Until now, "correct French" has been a single target. At B2 it stops being one. The same thought can be expressed at three different levels of formality, and choosing the wrong one is a mistake even when every word is grammatical. Saying Qu'attendez-vous ? to a friend is as odd as saying Tu veux quoi ? to a judge.
| Register | Where it lives | Feel |
|---|---|---|
| soutenu | literature, speeches, formal letters, law | elevated, written, deliberate |
| courant | news, work, teaching, most writing | neutral, safe everywhere |
| familier | friends, family, texting, informal speech | relaxed, spoken |
There is a fourth rung below — vulgaire — which you should recognise and leave alone. And the crucial insight of this lesson: register is grammar, not just vocabulary. Swapping a word is only the surface.
The clearest demonstration. Same meaning, three grammars.
| French | Pronunciation | Register |
|---|---|---|
| Que faites-vous ? | kuh fet VOO | soutenu (inversion) |
| Qu'est-ce que tu fais ? | kes kuh tĂĽ FAY | courant (est-ce que) |
| Tu fais quoi ? | tĂĽ fay KWAH | familier (word order + intonation) |
You learned all three question forms at A1. What you now know is that they are not interchangeable stylistic options — they are three social registers.
| Feature | Soutenu | Courant | Familier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Questions | inversion | est-ce que | intonation, quoi at the end |
| The ne | always, + ne explétif | usually kept | dropped |
| "We" | nous | nous / on | on |
| Past narrative | passé simple (written) | passé composé | passé composé |
| Subject pronouns | full | full | reduced: t'as, y'a, chuis |
| Subordination | heavy, relative clauses | moderate | short clauses, juxtaposition |
| Vocabulary | Latinate, precise | neutral | short, expressive, truncated |
In speech, on has almost completely replaced nous as "we": On y va ?, On a mangé. Using nous in casual conversation sounds bookish. But in formal writing, nous is expected and on reads as vague. Flip between them deliberately and you sound native in both rooms.
| Soutenu | Courant | Familier | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| une automobile | une voiture | une bagnole | a car |
| un emploi | un travail | un boulot | a job |
| un domicile | une maison | une baraque | a home |
| des ressources | de l'argent | du fric | money |
| se restaurer | manger | bouffer | to eat |
| se hâter | se dépêcher | se magner | to hurry |
| être contrarié | être fâché | être énervé | to be annoyed |
| fort bien | très bien | super | very good |
You need this for DELF written papers, formal letters and anything official. A handful of structures do most of the work.
| French | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| il convient de | eel kohn-vee-en DUH | it is fitting / appropriate to |
| il importe de | eel an-port DUH | it is important to |
| s'avérer | sah-vay-RAY | to turn out to be |
| veuillez | vuh-YAY | kindly, please (imperative of vouloir) |
| nul ne saurait | nĂĽl nuh soh-RAY | no one could |
| force est de constater | fors ay duh kohn-stah-TAY | one must acknowledge |
| en dépit de | ahn day-pee DUH | in spite of |
| quant Ă | kahn TAH | as for |
Notice nul ne saurait: the conditional of savoir used to mean "could" is itself a soutenu marker. Register hides in the tenses as much as the words.
You do not have to produce this, but you must understand it — it is most of what you will hear.
| Feature | Example | Standard form |
|---|---|---|
| Dropped ne | J'sais pas. | Je ne sais pas. |
| Reduced pronouns | T'as vu ? | Tu as vu ? |
| Truncation | un resto, un ado, l'aprem | restaurant, adolescent, après-midi |
| Dislocation | Moi, le fromage, j'adore ça. | J'adore le fromage. |
| Question by intonation | Tu viens ? | Est-ce que tu viens ? |
| Filler intensifiers | C'est grave bien. | C'est très bien. |
Dislocation deserves a note: shifting a topic to the front or back with a resumptive pronoun (Moi, je…, Il est sympa, Paul) is extremely characteristic of spoken French and not an error. It is how speech organises information.
The A1 rule — vous for strangers, tu for friends — is true but too blunt for real situations. The B2 refinements:
| Situation | Usual choice |
|---|---|
| Colleagues of similar age, startup or creative sector | tu quickly, often from day one |
| Colleagues in a bank, ministry, law firm | vous, sometimes for years |
| Someone clearly older, or in a position of authority | vous until invited |
| Online forums, gaming, social media | tu by default |
| Service staff and customers | vous both ways |
The transition is explicit and worth knowing: On peut se tutoyer ? The move from vous to tu is offered by the older or senior person, and once made it is not reversed.
The most common advanced-learner error is not using the wrong register — it is using two at once: « Je ne sais point ce que tu fous. » A literary negative next to a crude verb. Pick a level and hold it for the whole utterance.
France has a sharp register ladder and a strong culture of policing it — the Académie française, spelling certifications, and a genuine social penalty for getting it wrong in writing. Inversion questions survive in speech more than learners expect, especially short ones: Puis-je ?, Que sais-je ?, Comment allez-vous ?
Québécois society tutoies far more readily than France — shop staff, colleagues and even some officials may use tu with you immediately, and it is friendly rather than rude. The register gap is wider, though: formal written Québécois is almost identical to French French, while spoken joual is very far from it. One local marker: the interrogative particle -tu, as in Tu viens-tu ? or C'est-tu loin ? — a yes/no question marker, nothing to do with the pronoun.
Write soutenu, courant or familier.
Give the courant equivalent of each familier word.
Write nous for a formal written context, on for casual speech.
1. Register in French is carried by:
2. In casual spoken French, "we" is normally:
3. What's the most common advanced-learner register error?