Are you confident in your ability to understand French, but you have reached a plateau? It happens to many learners of any language; the basics are easy and obvious to learn, but the more advanced you get, the more nuance you realize you don’t yet know.
With audio resources, you can help bridge the gap from where you are right now to a more fluent understanding of French. Listening to real and natural-sounding French can help you recognize new subtleties you hadn’t noticed before due to your novice ear.
Practice listening and speaking what you learn with these entertaining and valuable audio resources for improving your French!
What Do You Need to Know to Reach C1 or C2 Level in French?
The leap from B2 level fluency to C1 and C2 is typically more gradual than A to B.
What exactly do you need to know in order to reach C level understanding of French? Here are some of the more intricate parts of the language you might spend years working on the get right!
Argot
"Argot" resembles exclusive slang, more cryptic than regular slang. Newcomers may find its nuances puzzling without widespread recognition.
Groups come up with their own special argot, like a secret code. The language prevents outsiders from understanding, even if someone listens in.
You probably won't pick up argot in a formal class, since it’s “street talk” and differs within specific groups.
Before using these expressions in public, it's important to understand the cultural feelings they convey.
Making mistakes could upset people or come across as uncool. Have you heard of "Le Verlan"? It's a well-known variety of argot. Knowing argot opens you up to the world of informal French.
Glissements (Glidings)
You’ve heard of liaisons, elisions, and enchaînement, but do you know how to interpret glissements?
Glissements (most often called ‘glidings’) are essentially how something is practically pronounced in everyday speech as opposed to how it “should” be pronounced.
An example in English is like “What are you going to do about it?” We don’t say that. We say “Whaddaya gonna do aboudit?”
In French, “Je vais au cinema cette après-midi” could become “Shvais au cinoche c’t’aprem.”
“But that's the beauty of learning a new language. It should feel like an enormous undertaking. It ought to intimidate you. It makes you appreciate the complexity of the ones you know already.” ―
Locutions and Idioms
Idioms often puzzle beginners as they don't make literal sense. Consider English idioms like "raining cats and dogs" or "break a leg" for luck. Non-native English speakers would be baffled!
Understanding French idioms requires exposure over time, and grasping French thought patterns, culture, and word origins.
An example of a French idiom is “avoir le coup de foudre” which literally means “To have a thunderbolt,” but actually means “To fall in love at first sight.”
Locutions are phrases without a hidden meaning, but that are known by almost everyone. Some English locutions are “To be honest,” “In my humble opinion,” and “With all due respect.”
One locution in French is “crème de la crème,” which is known to mean “the best of the best.”
Modern Way of Speaking (Vernacular)
There's a big gap between textbook French and the spoken language. Just like in English, where written content differs from everyday speech, French in books isn't how people chat. Written English here follows a format, using specific language that's not how real conversations happen. Similarly, in French, written words don't match spoken expressions.
Every language has diverse speech groups. In the US, we've got regional accents, dialects, and generational speaking styles. Think about the evolving slang from different decades, and in the present day, we have Gen Z and Gen Alpha's new words (no cap).
Well, the same things are present in French. Textbooks won't cover this! It takes time and exposure to grasp modern speech and pick up new word meanings in context.
Since it takes a while to really grasp these language qualities and ideas, why not start listening to more real French right now?
Perfect Your Ear with Podcasts
When you want to listen intently to French, podcasts are a fantastic resource. They are designed as an audio medium, so all the speakers are aware they need to speak clearly, making it easy to learn new phrases even without seeing them written or reading lips.
If you want to become more advanced in French, utilizing podcasts is a smart move.
Since you’re not a beginner, you don’t need to seek out podcasts that teach about things like grammar and tenses (unless you want to!). Instead, you can indulge in truly interesting stories the same way you would in English.
Here are some of the best entertaining podcasts for intermediate to advanced learners:
- French Voices Podcast by French Your Way
- Les larmes des anges by Chatterbug
- La Leçon: Le Podcast sur l’Art d’Échouer by Pauline Grisoni
- Le Rendez-Vous Tech by NotPatrick Podcasts
- Vieille Branche by Nouvelles Écoutes
- Vlan! With Grégory Pouy
- À Bientôt de Te Revoir by Binge Audio Project
- Bookmakers by ARTE Radio
- On Peut Plus Rien Dire by Binge Audio Project
- Les Pieds sur Terre by Radio France & France Culture
- Quoi de Meuf by Nouvelles Écoutes
- Rendez-Vous avec X by Radio France & France Inter
How to Learn with Podcasts
As wonderful as it would be to be able to throw a podcast on in the background and learn simply by being exposed to it, that’s not how it works.
In order to actually benefit from the podcast, you do need to be paying attention. You can obviously be doing other things that don’t require you to listen (or read) while you’re learning with podcasts, but you need to be able to dedicate brain power to learning. If you prefer guided help, you can search for french tutors near me to get personalized support.
Listen closely, repeat words aloud, and maybe even write down notes as your podcast plays.
If it helps you to be able to see a person speaking and understand their mouth movements and expressions, you can find many of the podcasts mentioned in this article as well as many others by searching for French podcasts on YouTube or Google.
Ready to learn more? Find effective French courses online when you search for a tutor on Superprof!
Tune Up Your Technique with Movies & TV
Being able to enjoy an intriguing cinematic story while learning is an effective method for improving your French. You can use context clues to discern vocabulary and phrases while learning about French thinking and culture.
You can also learn a lot about facial expressions, body language, hand movement, and other visual information while people are reacting to a variety of situations. Furthermore, since there are so many different genres of movies and TV, you have a wide swath of material to use!
Check out these films and series to absorb more subtleties, slang, argot, and more in French.
Movies
- l‘Histoire de Marie et Julien
- Microcosmos: Le peuple de l'herbe
- La Tête en friche (My Afternoons With Marguerite)
- Kirikou et la Sorcière
- Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie
- Les Intouchables
- La belle verte
- Persepolis
Series
- Fais pas ci, Fais pas ça
- Un Gars, une Fille
- Engrenages
- Braquo
- Kaamelott
- Bref (Amazon Prime)
- Mafiosa
- Les Parapluies de Cherbourg
- Moi et Toi
- Versailles (Netflix)
- Marianne (Netflix)
- Braqueurs (Netlfix)
- Dans la nuit (Netflix)
- Dix pour cent (Netflix)
- Lupin (Netflix)
- Nailed It! France
- The Parisian Agency
- Les revenants (Amazon Prime)
- Zone blanche (Amazon Prime)
- Caméra café (Amazon Prime)
- Le bureau des légendes (Amazon Prime)
- Les Grandes Grandes Vacances
- Un Coeur en Hiver
- Monsieur Ibrahim et les Fleurs du Coran
- La Gloire de mon père and Le château de ma mère
- Les Choristes
- Mon meillure ami
How to Learn with Movies & TV
Just like with podcasts, your time spent learning from visual sources can be enhanced when you approach it mindfully.
Write down new words and phrases and practice saying them aloud. Try to pick up on subtle facial expressions and emulate them.
To improve your pronunciation, try memorizing some of your favorite lines and repeating them along with the actor.
You can also use the movies and TV as a jumping-off point for more research about the subjects depicted and find new words, and historical and cultural contexts.
Music is Better than Memorization
Music is poetry with rhythm and instruments. Poetry can convey complex thoughts and feelings as well as mundane ones.
Through learning lyrics, you’ll be exposed to sayings, phrases, sentiments, references, and all the other things that go into making a song relatable to its audience. Additionally, listening to songs is a great way to test your listening skills, since sung words sound different than spoken words.
Once again, you can find music in any genre you like and about any subject at all. Learning the lyrics to French songs is a perfect way to deepen your grasp of French.
Check out these songs and artists to start learning more French:
- Papaoutai by Stromae
- Color Gitano by Kendji Girac
- Il Est Temps by Kyo
- A Coup de Rêves by Ben L'Oncle Soul
- La Tribu de Dana by Manau
- Je Suis Chez Moi-Black M
- Color Gitano by Kendji Girac
- Il Est Temps by Kyo
- A Coup de Rêves by Ben L'Oncle Soul
- La Tribu de Dana by Manau
- Tombé Sous Le Charme by Christophe Mae
- Elle Me Dit by Mika
- You can find updated charts of popular music and add them to your playlist with Acharts.co
How to Learn with Music
By now, you already know that you can learn even more French when you spend more time with your study materials, and songs are no different.
Write your favorite lyrics, make note of new phrases or references you can research later, and ponder the poeticism contained within the stanzas.
How to Make the Most of Your Language Practice
How can you boost your French from intermediate to advanced in the most effective, long-lasting way?
With supplementary activities like French lessons from a tutor, you can guarantee to learn to listen and speak even more efficiently. Having someone give you customized, immediate feedback on your pronunciation can get you to the next level more quickly than if you study on your own.
With a native-level speaker, you can be sure that the minutia of the French language and culture are explained to you thoroughly. Do not hesitate to take a look at Superprof tutors, they can teach french classes near me.
With these study methods, you can be sure to score a C1 or C2 on your French levels test and reap the rewards that fluency has to offer!
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