French phone calls: why they are so hard, and what to say

On a phone line, the network carries only the 300 to 3,400 hertz band, set by a 1992 International Telecommunication Union standard. The high frequencies vanish, and with them the difference between an s and an f. Here is why a French phone call is harder than a face to face conversation, and which phrases to prepare.

Why is a phone call harder than talking in person?

Because you do not hear everything. The Office québécois de la langue française defines the telephone band as the band of frequencies allowing intelligible transmission of the human voice, between 300 and 3,400 Hz. Intelligible is not complete: an Ircam dissertation on telephone speech notes that this filter, standardised by the International Telecommunication Union in 1992, drops both the high frequencies and the fundamental frequency, the one carrying the melody of the sentence.

The consequences are concrete. French consonants that separate the most words live in those high frequencies, and the same text notes that it is very hard to tell an isolated s from an f on the phone. French keeps producing such pairs: sait and fait, sous and fou. Without the melody, the clue telling you whether the other person was asking or finishing also disappears.

And you can no longer see anything: not the lips you read without noticing, not the eyebrow that rises when you get it wrong. Hence learners who follow a series without subtitles and freeze on a two minute call with an office. It is a different exercise, and the Council of Europe's CEFR Companion Volume acknowledges it: it gives phone use a descriptor scale of its own, Using telecommunications.

What should you say in the first fifteen seconds?

A French call follows a short, almost fixed script. Calling: "Bonjour, Marie Dupont à l'appareil. Je vous appelle au sujet de mon dossier." Answering, name yourself without a title in front of your own name, as the OQLF advises: "Service des communications, Line Blondeau", not "madame Line Blondeau".

English habits transfer badly here. "Hello, who's this?" has no polite French equivalent, and the literal "Qui êtes-vous ?" sounds like a police question. Nor do you say "Speaking" as a one word answer. Another OQLF page, on usual phone formulas, sorts what is said from what it rules out. These turns come back on every call:

• Asking who is calling: "C'est de la part de qui ?" or "Puis-je lui dire qui l'appelle ?"
• Asking the reason: "C'est à quel sujet, je vous prie ?"
• Holding the line: "Ne quittez pas" or "Restez en ligne", never "gardez la ligne".
• Transferring: "Je vous la passe" or "Je transfère votre appel".
• Offering voicemail: "Voulez-vous laisser un message dans sa boîte vocale ?"

Use vous unless told otherwise, and the choice between tu and vous sets the rest of your tone.

How do you ask for a repeat without derailing the call?

The costliest reflex is saying yes when you have not understood. The Language Portal of Canada, in its page on clear spoken communication, which covers the phone explicitly, gives two markers: articulate well at an average rate of 140 to 160 words per minute, and, to check comprehension, avoid questions of the "Comprenez-vous ?" type, rephrase instead of repeating louder, and ask the other person to summarise what they have to do.

Turn these round. "Vous pouvez me le dire autrement ?" works better than "Pardon ?", which often returns the same sentence at the same speed. Ask for spelling: "Vous pouvez épeler le nom, s'il vous plaît ?" Note that French spells out names with first names, A comme Anatole, not with the NATO alphabet you may know. Repeat digits one by one, since French numbers have traps of their own, and close with "Je récapitule : vous me demandez de…".

What about an automated menu or voicemail?

That is often the real obstacle: the recording speaks fast and nobody can slow it down. Note the options as they come, one digit and one keyword per line, let the menu replay, and look for the key that reaches a human.

For a message, write it before the beep. Four elements are enough: your name spelled out, the reason in one sentence, your number said twice slowly, a closing line. "Bonjour, Marie Dupont, je vous appelle au sujet de mon rendez-vous de mardi. Vous pouvez me rappeler au 06… Je répète : 06… Merci, bonne journée."

What these rules do not tell you

The formulas quoted here come from a Quebec body. The core travels across the French speaking world: "Ne quittez pas", "C'est de la part de qui ?", "Je vous la passe" are heard in Paris as in Montreal. But the OQLF rules out as faulty some turns you will nonetheless hear, "Je vous transfère" among them: learn the recommended ones without correcting anybody.

No level scale guarantees a successful call either, because the phone depends on the other person as much as on you: a rushed switchboard stays hard at B2 while someone who slows down makes it easy at B1. Our level test tells you where you stand, not how this call will go.

Finally, the technical difficulty is no longer the same everywhere. The 300 to 3,400 hertz band describes classic telephony; calls over the internet carry a wider one, and the voice is markedly clearer. Given the choice, offer an online call: you get back part of the frequencies that carry consonants. Also train your ear on fast spoken French and work on your pronunciation, since on the phone you are heard without being seen.

The phone is badly prepared alone: it needs someone who plays along. At Frenchee, classes are live by video with qualified native teachers, one to one or in a small group of three to five students, with no subscription. An administrative call or a voicemail message rehearse well in that setting, camera off to get closer to real conditions.

Sources

• Office québécois de la langue française, Formules usuelles à privilégier au téléphone
• Office québécois de la langue française, bande téléphonique
• Language Portal of Canada, Communication claire : parler pour être compris
• Council of Europe, CEFR Companion Volume