French mistakes that make you sound like a learner — and how writing fixes them

Five grammar and vocabulary errors that trip up intermediate French learners — and a simple way to stop making them

You understand French. You can follow a conversation, read an article, even express yourself in writing.

And yet, something gives you away.

A word in the wrong place. A tense that doesn't quite fit. A construction that sounds almost right — but not quite.

These are not beginner mistakes. They are intermediate mistakes — the kind that persist because no one ever pointed them out clearly, and because passive study alone rarely fixes them.

Here are five of the most common ones, and the most effective way to stop making them.

Confusing savoir and connaître

Both mean "to know" — which is exactly what makes this so confusing for English speakers.

Savoir is used for knowing facts, information, or how to do something. Connaître is used for knowing people, places, or things you are familiar with.

✅ Je sais qu'il est parti. — I know that he left.

✅ Je connais Paris très bien. — I know Paris very well.

The test: can you replace "know" with "am familiar with"? If yes, use connaître. If no, use savoir.

Getting manquer backwards

This is one of the most disorienting verbs in French — because it works the opposite way from English.

In English: I miss you. (I is the subject.) In French: Tu me manques. (You is the subject — literally: "you are missing to me.")

❌ Je te manque. — this means you miss me, not the other way around.

✅ Tu me manques. — I miss you.

✅ Ma famille me manque. — I miss my family.

The trick: think of manquer as "to be missing to." Whatever or whoever is missed becomes the subject of the sentence.

Overusing très when vraiment or a stronger adjective would work better

Intermediate learners lean heavily on très — it's safe, it works, it gets the point across.

But in natural French, native speakers vary their intensifiers. Reaching for très every time makes your French sound flat and learner-like.

Instead of très fatigué, try épuisé (exhausted).

Instead of très content, try ravi (delighted).

Instead of très triste, try dévasté or abattu (devastated, downcast).

And when you do use an intensifier, try vraiment (really), tellement (so), or franchement (honestly) — words that carry more natural weight in everyday French.

Using pendant when you need depuis or il y a

These three expressions all relate to time — which is exactly why they cause so much trouble.

Depuis — for something that started in the past and is still happening.

J'apprends le français depuis trois ans.

— I have been learning French for three years (and still am).

Il y a — for something that happened at a specific point in the past.

J'ai commencé il y a trois ans.

— I started three years ago.

Pendant — for a completed duration.

J'ai vécu à Paris pendant six mois.

— I lived in Paris for six months (and no longer do).

The most common mistake: using pendant for something still ongoing.

❌ J'apprends le français pendant trois ans. (incorrect)

✅ J'apprends le français depuis trois ans.

Forgetting that visiter only works for places, not people

In English, you visit places and you visit people. In French, these are two different constructions.

Visiter is only used for places — monuments, cities, museums.

✅ J'ai visité le Louvre. — I visited the Louvre.

For people, you need rendre visite à.

✅ Je vais rendre visite à ma cousine. — I'm going to visit my cousin.

❌ Je vais visiter ma cousine. (incorrect — and sounds very odd in French)

Why knowing the rule isn’t enough

You may have just read these five points and thought: yes, I know that. I've seen that explained before.

And yet, the mistake keeps appearing.

This is not a knowledge problem. It is a practice problem.

The only way to stop making these errors automatically — without having to think about them — is to use them, repeatedly, in real sentences. Not exercises. Not drills. Real sentences that express something you actually mean.

This is why writing works so well for intermediate learners.

When you write in French regularly, you are forced to make choices: is it savoir or connaître? depuis or pendant?

The moment of hesitation is where learning happens.

And when you receive feedback on what you write, the correction sticks in a way that a grammar explanation never quite does.

A space built for exactly this

In French Writing Studio, every week you receive a short writing prompt — an open invitation to write in French, about something real, at your own pace.

You submit your text. I read it and respond personally — with corrections, more natural phrasing, and the kind of precise feedback that helps you stop making the same mistakes again.

Errors like the ones in this article come up regularly. And when they do, the correction is given in context — on your own sentence, about your own thought — which makes it far easier to remember.

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