How do you say “to fall in love” in French? While the classic expression tomber amoureux perfectly captures romantic feelings, the French language offers a rich variety of charming, nuanced, and colorful alternatives that fit both romantic and non-romantic settings. Let’s explore some of these expressions.

As we mentioned, tomber amoureux (to fall in love) typically conveys strong feelings for a person or thing:

Une chanson qui parle des sentiments adolescents et de la solitude qu'on peut ressentir quand on voit des gens tomber amoureux et que nous, on a envie de ressentir de l'amour.

A song that talks about teenage feelings and about the loneliness that we can feel when we see people falling in love and that we want to feel love.

Captions 79-82, Français avec Nelly 12 Songs to Improve Your French - Part 1

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To evoke the sudden, overwhelming feeling of “falling madly in love," the French have a very colorful expression that literally means “to be struck by lightning": avoir un coup de foudre. Back in the 17th century, the expression described just that, an unpleasant electrifying experience! Over time though, it lost its sting and took on the more romantic meaning we know today:

J'ai un coup de foudre pour toi.

I'm madly in love with you.

Caption 77, Français avec Nelly How to flirt in French

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When combined with être (to be) instead of avoir (to have), as in ça a été le coup de foudre, the meaning changes slightly and is best rendered as “it was love at first sight." The focus is now on the event or the catalyst rather than the person experiencing these feelings. Just as in English, un coup de foudre (love at first sight) can happen not only with people but also with everyday things, such as delicious cherries:

Dès la première fois que j'ai goûté une cerise ça a été le coup de foudre.

From the first time I tasted a cherry, it was love at first sight.

Captions 70-71, Le saviez-vous? Comment dire qu'on aime?

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The expression un coup de cœur, literally “a blow/strike to the heart,” works in a similar grammatical way to un coup de foudre (love at first sight) with avoir (to have) or être (to be). Avoir un coup de cœur means to fall in love or to be smitten, emphasizing the initial feeling of attraction toward another person:

J'ai un coup de cœur pour toi.

I'm smitten with you.

Caption 74, Français avec Nelly How to flirt in French

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The expression can also be used in a non-romantic way, such as avoir un coup de cœur pour une peinture (to fall in love with a painting): 

Et j'ai vraiment eu un coup de cœur pour cette peinture.

And I really fell in love with this painting.

Caption 49, Le saviez-vous? Karine Rougier présente son art - Part 3

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Speaking of painting, a speaker in another video describes how she fell in love with a particular painting, how it became “her favorite” and how she developed a little “infatuation”:

C'est vraiment mon coup de cœur, hein. Ben y en a... beaucoup des jolis, mais celui-là vraiment, à chaque fois que je rentre dans ton atelier, j'ai un petit coup de cœur. 

It's really my favorite, you know. Well, there's... many nice ones, but that one, really, every time I enter your studio, I have a little infatuation. 

Captions 13-15, Marie et Sandra Atelier d'art - Part 8

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As you can see, un coup de cœur can translate in a variety of ways depending on whether it is used with avoir or être and on the nature of the feeling being conveyed. In this example, un coup de cœur is more of an "affinity” than “love”:

Avec François, on a repris la librairie y aura bientôt deux ans, une librairie pour laquelle on a eu un véritable coup de cœur.

With François, it's coming on two years ago that we took over the bookstore, a bookstore for which we had a veritable strike of the heart [affinity].

Captions 6-8, Gaëlle Librairie "Livres in Room"

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Moving on to a different charming expression, we have tomber sous le charme (to fall under the spell of something, or simply fall in love), which best describes an irresistible attraction:

Visiblement, ma mère...était tombée sous le charme du vendeur.

Obviously, my mother...had fallen under the spell of the salesman.

Captions 56-58, Mère & Fille Mère ou sœur

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Alternatively, you could say succomber au charme (to succumb to the charm):

Visiblement, ma mère...avait succombé au charme du vendeur.

Obviously, my mother...had succumbed to the charm of the salesman.

A less overt way of admitting one’s feeling of attraction is with the expression avoir un faible (to have a weakness, a soft spot, or a crush):

Olivier a toujours eu un petit faible pour Fabrice.

Olivier has always had a little weakness for Fabrice.

Caption 66, Le Jour où tout a basculé Ma collègue veut ma place - Part 1

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Or you may want to use the colloquial phrase craquer sur when “falling for” or “giving in to" the temptation of impulse buying, like this person at a Christmas market in Alsace:

Et ben on a craqué sur des choses un petit peu typiques, euh...

And, well, we fell for things that are a little bit typical, uh...

Caption 10, Alsace 20 Ouverture du marché de Noël de Colmar

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There you have it! We hope you enjoyed this foray into feelings, and that it will help you navigate the world of love.

Learners of French strive for grammatically correct speech, only to discover that native speakers usually don't speak "textbook" French. Some rules taught in the classroom don't always apply in real life, as spoken French abandons some conventions in favor of a more fluid and authentic way of communicating. While this fluidity feels natural to natives, these discrepancies can be confusing for students. In this lesson, we will explore how to navigate some of the main differences between “textbook” and spoken French.

Elision is a phenomenon in which certain short words, such as que (what/that) and je (I), lose their final vowel when they come before a word starting with a vowel or mute h. For example, you'd say j'ai (I have) as opposed to je ai, and quelqu'un (someone) instead of quelque un. This is a standard, obligatory aspect of both textbook and conversational French. But conversational French also does this with another word: tu (you). For example, French speakers like to condense tu as (you have) into what now sounds like one word: t’as (you’ve).

T'as encore faim ?

Are you still hungry?

Caption 26, Le Jour où tout a basculé Mes parents se préparent à la fin du monde - Part 3

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In textbook French, we would say the following:

Tu as encore faim ?

Are you still hungry?

Likewise, the expression tu n’as qu’à (you just have to) often gets shortened to t’as qu’à, which might sound like a strange new word to a French learner: “taka” instead  of “tunaka." This involves a double shortcut: the omission of ne (not) and the compression of tu as (you have) into t’as (you’ve). Omitting ne is also very common in conversational French:

Ben, t'as qu'à l'appeler. -Ben, t'as qu'à l'appeler.

Well, you just have to call her. -Well, you just have to call her.

Caption 84, Mère & Fille Mère ou sœur

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Fast-speaking Barbara could have slowed down and said to her mother:

Ben, tu n'as qu'à l'appeler. -Ben, tu n'as qu'à l'appeler. 

Well, you just have to call her. -Well, you just have to call her.

You'll also often hear t'es (you're) as opposed to tu es (you are):

T'es tranquille, quoi.

You're tranquil, you know.

Caption 13, Sophie et Patrice Dépendance des jeux vidéo

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Here is the textbook French version:

Tu es tranquille, quoi.

You are tranquil, you know.

French speakers frequently shorten common expressions made up of a succession of very short words. The phrase il y a (there is), for example, becomes y a (there’s), dropping the pronoun il entirely. Sophie uses the casual y a (there’s) in her friendly conversation with Patrice:

Y a beaucoup de poésie.

There's a lot of poetry.

Caption 11, Sophie et Patrice Dépendance des jeux vidéo

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She could have used il y a (there is), which sounds just as natural in a conversation but is a bit more formal:

Il y a beaucoup de poésie. 

There is a lot of poetry.

The negative form of il y a involves a striking string of short words: il n’y a pas (there is not). As you might expect, French speakers have found a way to simplify this! In casual speech, it becomes y a pas, which sounds almost like a single word: "yapa." 

Y a pas que ça.

It's not just that.

Caption 55, Mère & Fille Un vent de liberté

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The more formal version is seldom used in casual spoken French. Note here the use of cela, a more formal alternative to ça (that):

Il n’y a pas que cela.

It is not just that.

Here is another il y a expression: the impersonal phrase il n’y a qu’à (we just have to), which can be shortened to y a qu’à (“yaka”):

Y a qu'à lui en trouver un autre.

We just have to find him another one.

Caption 66, Les zooriginaux 6. Tiger Minor - Part 2

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Il n’y a qu'à lui en trouver un autre.

We just have to find him another one.

To sum up, here's a list of the shortcuts mentioned in this lesson:

tu as –> t'as (you've)

tu n’as qu’à –> t’as qu’à (you just have to)

tu es –> t’es (you're)

il y a –> y a (there's)

il n’y a pas –> y a pas (there's not)

il n’y a qu’à –> y a qu’à (you/we just have to)

We hope you will be able to use those shortcuts yourself and be on your way to sounding like a native! Refine your comprehension skills by listening to the way French speakers manipulate the language in casual conversation in our Yabla videos. And stay tuned for another round of textbook vs. spoken French!