What to Say in Paris When Your French Runs Out

Paris has a reputation that arrives before you do: the waiter who sighs, the shop assistant who will not meet your eye. I had heard all of it before my first visit, and almost none of it proved true. What I found was a city that responds to effort. Say bonjour, attempt the sentence, and the temperature changes. Stefanie, who writes Free in Paris and has lived in the city for years, supplied the practical advice below; I have added the phrases that saw me through my first day.

Begin with one sentence

Je ne parle pas français – roughly zhuh nuh parl pah frahn-SAY – is the line to learn before anything else. It means I do not speak French, and it is neutral enough for a bakery counter, a ticket window, a pharmacy or a station. In everyday speech the French often drop the ne and say je parle pas français. Understand it when you hear it, but learn the full form first: it is safer with strangers, and it is what the phrasebooks teach.

To soften it, add an apology: Désolé(e), je ne parle pas français, or Excusez-moi, je ne parle pas très bien français if your French is only rusty. Two details keep you from being misunderstood. The final s in français is silent, and parlez-vous runs together as par-lay-voo. If nerves win, type the sentence into your phone and show it. Parisians are used to that, and the attempt counts for more than perfect grammar.

Use it at the start of an exchange rather than as a full stop. Opening with the sentence, then waiting, gives the other person a moment to decide how to help. Sometimes they answer in careful English; sometimes they slow their French down. Both are better than a conversation that begins with a demand.

Do I really need French?

Often not, strictly speaking. Compared with many of their European neighbours, the French have a reputation for poor foreign languages, but Paris is an international city. When you are shopping or asking directions, there is usually someone nearby who can follow you. The Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Tourism Regional Board went further and built a free app, Yes I speak touriste, whose interactive map lists shops, hotels and restaurants where your own language is spoken. On a first visit it is a useful safety net, though the map is only as good as the places that have signed up, so treat it as a fallback rather than a plan.

The effort still pays. A few phrases and a small guidebook in your bag earn a warmer reception, and they make you a less attractive target for the scams that circle tourists. Ask for une carafe d'eau instead of water and you get tap water rather than an expensive bottle. Say bonjour when you walk into a shop; it is expected, and its absence is what people remember.

When the words trick you

English and French share a set of false friends, words that look familiar and mean something else. Monnaie is loose change, not money. Grapes are raisins, and plums are prunes. Libre means free, but libre-service does not mean the service is free; it means self-service, open to all, at a price. These are the slips that make a menu or a shop sign baffling just when you thought you had understood it.

Occasionally the confusion is spectacular. In 2009 a British tourist travelling through France wanted a room for the night and walked into the hôtel de ville, stopping in the restroom before booking. She did not know the phrase means town hall. While she was in the toilet the officials finished their meeting and locked up for the night without noticing her. She was rescued by a passer-by the next morning.

Four phrases that repay the effort

• Bonjour, parlez-vous anglais ? Greet first, then ask about English. Arriving at a question without a greeting is what reads as rude, not the question itself.
• Je ne sais pas. I do not know. Honest, short and useful when a conversation outruns you.
• Une carafe d'eau, s'il vous plaît. Tap water, usually free, and a small defence against an expensive bottle.
• Désolé(e), je ne parle pas français. The apology that turns a dead end into a smile.

What the effort did for Stefanie

Stefanie has seen this from both sides. She moved to Paris from the United States twice. The first attempt ended in homesickness and exhaustion, and she left at the end of a difficult year. The second has been entirely different. She has French friends, a weekly exchange with the fruit and vegetable sellers at her Sunday outdoor market, and a city she calls home. Learning French, she says, is the main reason. Even at the clumsy stage her daily encounters became richer once she tried. Close to her sixth year in Paris, looking back at the struggles and successes of meeting people, finding work and carving out her own place, she names speaking French as the thing that changed her experience most.

Expect to be confused

Your own mix-ups will be milder than the town hall episode. Expect a few, laugh at them, collect the stories. There is real satisfaction in being understood when you order breakfast at a bakery or ask for directions in French, and that is how a trip becomes more than sightseeing. You may even leave with French friends.

If you are heading south afterwards, these signs you have adjusted to life in Italy are a reminder that every culture keeps its own unwritten rules.

With thanks to Stefanie of Free in Paris. You can also find her on Twitter and Facebook.

More from Paris

• Exploring the Eiffel Tower at sunset
• Staying in Montmartre: the Terras Hotel
• Staying in a residential corner of Paris
• Lost in Translation, part two

Have you been caught out by a language barrier, in France or elsewhere? Do you learn a few phrases before every trip? Tell me in the comments.