Imagine sending the same message three times: a text to your best friend, an email to the manager of the summer camp where you want to work, and a note to your host family in Brussels. The facts are the same, but the French is not. French makes you show your relationship with the listener in almost every sentence: tu or vous, t'as or as-tu, on or nous, bouquin or livre. That is register (le registre de langue). On top of that, French is spoken on five continents, and everyday words change from place to place: if a friend in Montréal or Brussels invites you to dîner, show up at noon; if a friend in Paris does, show up in the evening. None of these varieties is wrong. A Grade 11 speaker notices the differences, understands them, and picks the form that suits the person in front of them.
Tu or vous?
| Situation | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| a friend, a classmate, a family member, a child | tu | a close or equal relationship |
| a store clerk, a stranger, an older adult you do not know | vous | politeness and distance |
| a job interview, an email to an employer or an organisation | vous | a formal situation, even if the person is young |
| two or more people, even close friends | vous | vous is also simply the plural of tu: Vous venez, les gars? → Are you coming, guys? |
| someone who has offered On peut se tutoyer? | tu | they have invited the switch; accept it |
When in doubt, start with vous
Using vous with someone who expected tu sounds a little stiff; using tu with someone who expected vous can sound rude. So begin with vous and let the other person suggest the switch: Vous pouvez me tutoyer (You can call me tu) or On se tutoie? (Shall we use tu?). Once you start with tu or vous in a message, keep it the same all the way through, including the possessives: ton / ta / tes go with tu, votre / vos with vous.
Three registers
| Familier (friends, texts) | Courant (everyday, neutral) | Soutenu (formal writing, speeches) | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| T'as faim? | Tu as faim? / Est-ce que tu as faim? | As-tu faim? / Avez-vous faim? | Are you hungry? |
| J'sais pas. | Je ne sais pas. | Je l'ignore. | I don't know. |
| C'est pas grave. | Ce n'est pas grave. | Cela n'a aucune importance. | It doesn't matter. |
| un bouquin | un livre | un ouvrage | a book |
| Ça marche! | D'accord. | Entendu. | OK, agreed. |
| On y va? | On y va? / Nous y allons? | Y allons-nous? / Partons-nous? | Shall we go? |
The three meanings of on
| Meaning | Example | English |
|---|---|---|
| we (very common in speech, in place of nous) | Samedi, on va au chalet. | On Saturday, we're going to the cottage. |
| people in general, one, you | En Belgique, on dit septante pour 70. | In Belgium, people say septante for 70. |
| someone (an unknown person; often an English passive) | On m'a volé mon vélo. | Someone stole my bike. / My bike was stolen. |
| someone, as a sign or rule | Ici, on parle français. | French is spoken here. |
How on agrees
The verb is always third-person singular: on est, on a, on va, on finit. When on means we, adjectives and past participles with être usually agree with the real people, and this is accepted in writing too: On est arrivés en retard (we arrived late, a mixed group), Ma sœur et moi, on est contentes. The matching possessive and stressed pronoun are the nous forms: On a pris nos sacs. Nous, on reste. When on means people or someone, agreement is usually masculine singular: Quand on est fatigué, on dort mal. In formal writing you may see l'on after et, où, si or que for a smoother sound: si l'on veut.
Regional French: same language, different words
| English | Québec and French Canada | France | Belgique | Suisse romande |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| breakfast | le déjeuner | le petit déjeuner | le déjeuner | le déjeuner |
| lunch (noon) | le dîner | le déjeuner | le dîner | le dîner |
| supper (evening) | le souper | le dîner | le souper | le souper |
| 70 · 80 · 90 | soixante-dix · quatre-vingts · quatre-vingt-dix | soixante-dix · quatre-vingts · quatre-vingt-dix | septante · quatre-vingts · nonante | septante · huitante (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg) or quatre-vingts · nonante |
| a tip | un pourboire | un pourboire | un pourboire, familiarly une dringuelle | un pourboire or une bonne-main |
| a mobile phone | un cellulaire, un cell | un portable | un GSM | un natel |
| the weekend | la fin de semaine (also le week-end) | le week-end | le week-end | le week-end |
- Québec and French Canada: un dépanneur (a convenience store), magasiner (to go shopping; France says faire les magasins or faire du shopping), un courriel (an email; the word was proposed in Québec and is now officially recommended in France too). Many Québécois answer merci with bienvenue or ça fait plaisir (you're welcome), where France usually says de rien or je vous en prie.
- Belgique: un kot (a student room), une dringuelle (a tip, familiar), un GSM (a mobile phone).
- Suisse romande: un natel (a mobile phone), la bonne-main (a tip), huitante (80) in the cantons of Vaud, Valais and Fribourg.
- Africa: une essencerie (a gas station, especially in Senegal), cadeauter (to give as a gift, common in West Africa: Il m'a cadeauté ce livre → He gave me this book as a gift). Written and formal French in Africa follows the same standard as elsewhere; regional words show up mostly in speech, the press and literature.
- Léa (Montréal): Salut! On dîne ensemble samedi? → Hi! Shall we have dîner together on Saturday?
- Camille (Paris): Avec plaisir! Vers 20 h? → Gladly! Around 8 p.m.?
- Léa: 20 h? Mais le dîner, c'est à midi! Le soir, on soupe. → 8 p.m.? But dîner is at noon! In the evening, we have souper.
- Noé (Lausanne): Chez nous, en Suisse, c'est pareil: on dîne à midi et on soupe le soir. → At home in Switzerland it's the same: we have dîner at noon and souper in the evening.
- Camille: D'accord, alors on déjeune à midi, comme on dit à Paris! → OK, so we'll have déjeuner at noon, as we say in Paris!
- Noé: Parfait. Et j'apporte le gâteau, il coûte huitante francs… pardon Camille, quatre-vingts! → Perfect. And I'm bringing the cake, it costs huitante francs… sorry Camille, quatre-vingts!
Regional does not mean incorrect
Québec, Belgium and Switzerland each have their own educated standard usage, heard from news anchors and used by writers and governments: the grammar is shared, and the regional words sit alongside it. Dîner at noon is not a mistake in Montréal; it is the older French usage, which Québec, Belgium and Switzerland kept and Paris changed. What matters is matching your audience: use the local word when you know where your reader is, and the widely understood standard word (petit déjeuner, pourboire, téléphone portable) when you write for everyone.