Coucou à tous, c'est encore Caroline pour un nouvel article. Last time we talked about tips for improving your listening comprehension (if you haven’t read the article yet, you can find the it here). Today, in this second part, I will teach you several words that you will never learn at school, but that are actually used by French speakers all the time.

 

If you recall, last time we saw that the way we speak is distorted due to the “smooshing” of words together by French speakers. However, this is unfortunately not the only obstacle to full and fluent comprehension. Another difficulty stems from the fact that French people often litter their speech with meaningless words. The same phenomenon actually exists in English too, with words like "you see" or "like" used frequently in normal conversation.

 

These words are called fillers. We have large amount of them in French and this article will teach you how to use four of them. And we're not just going to see useless fillers here today. The ones you will learn will help you sound more natural and have a better flow in your spoken French.

 

Ah bon

 

Let's start with the first one! It’s ah bon.

 

This little expression is perfect for when you want to express surprise. In English, we could translate it as "really?" For example, if your friend tells you that her son has won the lottery, you can react by using ah bon!

 

  • Mon fils vient de gagner au loto (My son just won the lottery).
  • Ah bon ?
  • Oui, il m'a téléphoné hier pour me l'annoncer (Yeah, he called yesterday to tell me).

 

When you use this expression, it doesn’t indicate a need for clarification or more details. The person that you're talking to will generally just say a "yes" to confirm that the event really happened, and then he or she will just go on talking about it. Basically, it's a good expression for showing interest in what the other person is saying.

 

However, depending on what the person you're speaking to is saying, the intonation will be different. In fact, there are two distinct intonations: an ascending one and a descending one. In the example above, you would use the ascending one because the news is positive; bon being said at a bit higher pitch. However, if on the contrary the news is bad, you will use a descending intonation.

 

For example, your friend is telling you that her mother is at the hospital:

 

  • Ma mère a eu un accident, elle est à l'hôpital (My mother was in an accident, she's at the hospital).
  • Ah bon... (here, ah bon is not said as a question).
  • Oui, elle est tombée dans les escaliers hier (Yeah, she fell down the stairs yesterday).

 

Bah dis donc or Ben dis donc

 

Our second expression is not only used to show surprise, but also shock. In other words, you can't believe what the person just said or did.

 

There are two ways of saying this expression: bah dis donc or ben dis donc. You can choose whichever one you prefer or feel comfortable with, there's absolutely no difference. In both of these two expressions, the c is silent.

 

As with our first phrase, these words convey a different meaning depending on the intonation. An ascending intonation is used to show a positive shock. In the example below, bah dis donc is stronger than ah bon:

 

  • Mon fils vient de gagner au loto (My son just won the lottery).
  • Bah dis donc !
  • Oui, il m'a téléphoné hier pour me l'annoncer (Yeah, he called yesterday to tell me).

 

On the contrary, while a descending intonation is similarly used to show shock, it can also be used to show your disapproval of what's just been said, depending on the situation.

 

Let’s look at the hospital example from earlier, where bah dis donc is being used instead of ah bon:

 

  • Ma mère a eu un accident, elle est à l'hôpital (My mother was in an accident, she's at the hospital).
  • Bah dis donc... (Oh my gosh).
  • Oui, elle est tombée dans les escaliers hier (Yeah, she fell down the stairs yesterday).

 

Now, let’s look at an example of this expression being used to convey a negative shock:

 

  • Bah dis donc, je m'attendais pas à ce que ce film soit si mauvais (Oh my, I wasn't expecting this movie to be so bad).

 

Please note that you can't use ah bon in this last example, even though it involves a surprise. This is because ah bon is always used as a reaction to something somebody else has said. It cannot be used on its own, whereas bah dis donc can be.

 

In addition to using this phrase to express shock in a conversation, you can also use it to react to a situation that is happening right in front of your eyes. The perfect example would be when somebody cuts in front of you in line while you are waiting there patiently.

 

It can be used to either express this shock to yourself or a friend, or to speak directly to the person who is misbehaving. For example:

 

To yourself or to your friend:

 

  • Bah dis donc, c'est quoi ce gars qui passe devant tout le monde (What? What the heck is with this guy who just cut the line).

 

To the misbehaving person:

 

  • Bah dis donc monsieur, vous gênez pas (That’s right Sir, just go for it).

 

In this example, we could simply say monsieur, vous gênez pas, but adding a bah dis donc adds the implied notion of "what the heck did you just do." Also, please note that the English translation for this sentence is intended to be said sarcastically.

 

Euh and Ben

 

Sometimes when you are speaking, you don't really know what to say or how to react. You just need time to think. This brings us to our third useful phrase. Too often, when learners don't know what to say they become paralyzed and frozen. They lose all their confidence! But fear not, there's a solution for that. That solution is euh. Yes! This little word is magic. When you need time to think about what you're going to say or if you're simply not sure about something, just say euh.

 

For example:

 

  • Qu'est-ce que tu penses du dernier livre de Marc Levy? (What do you think of Marc Levy's last book?).
  • Euh... J'ai pas trop aimé parce que euh... (Well… I didn't really like it… um…).

 

Another little word that works just like euh is ben.  

 

For example:

 

  • Qu'est-ce que tu penses du dernier livre de Marc Levy? (What do you think of Marc Levy's last book?).
  • Ben... J'ai pas trop aime parce que... ben... (Well… I didn't really like it… um…)

 

When you use these two expressions, it's important to make the syllable long and really linger on the sound: euuuuh, beeeen. This demonstrates your hesitation and the fact that you are thinking.

 

However, this fourth expression also has another meaning. It implies that something is obvious, or that you are talking about something that the other person should know. However, in this case, the intonation is descending and you don't need to pronounce it as a long syllable.

 

  • Il est où Sylvain? (Where is Sylvain?)
  • Ben il est parti ! (He left, obviously!)
  • Tu as vu le dernier film de Peter Jackson? (Have you seen Peter Jackson's last movie?)
  • Ben oui ! (Of course!)
  • Tu faisais quoi à l'étage ? (What were you doing upstairs?)
  • Ben je rangeais ma chambre (Duh, I was tidying my room).

 

Be careful, though. Ben isn't as disdainful as "duh."

 

That's it for today! So, the next time you watch a French TV show or movie, try to spot these phrases.

 

Your final challenge for today is to choose one phrase and use it with your teacher or tutor during your next class. I also invite you to write a few sentences of dialogue in which you use two of the phrases we saw today. When you’re done, please write them in the comment section below. I'm really excited to see what you come up with.

 

In the meantime, for more real French, you can find me on Twitter at @French_Blabla or on my blog at frenchteachercaro.wordpress.com, where I can help you speak like a native.

 

A très bientôt,

 

Caroline

 

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