Sensitive French Expression

Meaning	hypersensitive, on edge, high-strung, thin-skinned
Literally	at skin level
Register	normal
Pronunciation		[ah fleur d(eu) poh]
IPA		[a flœʁ də po]

Usage notes: The French expression à fleur de means "almost at the level of" or "at the surface of." It can be used literally…

Par exemple

and figuratively.

Par exemple…

Être à fleur de peau leans toward the figurative: it means that one’s feelings are exposed, right on the surface, making them very sensitive.

Par exemple…

You can also leave out the verb to use à fleur de peau adjectivally.

Par exemple…

Variations

• avoir les nerfs à fleur de peau
• avoir une sensibilité à fleur de peau
• avoir une susceptibilité à fleur de peau
• être à fleur de cœur
• être à fleur de nerfs

Somewhat synonymous

• émotif
• sensible
• susceptible
• vulnérable

 Related lessons

• Avoir conjugations
• Être conjugations
• Peau and other parts of the body

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Practice is the key to improving your French. One class or club meeting a week is simply not enough to make any significant progress; you have to study and practice regularly, preferably every day, even—especially—during school breaks.

Just 15 minutes a day on some kind of French activity can make a huge difference, so here are some ideas for quick practice that you can pick and choose from every day. Of course, you can change this schedule around to suit your own needs and preferences.

 Lundi – Vocabulaire

• Study a vocabulary lesson
• Support Lawless French for an intermediate/advanced mot du jour
• Create and work with flashcards
• Do today’s Fluency Club exercises
• Check out MiVoca – add your words then request a dialog or story to practice in context
• Label everything in your home with post-its or stickers
• Write your shopping lists in French
• Whenever you need to count something, do it in French
• Keep a notebook to jot down new words you learn or words you want to look up
• Look up new terms in a French-only dictionary to see if you can guess the English equivalent before using a bilingual one
• Write a paragraph featuring 10 new words

Mardi – Prononciation

• Study a pronunciation lesson
• Work with pronunciation CDs
• Practice the sounds and words you find most difficult
• Sing a song
• Read something out loud with an exaggerated accent (think Inspector Clouseau)
• Record yourself, then listen carefully to pinpoint problem areas
• Check out my tips and tools to improve your French accent

Mercredi – Grammaire

• Study a grammar lesson
• Review a topic you find difficult
• Work on your Progress with Lawless French suggestions
• Take a quiz
• Select a random expression in the Subjunctivisor
• Try a writing challenge
• Write 5 sentences featuring a specific grammar point

 Jeudi – Lecture

• Try a reading comprehension exercise
• Or a bilingual reader article
• Read a newspaper or magazine
• Start reading a book – some tips
• Test a new recipe in French
• Cross-practice tip: add new terms to your vocabulary notebook

Vendredi – Expressions

• Study an expression lesson
• Follow me on Instagram for a weekly expression
• Use an expression you’ve learned
• Make a list of 5 expressions that all include the same verb
• Look up a word to see whether it’s found in any expressions
• Write a paragraph featuring 3 seemingly unrelated expressions

Samedi – Verbes

• Study a verb lesson
• Review a lesson you find difficult
• Work on your Progress with Lawless French suggestions
• Using a single verb, write 3 sentences: in the present, past, and future
• Select a random expression in the Subjunctivisor
• Conjugate 5 verbs into a tense or mood you have trouble with
• Write a paragraph featuring a certain tense or mood

 Dimanche – Écoute

• Try a listening comprehension exercise
• Do a dictée
• Do today’s Fluency Club exercises
• Listen to music
• Listen to the news
• Listen to the radio
• Watch a movie
• Watch TV
• Subscribe to Yabla French for videos and dictées
• Or try a FluentU video
• Try an AI chatbot
• Cross-practice tip: add new terms to your vocabulary notebook

More French Tools and Practice Ideas

• Subscribe to my newsletter for twice-weekly French reminders and new features
• Follow me on social media for daily French reminders, tiny tests, and new features
• Find French speakers and improve your speaking skills
• Ask questions on social media
• Make LawlessFrench.com your browser’s homepage
• Set your devices and software to use French as the system language
• Play a game
• Keep a French journal
• Do the Weekend Workout at Progress with Lawless French (emailed every Friday to Premium subscribers)
• Designate one day a week as "French day" and speak only French with your spouse, kids, or roommate – assuming they’re also learning French
• Sign up at Frantastique for humorous lessons and corrections
• Join the Alliance française, a French Meetup, or your nearest college’s French club, or just gather some friends and classmates to create your own
• Check out my tips on learning French online, studying independently, and relearning French
• Even more ideas: Don’t lose your French!
   

 En español

• Ideas para la práctica diaria
   

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"You" in French

The distinction between tu and vous is one of the most confounding aspects of French, and one of the most basic. The influence it has on verb conjugations, adjectives, and pronouns is considerable,* but more than that, the choice of tu or vous is a matter of etiquette: it defines the relationship between two people and how they interact, and using the wrong pronoun can have negative consequences.

In a nutshell, tu is informal and singular, while vous is formal and/or plural. That is, if you’re talking to more than one person, it doesn’t matter what your relationship is – you always need vous. It’s only when talking to a single person that the choice must be made.

 In other words…

	Singular	Plural
Informal
Formal

While there’s only one word for "you" in English, formality and familiarity are of course alive and well.

Par exemple…

English makes the distinction between formal and familiar relationships with word choice, varying grammatical structures, and optional titles. French does all of this too; it just adds another layer of complexity with two second person pronouns. So how do you know which one to use?

Tu

The informal, singular subject pronoun tu (listen) indicates an intimate, amicable, and/or equal relationship between two people, and as such it is used with family, friends, lovers, colleagues, and classmates. Kids always use it with one another, as do most teens, even when meeting for the first time. Likewise, adult friends of friends often use it upon being introduced. Tu is also used when talking to God, children, animals, and inanimate objects. Using tu with someone who doesn’t fit any of these categories is likely to cause offense.

Vous

The formal subject pronoun vous (listen) indicates a respectful and/or distant relationship. It’s used between strangers and in professional situations, such as doctor-patient and clerk-customer. It’s also used in professional and academic hierarchies, like boss-employee and professor-student. Using vous with someone who doesn’t fall into one of these categories demonstrates a certain distance, or worse.

 Remember that vous is also plural – always use it when talking to more than one person, even family, friends, and kids.

Also see Verb conjugations and agreement with vous.

Tu vs Vous

In the above relationships, tu and vous are equal – both parties use the same pronoun when talking to each other. But there are times when one person uses vous and the other uses tu.

Par exemple…

The last one isn’t a rule, but I have heard it in more than one family, even after years of marriage and grandkids.

There will be times when you’re not sure which pronoun to use, so what can you do? Generally speaking, you should try to let the other person speak first, to see what they’re using with you. If that’s not possible, I prefer to start with vous, because the potential offense is less: if I use vous when it should be tu, all I risk is having the person think I’m a snob, and this is easily fixed. On the other hand, if I use tu when it should be vous, I may very well insult the person, which is far worse.

 That said, what you should definitely not do is just use vous with everyone because you figure it’s easier or safer. It will make your friends uncomfortable if you keep using vous after they ask you to use tu, which they’ll do by saying something like On peut se tutoyer or Tu peux me tutoyer. If you want to know if it’s ok to use tu, you can just ask: On peut se tutoyer ?

	Video: Tu vs vous
	Quiz: Tu vs vous

* The choice between tu and vous isn’t limited to subject pronouns and their verb conjugations; it also affects several other areas of grammar:

 Related lessons

• Tu vs Vous à fond
• Subject pronouns
• Agreement with vous
• Politeness
   

 En español

• Pronombres sujetos: tú vs Ud.
   

 In italiano

• Pronomi soggetto: tu vs Lei
   

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Familiar French Expression

Meaning	to dominate; to show off
Literally	to raise (arms) in "Y"
Register	familiar
Pronunciation		[leu vay ah(n) ee grek]
IPA		[lə ve ɑ̃ i ɡʁɛk]

Usage notes: The French expression lever en Y comes from motorcycling and BMX riding, in which it refers to doing a wheelie (lever : lifting the front wheel of the cycle) while raising the arms up into a Y shape (en Y). It’s a way of showing off by not just popping a wheelie, but doing it "no hands" which is more difficult and of course more impressive.

Par exemple…

From the literal meaning of lever en Y, rap and street slang have drawn two figurative meanings.

1. to dominate, be on top, control, rule, show off one’s status

Par exemple…

2. to be very good at something, show off one’s skills

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En y can also be used with different verbs, though these are far less common.

• être en Y – to be doing a "no hands" wheelie
• rouler en Y – to be doing a "no hands" wheelie
• se mettre en Y – to go into a "no hands" wheelie
• atterrir en Y – to land in a Y
• finir en Y – to end up in a Y
• dessiner un en Y – to draw a Y
• former un en Y – to form a Y

 Not to be confused with the adverbial pronouns en and y.

 Related lessons

• Lever conjugations
• En – preposition
• Alphabet

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