Asking for repetition and reading French spelling
Ask for repetition, slower speech, and the meaning of a word.
Say that you do not understand. Ask someone to repeat politely. Use accents and apostrophes in useful phrases.
Hear the lesson phrases
Google voice when available; device voice as a fallback.
Read the audio transcript
Excusez-moi, je ne comprends pas. Vous parlez français ? Un peu. Vous pouvez répéter plus lentement ? Bien sûr.
Explain the difficulty
Je ne comprends pas means I do not understand. You do not need to explain every missing word before asking for help. Excusez-moi makes a polite opening with vous; excuse-moi is the singular informal version.
Je parle un peu français tells the listener you speak a little French. Language names use lowercase in French: français. Practice the entire phrase so you can say it when the conversation feels fast.
Request a useful change
Vous pouvez répéter ? asks for repetition. Add s’il vous plaît for please. Plus lentement means more slowly. An informal version is Tu peux répéter ? with s’il te plaît.
Comment ça s’écrit ? asks how something is written. Showing the written word can help connect sound and spelling. Ask one short question at a time, then try the answer again.
Notice French spelling
French accents include é, è, ê, ë, à, ù, î, ï, ô, û, and ü. They may guide pronunciation or distinguish words. Ou means or; où means where. Do not remove accents when writing practice answers.
Apostrophes commonly replace a vowel before a vowel sound: je becomes j’ in j’aime, and le or la becomes l’ in l’école. The apostrophe belongs to the written word group; it is not a pause to pronounce.
Lesson vocabulary
Read each word aloud, then test your recall of its meaning.
| excusez-moi | excuse me (polite or plural) | |
| je ne comprends pas | I do not understand | |
| répéter | to repeat | |
| plus lentement | more slowly | |
| s'il vous plaît | please (polite or plural) | |
| un peu | a little | |
| bien sûr | of course | |
| français | French |
Practice questions
Answer the questions and read the explanations. You can repeat the exercises.
I can ask for help understanding. I can request slower speech. I can notice meaningful French spelling marks.