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Making plans & suggestions
This is friendship admin: suggesting something, saying yes with enthusiasm, saying no without hurting anyone, and pinning down when and where. Four moves, all chunks, all reusable for the rest of your life.
The one idea
Plans run on three chunks: ça te dit de… ? to propose, on pourrait… to suggest, ça marche to seal it. Learn those and the rest of this lesson is decoration.
Listen first: sorting out Saturday
A complete plan, from “fancy it?” to “deal” in eight lines. Shadow your lines — you’ll be having this exact conversation soon.
Proposing something
“Fancy coming along?” — literally “does it speak to you?”. THE casual invitation. For a thing instead of a verb: « ça te dit, un ciné ? »
“We could treat ourselves to a meal out this weekend.” On pourrait… = the soft suggestion.
“Are you free Thursday evening?” Open with availability, then propose.
🇩🇪 Same move as « Lust haben »
« Ça te dit ? » works exactly like „Hast du Lust?“ — an appetite-check rather than a formal invitation. Your instinct for when to use one is already calibrated; just swap the phrase.
The only future you need: je vais + verb
For everything you’re about to do or planning to do, spoken French uses aller + infinitive — like English “going to”. The formal future tense can wait; this covers your conversations.
“I’ll book for eight.”
“We’ll see — I’ll get back to you.” Je te redis is the classic “I’ll confirm later”.
Saying yes, saying no
| Yes! | Feel | |
|---|---|---|
| Carrément ! | “totally, I’m in” | |
| Grave, ça me dit trop ! | “yes, I’d love that” (very casual) | |
| Avec plaisir. | warm and works everywhere | |
| Pourquoi pas ? | “sure, why not” | |
| Ça marche ! | “deal” — seals the plan |
| No — kindly | Feel | |
|---|---|---|
| J’aurais bien aimé, mais je peux pas. | “I’d have loved to, but I can’t” | |
| J’ai déjà un truc de prévu, désolée. | “I’ve already got something on, sorry” | |
| Ce soir, ça va être compliqué… | the famous soft no | |
| Une autre fois, promis ! | “another time, promise!” |
What people actually say
Listen for « ça va être compliqué » — “that’s going to be complicated”. It almost never describes logistics; it’s the standard gentle refusal. If you hear it, read “no” and offer another day.
Pinning it down
| French | Means | |
|---|---|---|
| On dit quelle heure ? | “what time shall we say?” | |
| On se retrouve où ? | “where shall we meet?” | |
| Vers vingt heures ? | “around eight?” — vers = fuzzy time | |
| Devant le ciné, dix-neuf heures trente. | “outside the cinema, 7:30” | |
| Je t’envoie un message. | “I’ll text you” |
The 24-hour clock is spoken
France says vingt heures, not “8pm” — in speech, not just timetables. Dix-huit heures = 6pm, vingt heures trente = 8:30pm. Practise hearing them fast; they come at you glued together.
Your turn
Invite a friend to the cinema tonight — the casual way.
A friend suggests drinks after work. Accept with enthusiasm and ask where to meet.
You’re invited to a party but you’re already busy. Decline warmly and leave the door open.
Pin down the plan: around eight, outside the restaurant — and say you’ll book.
Quick check
Plans are full of “each other” verbs: on se retrouve (we meet up), on s’appelle (we’ll call each other), on se voit quand ? (when are we seeing each other?). The se just means “each other” here — learn the phrases whole.
Life happens: « Désolée, je vais devoir annuler pour ce soir » — then soften with « on remet ça ? » (“rain check?”, literally “shall we put it back on?”). Sincere and completely standard.
A lovely native pattern: « Et si on allait à la mer ? » — “what if we went to the sea?”. It uses the imparfait after si, but don’t analyse it: learn et si on allait… as one chunk and drop destinations into it.