Four ways to make your French sound better.

Once you get the basics down, you'll want to spice up your French with some authentic touches. Here are four tips for sounding as if you've spent some time in France.

Tip number 1: feel free to use the present when describing things that happened in the past.

Think of this as being "in the moment." In this sample, the interviewer is talking about the past, but he puts part of his question in the present and part in the imperfect.

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Tip number 2: you can sometimes end a list of details with "et..." instead of translating "and so forth" or "etcetera."

This happens twice in our Monet/Giverny interview. Here is one of those times.

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Tip number 3: say "c'est à dire," drop your tone of voice, and stick out your lips when giving a second, alternate description of something.

I had an English-born French teacher who told me that the English call the French "froggies" because they stick out their lips when they are speaking. Can you hear the speaker stick out his lips when he says "c'est à dire une prairie" ? First, listen to the speaker, then try it yourself; make your voice deep, stick out your lips and say, "c'est à dire..."

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Tip number 4: for clarity, specify who or what "lui" is by adding the proper noun back into the sentence.

Here, the speaker says "lui" (to him) but realizes that he needs to clarify who "lui" is. So he adds "to Durand-Ruel" into the sentence. This is very French. Once you can do this, you are truly a "smooth talker."

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