English speakers share a set of predictable grammar mistakes in French. Knowing them in advance helps you avoid them faster and build more accurate habits from the beginning.
1. Forgetting adjective agreement
In English, adjectives never change. In French, they must match the gender and number of the noun.
- Wrong: une maison grand → Correct: une grande maison
- Wrong: des livres interessant → Correct: des livres interessants
2. Placing adjectives before the noun
Most French adjectives go after the noun. Only the BAGS group (beauty, age, goodness, size) typically goes before.
- Wrong: une interessante histoire → Correct: une histoire interessante
3. Using etre instead of avoir for feelings
English says ‘I am hungry’, French says J’ai faim (I have hunger).
- Wrong: Je suis faim. → Correct: J’ai faim.
- Same for: avoir soif, avoir chaud, avoir froid, avoir peur
4. Forgetting to change the article in negation
- Wrong: Je n’ai pas une voiture. → Correct: Je n’ai pas de voiture.
5. Translating age with etre
- Wrong: J’ai vingt-cinq suis. / Je suis vingt-cinq ans. → Correct: J’ai vingt-cinq ans.
6. Using des after a negative adjective
- Wrong: Ce ne sont pas des bons films. → Correct: Ce ne sont pas de bons films.
7. Mixing tu and vous mid-conversation
Choose one and stay consistent within the same conversation with the same person.
8. Forgetting the silent ne in writing
Even if you drop ne when speaking informally, always include it in written French.
9. Treating on like a third person verb with different endings
On always takes the third person singular form, even when it means ‘we’.
- Wrong: On sommes prets. → Correct: On est prets.
10. Using the infinitive after a preposition in English, then translating directly
- Wrong: avant aller → Correct: avant d’aller
- Wrong: sans parler is actually correct, but: apres mange → Correct: apres avoir mange
11. Forgetting contractions with le and la
- Wrong: Je vais a le marche. → Correct: Je vais au marche.
- Wrong: Le livre de le professeur. → Correct: Le livre du professeur.
12. Saying c’est with an adjective describing a specific person
- Less natural: C’est intelligent (for a specific person) → More natural: Il est intelligent.
13. Using etre for location of buildings or static objects
Both etre and se trouver work for location, but English learners sometimes hesitate. Etre is fine for location in French.
- La gare est au centre-ville. = The station is in the city center. (correct)
14. Overusing je suis for professions
In French, when stating a profession after il est / je suis / elle est, no article is used.
- Wrong: Je suis un professeur. → Correct: Je suis professeur.
- But: C’est un professeur. is correct with c’est.
15. Forgetting to use de after pas with partitive articles
This trips up learners at every level because it requires remembering the rule mid-sentence.
- Wrong: Je ne veux pas du pain. → Correct: Je ne veux pas de pain.
Final tip
Pick three mistakes from this list that you know you make regularly. Focus on fixing those first. Trying to fix all fifteen at once is less effective than building accuracy one habit at a time.
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