Answers
Sep 20, 2019 - 08:22 PM
Hi Alex,
Thank you for your question. The phrase "je veux pratiquer mon français." is a very classic phrase and is used all of the time, so I'm not sure why your friend thinks it is odd. I'm not a native French speaker, but I'm fluent in French (living in France since 2011) and I double-checked with my wife who is French. Also, Emile, who helped create the French program is a native French speaker as well as Caroline, the tutor.
As for "entrainer", you would not say "je veux entrainer mon français". You could say "je veux améliorer mon français", but that just means that you want to get better at it, not actually practice your French with someone.
I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions! Good luck with your French!
Cheers,
Andy
Oct 04, 2019 - 03:17 AM
It is true that "pratiquer" is not an exact synonym of "To practice" in the sense that as your friend says, it rather means to "do" a specific activity and not necessarily to "train", however there is no exact equivalent to the verb "practice" in French, especially when referring to languages.
You could say "je vais m'entraîner au français" or "m'exercer" but it sounds at least as strange as "pratiquer". Watch out in any case since you'd have to use the reflexive forms, you can not say "entraîner mon français", that would be wrong.
"Améliorer" works very well, as in "je veux am´çeliorer mon français", yet as Andy said, it only has the sense of "to improve" and not to "train".
That's why in the program I chose to use "pratiquer", because even though not an exact synonym, it seemed like the closest to the English verb to me in meaning and use.
I hope it helps clarifying things a little more for you, thanks for your interest!
