📖LearnModule 14 · Lesson 3 of 30Proficient User · CEFR C2, continuedUnit 1 · Les niveaux de langue
Le français des écrans
Module 14 of the free French course (CEFR C2, continued), lesson 3 of 30: Written informal French has its own conventions. 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 3.
The words
French
English
Say it
mdr
lol (laughing)
ehm day EHR
dsl
sorry (abbreviated)
day ehs EHL
j'sais pas
dunno
zheh PAH
y a personne
there is nobody
yah pehr-SOHN
l'abréviationfeminine — the article elides to l'
the abbreviation
lah-bray-vyah-SYOH(n)
le message écrit
the written message
luh meh-sahzh ay-KREE
appartenir au groupe
to belong to the group
ah-pahr-tuh-neer oh GROOP
décontracté
relaxed
day-koh(n)-trahk-TAY
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
Written informal French has its own conventions. Abbreviations: bcp, pk, dsl, mdr. Dropped ne: j'sais pas, y a personne. And the tu/vous decision made by platform rather than by person.
Et aussi · And also
Read it comfortably and write it only where you actually belong. A message in perfect formal French to a group of friends is as wrong a register as slang in a report.
Attention · Watch out
mdr is mort de rire (laughing), dsl is désolé. The dropped ne of j'sais pas and y a personne is speech and screens only — never in anything printed or formal.
Do it now — on paper
Say all 8 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the French spelling alone — begin with mdr.
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 3 in Module 14 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.