If you’ve been learning French for any amount of time, you’ve probably noticed that spoken French isn’t just written French spoken out loud. There are a ton of “unwritten rules” in spoken French that make it almost a completely different language than the written French you may have learned in school.

Unfortunately, this does mean that some of the French you learned in the classroom isn’t really helpful if you want to focus on having conversations or even just understanding everyday spoken French. For example, we never use le passé simple. (Sorry if you spent a ton of time memorizing those conjugation tables when you were younger!)

In today’s lesson, I’ll explain why le passé simple is never really used. I’ll also give you examples of what you can use instead, with some practice exercises.

0:00 Intro
0:31 Don’t use “le passé simple”
3:20 Your turn now: Practice!
12:35 Final Challenge

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At Comme une Française, we specialize in everyday spoken French. We focus on three unique aspects that are different from school French, selfstudy books, Duolingo, etc:
1. We focus only on the specifics of speaking/understanding/being understood in everyday French and have unique ways to help you learn it properly & faster.
2. We focus on shortcuts to help you make progress faster, which also means we tell you exactly what you can stop learning to prioritize what’s really important.
3. We use French culture as the subject to make it fun and interesting for adults.

Take care and stay safe.
from Grenoble, France.

Géraldine