Many English speakers translate “bien” as “good”, but in French it plays several different roles.
It can reassure or check: Tu as bien éteint l’électricité ? → making sure nothing was forgotten. It can cool down a romantic moment: Je t’aime bien → friendly, not passionate.
It can show polite acceptance: Je veux bien venir → you agree, but without strong desire.
It can amplify a quantity: Il y avait bien 200 personnes → more than expected.
These small nuances can completely change the tone of a conversation in France. Understanding them helps avoid confusion and makes daily interactions much smoother.
If you’d like support navigating these subtleties, I’m a French teacher and happy to help members of the community.
I teach online lessons and I still have a few time slots available.
It would translate better to ‘really’ or’‘well’ or ‘well then’ the way we use those expressions in colloquial English. And also the many nuances of ‘quite’.
I’d also understood it to mean “thoroughly”, sort of: votre colis est bien livré.
And in a question, meaning something like “would you mind” or “kindly”.
As usual, I might be wrong: it’s from observation, rather than a textbook.
What I do know is when the chap in our best restaurant says (because he loves to speak English) “Come here, mister” instead of “Would you follow me, please”, I ought to have corrected him
I don’t correct people I don’t know well, unless they ask.
But I do wonder where they learn their English. A lot of people in restaurants and bars here say ‘What do you want’ instead of ‘what would you like’, etc and it’s pretty jarring, especially for Americans. These people tell me they were taught to say that at school.
One waiter likes to address us as ‘lady and gentleman’.
Yes, when I dislocated my shoulder and was in the hospital, a doctor came to tell me after the X-ray or scan (can’t remember was still stunned ) ‘L’epaule est bien deplace’. At first I thought that was a bit abrupt but then remembered that in English we might say ‘it is well dislocated’, and that she didn’t mean that it was a good idea as if I should go out and do the other one too.
Then it would be a case of ‘not anothurr wern’, Sorry, can’t get that West Country woman out of my brain sometimes.
Not by me they aren’t, I actually show them how it comes over by saying ‘kestuveu?’ NB phonetic spelling. They don’t get it otherwise.
Mind you a colleague of mine from another lycée thought coke was pronounced cock so I expect she raised a few eyebrows.
Not quite the same as you but one newish young waiter addressed my OH as ‘Monsieur Jennifer’. OH didn’t mind at all, but one day the waiter found out he’d been using my first name instead of what he thought was our surname. He was absolutely mortified and OH never managed to reassure him that it wasn’t a problem.
Both our surnames are not easy for French speakers, so when I make reservations I use Jennifer because everyone can spell it.
You use a person’s surname as little as possible, it’s not polite. If madame is greeted first by name then you will just be Monsieur. And it’s entirely normal to address people as monsieur and madame with no name ever. Usually we just use a name to confirm who you are.
My GB pupils called me Mrs surname, my cadets called me ma’am and my French pupils madame.
I’m glad to hear it, Vero. Not every teacher has the benefit of being bilingual though. ‘What do you want?’ is widespread here and people who don’t even know each other all say they learned it at school. I’ll try kestuveu though and see if that works.
They all learnt so many awful things at school, it’s horrendous and so depressing. I had trainee teachers whose tutor I was and pruned out a lot of nonsense they were told at university.
I find that people learn v fast if you tell them by all means say that but accept people will think you are rude. Register is all
As you are talking to pupils, ie children, I assume?
Which is exactly why I always introduce myself to French people as Daveed, they know exactly how to spell it.
But must admit to feeling stupidly pleased at one French woman in the village who always calls me David, with English pronunciation. Mind you, that is because she lived in Wales for a time but still can’t distinguish that from England.
But don’t you find, as I do, that French people will forgive almost everything spoken in French by English people, in much the same way as we put up with Poirot’s comments (yes, I know he was Belgian, and not real ,)
I do the French pronounciation of Jennifer and accentuate the last syllable. As you say, it works.
How strange that your French lady thinks England and Wales are the same place.
A bit along the same lines, OH and I once had a holiday in Ireland with a small group of French fishing mates and their wives, people that we had met here. They kept asking me fairly mundane questions about day to day life in Ireland, I can’t remember what offhand, but they must have thought I was an idiot because I hardly ever knew the answers. I kept trying to explain that I was a foreigner in Ireland as well but it didn’t make any difference.
One day we had lunch with just one of the couples and I realised that they thought Ireland was part of England. We explained a bit of the history and it was a revelation to them. Not long before they left, we were all together and it turned out that the other couples also thought Ireland was part of the UK. We did the same explanation for them. The couple we’d lunched with, who the others looked down on a bit, sat there smiling and looking as if they’d known this all along. I didn’t drop them in it because we liked this couple better.
Oh yes and vice versa, but if I’m in a teaching situation it’s different because there’s an exam at the end. I do say in real life, always have a go, nobody minds.
Yes of course, and quite right too. I had a similar teacher at school, which is why my French now is errr, impeccable. But that man was a born linguist, he, having good French, volunteered for the intelligence services at the start of the war but was refused on the grounds that they needed German speakers, So he went away for a couple of months and taught himself German, and was then accepted. He taught me German for a while too 'till the school thought they did not have enough staff for both languages.
BTW @vero if we ever meet, do not trust this bit - my French is now impeccable - an age deadened brain has taken over.
) ‘L’epaule est bien deplace’. At first I thought that was a bit abrupt but then remembered that in English we might say ‘it is well dislocated’, and that she didn’t mean that it was a good idea as if I should go out and do the other one too.
I’m glad to hear it, Vero. Not every teacher has the benefit of being bilingual though. ‘What do you want?’ is widespread here and people who don’t even know each other all say they learned it at school. I’ll try kestuveu though and see if that works.
,)
