French Made Easy
Bite-sized and easy-to-follow French lessons for beginners. Join Mathilde as she teaches you the basics you need to know to kickstart your French learning journey, and ultimately speak French clearly and confidently. Each episode covers topics related to French grammar, French pronunciation, and French vocabulary. At the end of each episode, you can download the lesson's exercises – so you can start practicing what you've learned right away. Head to https://www.mathildekien.com/subscribe-library to subscribe to the free FME (French Made Easy) Exercise Library. 🗝
French Made Easy
191 – How to Say “I Don’t Understand” in French
In this lesson, you’ll learn how to say “I don’t understand” in French 🤔 — and how to ask someone to repeat.
📝 Cheat Sheet & Transcript: Click here to download the cheat sheet and transcript for this episode.
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Bonjour à tous, hello everyone, welcome back to the French Made Easy podcast.
This is episode 191, numéro 191.
Today, we’re learning a basic sentence — one of the most useful French phrases for beginners: “I don’t understand.”
I’ll also show you how to ask someone to repeat. So it’s going to be a short and sweet episode.
As always, if you’re new to the podcast, welcome! Make sure you’ve got your lesson’s cheat sheetready so you can follow along while you listen. And after the episode, practice what you’ve learned inside the French Made Easy Exercise Library — you’ll find all the links in the episode notes.
Alright, lets get into it
HOW TO SAY “I DON’T UNDERSTAND” IN FRENCH
I dont understand in French is:
- Je ne comprends pas. (I don’t understand.)
So, here we have the verb comprendre (to understand) conjugated in the present tense and the negation ne…pas that goes around the conjugated verb. If you need a refresher on negation, listen to episode 36 and episode 146 of the French Made Easy podcast.
Examples
Now let’s see some example so you can see it in context.
- Je ne comprends pas ce mot. (I don’t understand this word.)
- Désolé(e), je ne comprends pas ce que tu dis. (Sorry, I don’t understand what you’re saying.)
- Je regarde la télé en français, mais je ne comprends pas sans les sous-titres. (I’m watching TV in French, but I don’t understand without subtitles.)
- Le professeur parle trop vite, je ne comprends pas ce qu’il dit. (The teacher speaks too fast, I don’t understand what he’s saying.)
HOW TO SAY “CAN YOU REPEAT ?” IN FRENCH
Ok, now, if you need the other person to repeat what they said, you can say, depending on whether you say vous or tu to that person.
- Est-ce que vous pouvez répéter ? (can you repeat?)
- Est-ce que tu peux répéter ? (can you repeat?)
If you’re not sure when to say tu or vous to someone, listen to episode 48 of the French Made Easy podcast.
Et voilà ! Told you that was a short episode. Now you know how to say “I don’t understand” in French, and how to ask someone to repeat.
Don’t forget to grab the lesson cheat sheet in the episode notes, and practice more inside the French Made Easy Exercise Library.
À bientôt, bye! 🤍