📖LearnModule 11 · Lesson 1 of 30Proficient User · CEFR C1, first halfUnit 1 · Le registre — the written voice
Trois registres, une seule idée
Module 11 of the free French course (CEFR C1, first half), lesson 1 of 30: Welcome to the Proficient band. On this page: 8 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's lesson 1.
The words
French
English
Say it
le registre
the register (level of language)
luh ruh-ZHEESTR
soutenu
formal, elevated
soot-NEW
courant
everyday, standard
koo-RAH(n)
familier
informal, colloquial
fah-mee-LYAY
épuisé
exhausted
ay-pwee-ZAY
convenable
appropriate
koh(n)v-NAHBL
la nuance
the shade of meaning
lah new-AH(n)S
choisir ses mots
to choose your words
shwah-zeer say MOH
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
Hear the words
Each word is read twice — say it back in the gap. Computer-generated voice; credits on the course page.
La règle · The rule
Welcome to the Proficient band. C1 is not more vocabulary so much as CHOICE: the same idea said three ways. Familier: il est crevé. Courant: il est très fatigué. Soutenu: il est épuisé.
Et aussi · And also
The register you pick tells a French listener who you are being — a friend, a colleague, a writer. Every lesson here asks which one the moment deserves.
Attention · Watch out
The three registers have fixed names: familier, courant, soutenu. épuisé is the soutenu twin of crevé; très fatigué sits between them.
Do it now — on paper
Say all 8 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the French spelling alone — begin with le registre.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the French.
Write two sentences of your own that get the watch-out line right, then the two practice pages of workbook lesson 1 in Module 11 are the written half of this page.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The French Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Keep these words
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.