Metropolitan French · one sentence a day
French that sounds like Paris, not a textbook
One sentence a day, graded against how it would be said in Paris or Lyon — j'sais pas, bosser, c'est ouf, trop bien — with the local version shown next to yours. Free, no account needed.
Free every day · No account needed · Takes a minute
What French in France actually sounds like
Textbook French gets you understood. The French people actually speak gets you treated like you belong. A few of the differences the grader listens for.
| You want to say | Textbook French | How it's said in Metropolitan French |
|---|---|---|
| I don't know | Je ne sais pas. | J'sais pas. the ne is almost always dropped in speech |
| Shall we go? | Partons-nous ? | On y va ? on, not nous, for "we" |
| I have to work | Je dois travailler. | Faut que je bosse. |
| That's insane | C'est incroyable. | C'est ouf ! verlan of fou |
| I really love it | J'aime beaucoup cela. | Je kiffe grave. |
| That's so good | C'est très bien. | C'est trop bien. |
| That's sketchy | C'est bizarre. | C'est chelou. verlan of louche |
What changes when you set your variety to Metropolitan French
- Spoken grammar — "j'sais pas", "c'est pas grave", "on y va" — the ne disappears and on replaces nous in almost all speech. The grader marks "nous ne savons pas" in a casual sentence as stiff.
- Vocabulary — bosser, le taf, un truc, un mec, une bagnole, bouffer — everyday words a textbook skips, and the grader knows which are just casual and which are crude.
- Intensifiers — trop, grave, carrément, de ouf — "c'est trop bien", "j'ai grave faim". The intensifiers that make a sentence sound under forty and from France.
- Slang, handled carefully — verlan and slang — ouf, chelou, relou, vénère, kiffer — flagged when they fit and when you'd sound like a tourist trying too hard. Tu or vous is checked too.
How RateMyFrench trains your Metropolitan French ear
Graded against the local version
Translate today's sentence and get an instant 1–10 stamp. The grader is set to Metropolitan French, so correct-but-foreign phrasing loses points and you see exactly why.
See how a local would say it
Every result comes with the sentence the way someone from there would actually put it — Metropolitan French vocabulary, register and rhythm, not a neutral translation.
Sentences at your level
Set the difficulty on the card, from Beginner to Master. At the top end every sentence demands nuance — idiom, register, the subjunctive, tu versus vous — instead of ordering a coffee for the hundredth time.
A one-minute daily habit
There's one new sentence every day, and an optional morning email so you don't miss it. Sounding local is a hundred small corrections, not one big lesson.
Common questions
I'm already fluent. What does this add?
Fluent and local are different things. Plenty of fluent French is grammatically clean but placeless — every native speaker can tell. Today's sentence is graded against how it would be said in Metropolitan French, with the local phrasing shown next to yours, so you close that gap one sentence a day.
Is this Paris French or all of France?
The grader targets general urban French from France — what you'd hear in Paris, Lyon or Bordeaux and on French TV. It avoids regionalisms that only work in Marseille or the north, and it will tell you when a phrase is very informal.
Can I switch varieties later?
Yes — the variety is picked on the card and you can change it any time (Metropolitan, Québécois, Belgian, Swiss or West African). Your stamps stay with you, and every variety is free to play.
How much does it cost?
Today's challenge is free every day, in Metropolitan French or any other variety, no account needed, and so is your rating. The tutor's written correction is free on your first result and twice a week with a free account; the pass opens every correction, along with extra rounds and the archive of past challenges.
Learning a different variety?
Write French a Parisian would claim as their own
One sentence a day, held to the local standard. Today's takes under a minute.