uations, such as business conferences, always use ne when negating a sentence.
3. Using the conditional when making requests
When you’re in formal French situations, such as a business conference or a lunch with your colleagues, you may need to remember this rule for making requests.
Use the conditional tense when you need to ask for something.
This rule is similar to the English rule, where you sometimes say, “may I have…” or “could I have…”
Pourrais-je avoir la facture, s’il vous plaît ?
Pourrais-je avoir de l’eau, s’il vous plaît ?
Remember that using the conditional tense is better than using the present simple in formal French situations.
Avoid saying puis-je avoir la facture, s’il vous plaît ? or puis-je avoir de l’eau, s’il vous plaît ?
4. Using polite sign-off phrases in written communication, such as emails
When communicating with colleagues in writing, you should consider a few select phrases that you can use to close an email.
Some examples of these phrases include:
- Sincèrement - “sincerely”
- Meilleures salutations - “best regards”
- Salutations distinguées - “sincerely”
- Merci par avance - “thanks in advance”
5. Using formal phrases in written communication
There are also a few phrases you can use in the body of your email to explain why you are writing or ask questions.
Some examples of such sentences include:
Je m’adresse à vous pour…
Je vous remercie pour votre e-mail…
6. Learning how cela is different from ça in formal French
You may have encountered the pronouns cela and ça when studying French.
To give you a small recap, both of these pronouns can replace the word “it,” but one is ideal for formal or professional situations, and you should use the other one for informal situations.
When you’re in formal situations, use cela. When you’re in informal situations, use ça.
Keep in mind that you can use them interchangeably, and your sentence will still make sense.
However, to master formal French, remember to use cela in formal circumstances.
7. Note the inversion for interrogatives or questions for formal french
Despite the lack of grammatical inversion in informal French situations, formal French requires the speaker to invert the verb and the subject.
For instance, consider the difference between asking if someone goes to Spain in winter, informally and formally.
The first example is an informal French interrogative; the second is informal:
Tu pars en Espagne en hiver ?
Partez-vous en Espagne en hiver ?
Here are a few other examples to show the difference between formal French verb-subject inversion and informal French:
Tu as assez d’argent ?
Avez-vous assez d’argent?
Tu manges du steak pour le dîner ?
Mangez-vous du steak pour le dîner ?
As you can see, in all of the formal examples, the vous pronoun follows the verb.
In the informal examples, the tu pronoun goes before the verb.
Try to remember this rule when speaking in formal French situations and keep in mind that you can invert the verb and subject in formal cases.
8. Consider the difference between simple and compound tenses
When using formal French, you usually use simple tenses to express ideas in statements, particularly those that use the future tense.
In informal French, you instead use compound tenses. This rule may seem counterintuitive but it’s something to learn.
Here are a few usage examples to show the difference:
Il va boire un café.
Il boira un café (formal)
Elle va rendre visite à ses parents
Elle visitera à ses parents (formal)
Elle va aller au restaurant.
Elle ira au restaurant.
9. Learn formal vocabulary for business situations
There is a lot of vocabulary reserved for professional situations and workplace environments. Learning formal language will help you become a master of formal French.
Here are seven words you should add to your language to help you:
- Le rendez-vous - meeting
- Un entretien - interview
- Le personnel - employees
- Le client - client
- Le voyage d’affaires - business trip
- Le concurrent - competitor
- La gérance - management
10. Recognize the different formal synonyms for informal words
You’ll find that 