A specific alternative to conventional language learning
Which words to learn first? Anything but numbers, please. Questions have empowered me to learn more than I ever could study on my own! Here's my MVP list of phrases.
Everything that follows assumes you are in a country where most people speak the target language. This document is oriented toward total or near-total beginners.
If you're just starting out with a language, you don't know what's happening. The first thing you'll want to do after reciting the phrase you've carefully rehearsed alone is ask for help understanding what the other person said. Instead of pivoting back to English, every confusion (for which there will be an infinity) becomes an opportunity to keep practicing, and quickly you'll master asking the clarifying questions.
That's the other good thing about clarifying questions, you can ask them so many times in just one discussion. Try doing that with, "I'm James and I'm from Vermont." Not so easy.
The Phrases
Endearing
Having a cute way to express your enthusiasm that's more niche in the language is just a great way to connect with people. I learned "Nickel chrome" very early on, use it still, and I'm sure I'll take it to the grave. In reality, very few young people say this phrase in France but most have heard it. That this is a weird old callback is something I appreciate, but it's not mandatory.
| English | Français | Deustch |
|---|---|---|
| Nice / cool / *something very fortunate happens* | Chouette / Nickel / Nickel chrome ! | Das stimmt / Spitze |
| Nevermind | Laisse tomber | Vergiss es. |
| I’m kidding / it's a joke | Je rigole ! | Ich mache nur Spaß. |
| Nice to meet you! | Enchanté(e) ! | Freut mich! |
| I love that / it's my jam (very informal) | Je le kiffe |
Strategic
These are all about figuring out the things you need to figure out
| English | Français | Deustch |
|---|---|---|
| Wait [This has been so helpful when my brain has needed time to process whatever was just said to me but I didn't want the other person to translate into English.] | Attends / Attendez | Warte / Warten Sie |
| I need ___ | J’ai besoin de ___ | Ich brauche ___ |
| I want ___ | Je veux ___ | Ich will ___ |
| I don’t have ___ | Je n’ai pas de ___ | Ich habe kein(e) ___ |
| Where is ___? | Où est ___ ? | Wo ist ___? |
| Can I ___? | Est-ce que je peux ___ ? | Kann ich ___? |
| I want to see... | Je voudrais voir... | Ich will sehen |
| How do you say ___? | Comment dit-on __ _ ? | Wie sagt man ___? |
| What does ___ mean? | Que veut dire __ _ ? | Was bedeutet ___? |
| How do you write that? | Comment ça s’écrit ? | Wie schreibt man das? |
| How do you pronounce this? | Comment ça se prononce ? | Wie spricht man das aus? |
| Is that something people say? [See near-enemy below: phrases to never say] | Ça se dit ? | Sagt man das? |
| What is the word for ___? | Quel est le mot pour ___ ? | Was ist das Wort für ___? |
| Is it correct? | C’est correct ? | Ist das richtig? |
| Is that the right word? | C’est le bon mot ? | Ist das das richtige Wort? |
| What did you say? | Qu’est-ce que tu as dit ? | Was hast du gesagt? |
| Can you repeat that? | Tu peux répéter ? | Kanst du das wiederholen? |
| Again, please. | Encore, s’il vous plaît. | Noch einmal, bitte. |
| Slower, please. | Plus lentement, s’il vous plaît. | Langsamer, bitte. |
| I don’t understand. | Je comprends pas. | Ich verstehe nicht. |
| I understand / I see. | Je comprends / Je vois. | Ich verstehe / Ich sehe. |
| Got it / Gotcha. | D’accord / Ça marche. | Alles klar / Verstanden. |
| Because | Parce que... | Weil |
| Me too | Moi aussi. | Ich auch. |
| That’s good / bad. | C’est bien / C’est mal. | Das ist gut / Das ist schlecht. |
| I like it / I don’t like it. | J’aime bien ça / J'aime pas ça | Ich mag es / Ich mag es nicht. |
| That’s funny / weird / interesting | C’est... drôle / bizarre / intéressant. | Das ist lustig / seltsam / interessant. |
| Really? / Seriously? | Vraiment ? / Sérieusement ? | Wirklich? / Ernsthaft? |
| Sorry [eg. You've bumped into someone] | Pardonnez-moi | Es tut mir leid |
Non-Essential
I have included these for completeness, but I really want to underscore that I really discourage the mainstream mentality of being drawn to these concrete sentences.
| English | Français | Deustch |
|---|---|---|
| Where are you from? | Tu viens d’où ? | Woher kommst du? |
| What’s your name? | Comment tu t’appelles ? | Wie heißt du? |
| I’m from ___ | Je viens de ___ | Ich komme aus ___ |
| My name is ___ | Je m’appelle ___ | Ich heiße ___ |
| Rather ____ | Plutôt _____ | Eher |
| Like...___ [For cases of comparison, such as: "like… an apple"] | Comme... | Wie… |
Misc
| English | Français | Deustch |
|---|---|---|
| Great modifiers: "rather" — eg the weather is rather good. I like that rather well. Etc. | ||
| Some fun way to say amazing: | ||
| Not amazing → spectacular | ||
| Not super (en français) → nickel | ||
| Not super (auf Deutsche) → spitze | ||
| Uhhhh | Ehhhhhh | |
| Fill in the blank sound. Eg. "blah blah blah" | Na na na na na | Da da da da da |
Phrases to Never Say
| Phrase | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Can I say that? | This is liable to cause smoke to come out of the ears of native speakers as they try to compute if the one thing you've said is possible in the globality of the language, including all the formulations people don't often use. But when you're fighting to make yourself understood, the most important thing is not to learn all the possible configurations of a phrase, just the single configuration which is most used and then get as much mileage out of that as possible. Corrected form: Do people say that? |
| I don't speak ___ language well. | We know. Don't learn to say something obvious. The only justification I would be open to is that this could be done for social grace, but—not only are there other phrases that could afford you social grace while relaying something more novel—you're also in a tight spot in this early phase where you shouldn't waste the mental energy learning something with so little communicative value. |
| *any hard curses | Similar to this,^ brain space is precious in the early phases of learning a language. Getting new words in can be a real struggle. Do not waste any of that energy on learning something that you won't be able to use other than as a crass, contextless, exclamation. Alternative: a soft curse of disappointment might be endearing. Something like "darn!" or "zut !" (FR). |