêcher que and comparisons (plus… que), careful French often adds ne. It does not make the sentence negative. Leave it out in speech if you like; add it in formal writing. To make the clause truly negative you still need pas.

• 🔊Partons avant qu'il ne soit trop tard.Let's go before it's too late.
• 🔊C'est plus difficile que je ne pensais.It's harder than I thought.

Adverb first, verb and subject swapped

When à peine, peut-être, aussi (« therefore »), sans doute, encore or ainsi open a sentence, formal French inverts the subject and verb, just as in a question. With a noun subject, keep the noun and add a pronoun: Peut-être le ministre viendra-t-il.

• 🔊Sans doute a-t-elle raison.She's probably right.
• 🔊Ainsi s'achève notre voyage.Thus ends our journey.

The formal letter: a ritual

French formal letters (to a ministry, a court, a landlord) follow a fixed ritual. Open with the title alone (Madame, / Monsieur le Directeur,), never a name. State your reason in the first line. Close with a long formula that repeats your opening title. Work emails are lighter (Bonjour Madame Diop, … Cordialement), but the letter still rules in administration, from Paris to Dakar.

• 🔊Monsieur le Directeur,Dear Sir, (to a director)
• 🔊Dans l'attente de votre réponse, …Looking forward to your reply, …

Texting: write it as you say it

French texting squeezes spoken French: initials (mdr, jsp, tkt), sounds (c = c'est, g = j'ai, koi = quoi), and dropped ne. It's all familiar register. Never let it leak into a work email, but do learn to read it: your friends and colleagues will text you this way.

• 🔊tkt g fini, c bondon't worry, I've finished, it's fine
• 🔊dsl jsp si je peux venirsorry, dunno if I can come

Scene: one day, three registers

Fatou Ndiaye, a lawyer from Saint-Louis in Senegal, works in Lyon. Her client's car was towed by mistake. She must write to the town hall, explain it to a colleague, and text her cousin Moussa. Same facts, three voices.