How to make plans with friends in French
Friends making plans is French as it is actually spoken: tu, dropped letters, and a vocabulary that barely overlaps with the textbook.
The scene
- Who you talk to
- A close friend of the learner. An AI character, speaking French.
- Your goal
- Agree what to do this weekend, and settle a time and place that works for you both.
- How it opens
- “Hé, salut ! Dis, j'me disais, ça te dit qu'on fasse un truc ce week-end ?”
Phrases to have ready
- Ça te dit de faire quoi ce week-end ?What do you feel like doing this weekend?
- Samedi je ne peux pas, mais dimanche oui.I can't do Saturday, but Sunday works.
- Et si on allait au cinéma ?How about we go to the cinema?
- On se retrouve à sept heures devant la gare ?Shall we meet at seven outside the station?
What can go wrong
So no two conversations are the same, the character may bring in one of these, unprompted, once things are under way. This is exactly how the scene describes them to the character:
- You suddenly remember you already have something else on and need to reschedule part of the plan.
- You suggest bringing along another friend the learner does not know well, and gauge how they feel about it.
- The weather forecast changes your outdoor idea, so you need a backup plan.
- You disagree slightly on timing and need to find a compromise.
Spoken French between friends
Your friend in this scene opens with “Hé, salut ! Dis, j’me disais, ça te dit qu’on fasse un truc ce week-end ?” — and almost every word of that is informal: dis (“say”, to get attention), j’me disais (“I was thinking”, with je squashed), ça te dit (“do you fancy it”), un truc (“a thing”, something). Hearing this register is half the scene.
It is tu throughout, on replaces nous (“on se fait un ciné ?” — “shall we do a film?”), and the ne of negatives disappears: “je peux pas samedi”. Reproducing a little of that makes you sound like a friend rather than a letter.
Suggesting, agreeing, fixing the details
“Ça te dit de…?” and “et si on…?” are the two workhorse ways to suggest something: “ça te dit d’aller boire un verre ?”, “et si on allait au cinéma ?” (note the imperfect after si — it’s a suggestion, not the past). To agree: “carrément !” (absolutely), “grave” (totally, very casual), or a calmer “ouais, pourquoi pas”.
The goal is a time and a place, both said out loud: “on se retrouve à sept heures devant la gare ?”. Se retrouver (to meet up) and être dispo (short for disponible, free) are the verbs you’ll use most. “Je suis pas dispo samedi, mais dimanche oui” is the standard way to offer an alternative.
Much of real plan-making happens by text, and French texts compress the same register further: “dispo ?”, “stp” for s’il te plaît, “bcp” for beaucoup, “à tt” for à tout à l’heure. You won’t need them in a spoken scene, but they are the written twin of everything above, and recognising them helps the spoken forms stick.
The French social calendar
An apéro — drinks and snacks before dinner, at someone’s home or on a terrace — is one of the most common weekend plans in France, usually from around six or seven in the evening. Dinner itself tends to start around eight.
Plans change, and in this scene they will: your friend remembers another commitment, the weather ruins an outdoor idea, or they want to bring someone you barely know. “Pas de souci” (no problem) and “on décale ?” (shall we move it?) keep things friendly, and “je préfère qu’on reste à deux cette fois” is a polite way to say you’d rather it were just the two of you.