Yes, probably - but we think it’ll start making sense to the learner at some point later in the course! Always including the noun in the prompt is possible but when applied as a general rule it can make the chunks quite bulky and inflexible in some cases… Not to say that it’s impossible that we’ll go back to something like that, but it didn’t quite work out in our tests anyway 
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When it presents “faire” there’r a strange noise after the woman voice
More sentences that leave me a little puzzled:
1
Prompt:
I think that but I’m not sure if it’s true
I expected:
Je pense ça mais je ne suis pas sûre si c’est vrai
Actual translation:
Je pense que mais je ne suis pas sûre si c’est vrai
2
Prompt:
For that
I expected:
Pour ça
Actual translation:
Pendant ça
Opinions about it?
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That sounds like it’s picked the wrong word for ‘that’ - starting it like it’s a chunk for “I think that (he will stay)” for example, instead of “I think that” - that’s the thing that I think.
To me, pendant ça is more like “during that”, but perhaps it makes sense in a future longer sentence.
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Yes I’m sure *that’*s what happened with that “that”. It’s definitely a bit tricky in English, translated to/from other languages! 
While I can’t remember exactly all the sentences where and how “pour” or “pendant” wer used before, right now.
(I enjoy practising pronunciation, becoming faster at saying the sentences and clearing doubts here and there about the language.
But there’s no new vocabulary for me in the course, and (unlike the German) I hear French from other sources as well, so can’t really remember if I heard something here or elsewhere!)
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Just popping some comments about the French course here. They arrived by email, but this way @Kai has them in the same place, and if anyone else doing French has something to add, they can 
A lot of the introductions to new words and phrases are gibberish. In reality, it doesn’t really matter because the follow up questions are always correct.
Part way though, I think somewhere around brown belt for me the male model speaker starts going off piste and says things that don’t tally with the script. Basically, he’s adding words that rhyme with ‘qu’elle ait’ that goes before ‘besoin de.’ At first I thought it might be another way to say the same thing, but that doesn’t appear to be the case because it sounds like a different word each time to me ie he may say ‘qu’elle ait belle ait’ this time then ‘qu’elle ait selle ait’ the next. I feel like you may have noticed it in some areas as some of the model lines seem to be said by the main English voice instead around the same time, but in other areas you’ve missed it (if it is what I think it is).
Occasionally the female model voice goes on too long and speaks a lot more than she should! The beginning is correct but it continues so I assume it simply hasn’t been edited correctly.
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Just to let you know about a few things that have popped up in the French course:
- vous arreter is introduced as “to stop” and is fine in the main example given but in some of the shorter practice sentences it’s practiced as “i want to stop” → “je veux vous arreter”
- the pattern “je n’en veux meme pas une offre gratuite” is introduced but on some of the shorter practice sentences “I don’t even want any” is translated as “je ne veux pas en” - I might be wrong but I didn;t think that the “en” could go there
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You’re right of course: je veux vous arrêter is “I want to stop you”.
And ‘en’ (in this sense) can’t follow ‘pas’. In fact that whole second bullet point is very strange.
‘En’ is what you use when you’re referring to an item that has already mentioned (but only when it’s ‘any/some of something’, rather than a specific item), and ‘en’ always precedes the verb.
So, "Do you want some/any/a coffee? “No, I don’t want any.” – > Veux tu du café? No, je n’en veux pas.
(In contrast, “Do you want the coffee?” would be Non, je ne le veux pas.)
So, Je n’en veux même pas une offre gratruite means “I don’t even want any (of something else entirely already mentioned), a free offer”, which doesn’t really make any sense.
Perhaps they meant Je n’en veux pas, même comme offre gratuite (“I don’t want any, even as a free gift”)?
(Sorry if you already knew this…)
I recently introduced my son’s friend to the new SSi app. He has been trying to learn French for about ten years, without much success, and has really taken to the SSi approach.
He asked me to pass on two comments to the team (both of which are general for the app, rather than specific to French, but I wasn’t sure where else to put them).
The first thing was to ask whether it would be possible to add a daily reminder on the app, to nudge you to use it. I reckon that would have to be something you would opt into because there are probably as many people (me!) who would hate yet another pop-up notification as would find it helpful, but I promised to pass it on regardless.
Secondly, this friend is a game designer and he tells us that the Catalan government is so keen to increase the use of the language that they are paying game designers to translate their games into Catalan. So he reckons that if you were to add Catalan to the list of languages on the app, there might well be grants and other support available to help with this.
Knowing you guys, you may be well aware of this already and even working on something behind the scenes, but I thought I would pass it on.
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Ooh! Very helpful. Thanks for this. We definitely are aware of the emphasis on Catalan in the region and we should probably start working on that.
The challenge is that the minority languages have to all be done manually and that’s a massive job!!!
But thanks for the feedback anyway and keep coming up with ideas!
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Is there a difference between elle a besoin and elle ait besoin? I have noticed both popping up and wondered if it may be a context thing or if it is dialectical or something else.
Oh, and same question about elle peut and elle puisse
Elle a is just the normal present tense of avoir – “she has”.
Elle ait is the present subjunctive of the same verb – “she may/might/should” etc (the translation can vary depending on the context).
The same for elle peut (“She can”) and elle puisse (“She could/would/may” etc) which are both from pouvoir (“to be able”).
You get the subjunctive in many situations in French when you don’t in English but it essentially conveys the idea that something is a bit speculative or unreal – e.g. ‘will’ vs ‘may’ in English – and French insists on using it with verbs of ‘wanting’ or ‘desire’ and other similar ideas.
So you often see it after vouloir que, or after il est impossible que, for example:
- Je veux qu’elle puisse sortir… : “I want her to be able to go out” – not, “je veux qu’elle peut…”
- Il est impossible qu’elle ait froid… : “It’s impossible that she’s cold…”. (You have cold in French…)
It’s a bit stilted in English, but you can think of it as “I want that she should be able to go out”, or “It’s impossible that she should be cold”.
You just get used to the situations it’s used in and nobody is going to object if you use ‘a’ instead of ‘ait’ by mistake.
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I would appreciate some help.
I think i may have a problem in the web app when using the French Beta course. I completed each of the individual Orange belt lassons in one sitting - thought not all three at once. The orange lesson took over 2 hours and the orang-whiet-stripe and orange-blac-stripe each took over 3hrs. By contrast my Japanese lessons are completing in about an hour.
I haven’t been using eith er revist or skip buttons, just letting it urn as soon as I start. Arans coaching messages appear to be running normally, but I seem to be getting excessive repeition of the learning sentences and have noticed repeates of Aranintroducing a new French sentence - which suggests some kind of looping to me?
Is it possible that there aree some problems with the app settings for the Fench course on my account, and if so, is it possible to adjust them so that my lessons run in a shorter time?
Thanks,
mike
Whenever I feel I don’t need the amount of repetition I’m getting I press the skip button, Until it’s more challenging again (Aran’s 10% rule)
Or press revisit if I can’t keep up.
I’ve noticed a few glitches occasionally with the the English not quite matching the French or Spanish I’m learning, and sound files not being quite what I expected, but overall it all settles down again in a few moments. I think it happens most often, when I’ve switched between languages Ive also had a few minor irritations when opening the app, I . But that could be my own phone or internet supplier
Personally I don’t worry too much about any of it because I agree that “the feeling of frustration is your brain learning”
I don’t think I’ve answered your actual questions but hopefully my input helps in some way. 
I haven’t worked through a lot of the French Beta myself, so I can’t say for sure what’s happening. There’s an updated version of the app on its way though which will let you use ‘Skip’ to move 1 Introduction item ahead, and Revisit to move 1 Introduction item back, so if you think you’re getting repeats, you’ll be able to move on more easily.
Also, the latest Japanese and Irish courses have been through some new production techniques which will be applied to existing courses like the French before too long, so that should improve the learning experience for you.
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@Deborah-SSi,
Thanks for that. I’ve been a bit wary of using the Skip option as I was afraid it might take me past material I hadn’t seen. The changes you mention coming in the app should help a lot. I’ve very happy with the learning material itself, as well as with Aran’s helpful advice on language learning, but the present excessive repeats I’m experiencing have worn me down a bit! Though probably good for locking things firmly into long term memory.
thanks again, mike
@mike-80 the update should be through now. If you don’t get prompted to update the app, go into the app store and you should see that you can do it there. I have a bit of a dodgy internet connection today, so I’ve had to logout and login a couple of times to make sure everything downloaded properly, but give it a try.
@Deborah-SSI,
Thanks for letting me know about the app update. Things are moving quickly. I think 2025 is going to be a big/important year for SSI. Does this update apply to the web browser version too (if I clear my cache to ensure I load latest version)?
Thanks, mike
Yes, it will be in the web browser version too. You’ll know you’ve got the latest as it shows you the Session Time as well. I’ve just had a look and it’s there for me
Thanks, I’ll give it a go and report back. mike