Hi,
Just wondering if anyone can recommend any French novels containing a decent amount of modern slang and regular, everyday conversation?
I’m kind of imagining something written in the style of Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting or something like that (butin French obviously).
I find the current issue I’ve got with comprehensible input is that although I’ve got a pretty wide ranging French vocabulary I often end up using rather literary words which despite being correct, are not widely used.
That´s funny, I think Trainspotting must have been translated to French and I´ve just seen there is an German edition on buecher.de, there must be an equivalent French site. I´m still waiting for it to be translated into English though!
I don’t use novels for that sort of language, i watch TV. Serge le Mytho and Bloques were my favourites, along with reality TV (Cherie c’est moi le chef) and things like Le Pire Stagiaire.
Do you have a French bookshop nearby? I was in London yesterday, and popped in to a French bookshop in South Ken. They recommended some novels to read.
“La tête en friche” by Marie-Sabine Roger uses many colloquial expressions. The hero is an uneducated young man who can’t express himself in any other way.
I live in France actually, so I shouldn’t have any issues with accessing decent books. I just find myself using obscure vocabulary in conversation which although correct; is a little too literary sounding. I’ve had a few funny looks lol
Interestingly though, it has helped when speaking with older people. I secretly congratulated myself when my neighbour was talking about her ‘mansarde’ and I didn’t need to ask what she was talking about. Not a word that you’d hear many younger people using though
Is there a French equivalent to “Has tha swallowed dictionary lad?”. That is what some relatives would say to me if I used a word with two or more syllables.
Thank goodness I didn’t see that before restarting my French studies, I would have chosen Spanish. I do understand most of the French, but some words are new for me, so mean nothing.
