In our monthly blog, we choose an idea or topic that our French learners might find useful in conversation. If you’d like to join us, this edition will cover the words, phrases and expressions we might use to make a suggestion or a proposal to someone.
Think about situations like suggesting something you could do with your group, trying to encourage your friends to come with you to the art gallery, or perhaps making arrangements for an outing to the cinema. Let’s get started, shall we?
To politely make a suggestion – without being too pushy in the first instance – you might need to phrase things using questions. If you’re not too confident with formulating questions in French, you can first have a look at our conversation blog on asking questions.
Within the question format, which is the most common way to suggest something, there are some common verbs you’ll encounter.
- vouloir to want – which we might use in phrases like ‘Do you want to…?’ or ‘Would you like to…?’
- devoir to have to – which we might use in phrases like ‘Should we…?’
- pouvoir to be able to – which we might use in phrases like ‘Can we…?’ or ‘Could we…?
For more information about everyday use of these verbs, we recommend reading our Word of the Week blogs on vouloir, devoir and pouvoir.
Using each of these verbs, we can make suggestions in different tones and using different tenses. The conditional tense is most useful for suggestions, as it creates the hypothetical concept of ‘would’ – or something that is not yet confirmed, but on the table. In other words, a suggestion.
Find out more about the conditional tense on our Easy Learning French Grammar page, but for now, the best way of learning it for conversation is to look at set conjugations in some common phrases. Using the conditional tense, we can make polite suggestions both with and without questions.
Using vouloir:
- Est-ce que tu voudrais partager une bouteille de vin rouge ? Would you like to share a bottle of red wine?
- Tu voudrais venir à la plage avec nous ? Would you like to come to the beach with us?
- Vous voudriez dîner à l’hôtel ce soir ? Would you (plural/formal) like to have dinner at the hotel this evening?
Using devoir:
- Est-ce que je devrais réserver la table ? Should I reserve the table?
- Est-ce qu’on devrait partir plus tôt ? Should we leave earlier?
- Tu devrais nous rejoindre au centre-ville. You should come and meet us in the city centre.
- Vous ne devriez pas manger à ce café-là. You (plural/formal) shouldn’t eat at this cafe.
Using pouvoir:
- On pourrait acheter des billets pour l’exposition. We could buy tickets for the exhibition.
- Nous pourrions prendre un verre demain. We could go for a drink tomorrow.
- Vous pourriez aller en train. You (plural/formal) could go by train.
- Est-ce qu’on pourrait rentrer ? Could we go home ?
- Est-ce que vous pourriez nous rendre visite demain ? Could you pay us a visit tomorrow?
With some set phrases using the conditional tense under your belt, we can move on to other ways to make suggestions. These options include set phrases which are fairly informal:
Et si…? How about…?
Pourquoi pas…? Why don’t…? / Why not…?
Once again, we’ve employed the use of questions, but this casual method of formulating a question also requires your involvement in spoken French. Make sure to use upwards intonation at the end of your phrase to make it sound like a suggestion. This shouldn’t be new to you! We also do this in English.
For suggestions using ‘et si…?’, the verb for whatever you’re suggesting should follow in the imperfect tense:
Et si tu restais avec nous ? How about if you stayed with us?
Et si on arrivait à neuf heures ? How about if we arrived at nine o’clock?
Et si je te laissais la clé ? How about if I left you the key?
For making a suggestion using ‘pourquoi pas…?’, it’s a little bit easier to formulate. You can follow with the verb infinitive, which means you don’t need to know the conjugation rules, just the verb:
Pourquoi pas les demander avant de payer ? Why not ask them before paying?
Pourquoi pas attendre dehors ? Why don’t we wait outside?
Pourquoi pas prendre un taxi ? Why don’t we take a taxi?
Language In Use
Here is a summary of the most useful words, phrases and structures covered in this blog.
Verbs for making suggestions (in the conditional tense)
pouvoir > pourrait ; pourriez you/we could
vouloir > voudrait ; voudriez you/we would like
devoir > devrait ; devriez you/we should
Other ways to make suggestions
Et si… ? How about… ? (followed by imperfect tense)
Pourquoi pas… ? Why don’t… ? (followed by verb infinitive)
Written by Holly Tarbet, freelance copywriter and editor.
All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.
