Listening Comprehension Strategy for Intermediate Learners

Getting Started

Listening is the skill most learners fear, because the sound will not wait for you. You cannot reread, slow the speaker down or look a word up. And the moment you stop to translate one word, the next sentence is gone.

Good listeners do not understand more words. They know what they are listening for, so they catch the few words that matter and let the rest go past. So the whole lesson comes down to one question, asked before every recording:

What am I listening for?

A day? A time? A place? A price? A yes or a no? Once you know, you listen for the shape of that answer, the way you scan a page for a number.

You already do this in your own language. When an announcement comes on at a railway station or an airport, you do not follow every word: you wait for your train number or your gate and catch it. And you already understand fast, careless speech. In everyday Punjabi, ਕੀ ਹਾਲ ਹੈ comes out as ਕੀ ਹਾਲ ਆ, and nobody thinks the language is broken. Spoken French drops sounds in the same way: je suis comes out as “chui”. This lesson shows you where.

By the end of this lesson you should be able to:

• predict what an answer will sound like before the recording starts;
• recognise the most common ways spoken French shortens words;
• hear the small words that decide an answer: pas, le / les, plutôt;
• catch numbers, prices and times said at normal speed;
• spot the exam trap where the speaker changes their mind.

1 Listen with a question

Before the recording, read the question and the options. Then ask two things.

What kind of answer is it? Decide what it will sound like:

What is different between the options? If the four options are four days, you are listening for a day. If they are jeudi à dix heures, jeudi à quatorze heures, mardi à dix heures, you need both the day and the time. The difference between the options tells you exactly where to put your attention.

2 Where the meaning sits

French stresses the last syllable of each group of words, not the first syllable of important words as English does. A sentence comes in short groups, and each group ends on its strongest sound:

• Le train pour Montréal | part à dix-sept heures.
• Je voudrais un café | et deux croissants.

The word that carries the information is very often the last one in its group. So when a sentence starts and you have missed its first words, don’t panic: wait for the end of the group. That is usually where the answer lands.

Listen for the content words: names, numbers, nouns and main verbs. The small grammar words (de, le, que, en) fly past and you can rebuild most of them afterwards, with three exceptions that change the answer (section 4).

3 Spoken French is not written French

Three things happen to French words on their way to your ear.

Words join. A final consonant that is silent on its own is pronounced when the next word starts with a vowel (liaison), and a final sound slides into the next word (enchaînement). So three words can sound like one:

• les‿amis sounds like “lé-za-mi”;
• vous‿êtes sounds like “vou-zèt”;
• il‿arrive sounds like “i-la-rive”.

Sounds drop. In everyday speech the e of short words often disappears, and ne vanishes from almost every negative:

You don’t need to speak like this, especially in an exam. You need to recognise it, because it is how people speak to you at work, on the phone and in TEF and TCF recordings.

Accents differ. In Canada you will hear Québec French every day: tu sounds like “tsu”, dire like “dzire”, petit like “p’tsi”. The words are the same; the sounds move. See Québécois vs European French for the details, and practise with more than one accent.

4 The small words that decide the answer

Most words you can miss. These you cannot, because they flip or split the meaning.

Negatives. Because ne usually drops, the negative is often carried by one short word at the end: pas, plus (no longer), jamais (never), rien (nothing), personne (nobody). J’ai pas reçu la lettre means you did not receive it. And watch ne… que, which is not a negative at all: *Je **n’*ai que dix dollars = I have only ten dollars.

One or more than one. In spoken French the plural is often silent: il parle and ils parlent sound exactly the same. So listen for the places where the plural is heard:

The last line matters in every exam: ils‿ont (they have) has a z sound and ils sont (they are) has an s sound. That one sound is the whole difference.

When it happens. The verb’s helper tells you the time, and it comes first, so catch it: je vais partir (going to leave), je viens de partir (just left), je suis parti (left). See Futur Proche and Passé Récent.

5 Numbers: wait for the end

French builds numbers from pieces, and the first piece can mislead you:

• quatre-vingt-dix-sept = 4 × 20 + 17 = 97. If you write “4” when you hear quatre, you are already wrong.
• soixante-quinze = 60 + 15 = 75.
• deux cent douze = 212; deux cents alone = 200.

So the rule is simple: don’t write until the number is finished. Hold it in your head, then write the digits.

Watch these pairs, which are easy to confuse at speed: deux / douze, treize / seize, six / dix. And cent (100) sounds exactly like sans (without): only the sentence tells them apart.

Canadian everyday numbers:

• Prices are often said as two numbers: dix-neuf quatre-vingt-quinze = 19,95 $.
• Times use the 24-hour clock in announcements: dix-sept heures trente = 17 h 30, 5:30 p.m.
• Phone numbers are usually said digit by digit or in small groups: cinq-un-quatre…

For more, see Numbers, Dates and Time and practise with the numbers in context drill, which asks the same number by reading and by ear.

6 When the speaker changes their mind

This is the most common trap in listening tests, and in real life. The speaker gives one piece of information, then corrects it:

• Le cours commence lundi… non, pardon, mardi.
• C’est vingt dollars, mais quinze pour les étudiants.
• On se retrouve à la gare, ou plutôt au café d’en face.

The words after these signals win: mais (but), en fait (actually), plutôt (rather, instead), finalement (in the end), non, pardon, sinon (otherwise), par contre (on the other hand). When you hear one, keep listening: the answer is coming.

A second trap: the option that repeats the words you heard is often wrong, because it uses them for a different meaning. The right option usually says the speaker’s idea in other words. If you heard ça ne vous convient pas, the right answer might say si la date ne vous va pas.

Plutôt and plus tôt sound identical. Plutôt = rather, instead; plus tôt = earlier. Only the sentence tells you which one you heard.

7 A method for exam recordings

In the TEF and TCF most recordings are played only once, so the first listen has to count.

Before:

1. Read the question and the options.
2. Find what is different between the options: that is what you are listening for.
3. Predict the shape of the answer (section 1).

During:

1. Note key words and numbers in two or three letters (jeu 14h30), not sentences.
2. Don’t translate. If you miss a word, let it go and catch the next group.
3. When you hear mais, en fait, plutôt, non, stay alert: the answer may change.

After:

1. Choose the option that says the speaker’s idea, even in different words.
2. Be suspicious of an option that copies a word you heard but changes the meaning.
3. Move on. You cannot go back, so don’t let one missed answer cost you the next one.

For the timing and question types of each exam, see TCF Canada Listening.

8 Try it: a voicemail

Read the quiz questions at the bottom of this page first. Then, if your browser has a French voice, press ▶ and listen once without reading, the way you would in an exam. Answer the questions, then read the message to check.

Message: Bonjour, ici Julie, de la clinique médicale Saint-Laurent. Je vous appelle au sujet de votre rendez-vous avec le docteur Tremblay. Il était prévu mardi à dix heures, mais le docteur ne sera pas là cette journée-là. On vous propose plutôt jeudi, à quatorze heures trente. Si ça ne vous convient pas, rappelez-nous au 514 555-0186 avant mercredi midi. N’oubliez pas d’apporter votre carte d’assurance maladie. Merci, bonne journée !

What the method finds:

• The topic: an appointment that moves.
• Three times are said: Tuesday 10:00 (the old one), Thursday 14:30 (the new one, after plutôt), Wednesday noon (the deadline to call back). The question decides which one you need.
• The trap: ne sera pas là sounds like a cancellation, but the next sentence moves the appointment.

Common Mistakes

Practice

A. Wait for the end: write the number in digits

B. Fast speech: write the missing word of the written sentence

C. The speaker changes their mind: write the final information

To train your ear on whole sentences, try the listening sentences drill: you hear one of two sentences that differ by one word and pick which.

Your Turn: Listen, Then Say It in Two Sentences

Retelling is the best test of whether you understood. Listen to the voicemail in section 8 once more and say, out loud or in writing, what the message is about and what you have to do, in two sentences, in your own words.

Model answer: La clinique déplace mon rendez-vous avec le docteur Tremblay de mardi à jeudi, à quatorze heures trente. Si ce n’est pas possible pour moi, je dois rappeler avant mercredi midi, et je dois apporter ma carte d’assurance maladie.

Then do the same with one real recording this week: a short news item on ICI Première, a weather forecast, or the message on your bank’s phone line.

Where to Listen at A2

Choose recordings where you can follow the topic. Listen once without text, then with the transcript, then once more without it.

• Mauril: a free app from Radio-Canada and CBC for learning French with real clips from their programmes, sorted by level.
• RFI, le Journal en français facile: a ten-minute daily news bulletin in simple French, with its full transcript.
• TV5Monde, Apprendre le français: short videos graded by level, with exercises.
• ICI Première and the OHdio app (Radio-Canada): real Canadian radio; start with the weather and short news items.
• Your own life: phone menus, voicemails, announcements in the metro or at the bank, in French.

What’s Next

• TCF Canada Listeningthe format and timing of the exam’s listening section.
• Numbers, Dates and Timethe numbers, days and times you need to catch.
• Liaisons and Elisionswhy words join together, with word lists.
• Phone Calls and Voicemailthe phrases you will hear on the phone.
• Listening sentences drillcatch the one word that changes the sentence.
• Reading Comprehension Strategythe same methods for reading.
• Real spoken French: fast speech and accents (B2)the next step for your ear.