| Let's look at the sentence pattern. |
| Do you remember how the character said, |
| "The "on." You're strong in vocabulary, weak in linking." |
| Le "on." Tu es forte en vocabulaire, faible en liaison. |
| Le "on." Tu es forte en vocabulaire, faible en liaison. |
| This sentence follows the pattern here: |
| être + fort(s)/forte(s)/faible(s) + en |
| "to be good at/weak at [something]" |
| This structure is used to describe someone's strengths and weaknesses in a subject or skill. |
| Fort means "strong" or "good at," and faible means "weak" or "not very good at." |
| The word en means "in" and is followed by the skill area you're talking about. |
| Here's how the line from the dialogue uses the pattern. |
| Tu es forte en vocabulaire, faible en liaison. |
| "You're strong in vocabulary, weak in linking." |
| Tu es forte en vocabulaire |
| "You're good at vocabulary." |
| Here, tu es is the present form of "you are," |
| forte is the feminine form of "strong," |
| and en vocabulaire means "in vocabulary." |
| faible en liaison |
| "weak in linking." |
| This mirrors the same structure: |
| faible meaning "weak," |
| and en liaison, referring to the area of pronunciation being discussed. |
| This pattern is a very natural way to talk about strengths and areas for improvement in French. |
| But keep in mind — saying tu es faible directly to someone can come across as rude or harsh. |
| In real-life conversations, especially in a classroom, French speakers would often say something softer like ton niveau est faible — "your level is weak" — or even something more encouraging like tu peux encore progresser — "you can still improve." |
| So while this grammar is useful, it's important to adapt your tone and phrasing depending on the context. |
| Let's learn to describe where someone excels and where they need improvement using this pattern. |
| The adjective fort, which means "strong" or "good at," agrees with the gender and number of the subject. |
| For example, you say fort for masculine singular and forte for feminine singular. |
| In the plural, it becomes forts for masculine and fortes for feminine. |
| On the other hand, faible, which means "weak" or "bad at," doesn't change with gender— |
| it's always faible in the singular—but it takes an -s in the plural to become faibles. |
| Now let's look at some speaking examples. |
| Je suis fort en compréhension orale. |
| "I'm good at listening comprehension." |
| Can you see how the pattern applies here? |
| Let's break it down: |
| Je, the subject pronoun meaning "I," |
| followed by |
| suis, the first-person singular form of être, meaning "am," |
| Next |
| fort, the masculine singular form of "strong," tells us the speaker is male; a female speaker would say forte. |
| Then |
| en compréhension orale, meaning "in listening comprehension." |
| This follows the pattern: |
| être + fort + en |
| Use it when talking about something you're confident or capable in, like a school subject or a language skill. |
| Here's another example |
| Elle est faible en grammaire. |
| "She is weak in grammar." |
| Elle est faible en grammaire. |
| "She is weak in grammar." |
| Let's try one more, |
| Tu es fort en conjugaison mais faible en orthographe. |
| "You are good at conjugation but weak in spelling." |
| Tu es fort en conjugaison mais faible en orthographe. |
| "You are good at conjugation but weak in spelling." |
| Another one. |
| Nous sommes fortes en lecture. |
| "We are strong in reading." |
| Nous sommes fortes en lecture. |
| "We are strong in reading." |
| One last example. |
| Ils sont faibles en expression écrite. |
| "They are weak in written expression." |
| Ils sont faibles en expression écrite. |
| "They are weak in written expression." |
Comments
Hide