Phrasebook
Avis or conseil: ask for an opinion, ask for advice
Ask for someone’s opinion or advice in French, then recognise avis on a delivery notice. Practise useful exchanges and the plurals avis and conseils.
- A2
- 10 phrases
- 3 situations
- Learn this in the A2 notebook →
In short
Un avis is an opinion: what someone thinks. Un conseil is a piece of advice: what someone suggests doing. Ask Quel est ton avis ? for a view, or Tu peux me donner un conseil ? for a recommendation. Avis also means a notice, as in un avis de passage.
Yellow the idea to rememberBlue French to learn
un avisan opinion
Focus: an assessment or viewpoint
donner son avis / demander l’avis de quelqu’un
À mon avis, cet appartement est trop petit.
In my opinion, this flat is too small.
un conseila piece of advice
Focus: a recommended action
donner un conseil / demander conseil
Mon conseil : visite les deux appartements.
My advice: visit both flats.
During a flat search
Find:
Ask what someone thinks
The reply evaluates the flat.
Ask what to do next
The reply recommends an action.
Read a delivery notice
Here avis names a notification.
Is conseil countable in French?
| Singular | Plural | English |
|---|---|---|
| un avis | des avis | an opinion / opinions |
| un conseil | des conseils | a piece of advice / pieces of advice |
French counts conseils: Elle m’a donné deux conseils. English uses “two pieces of advice”. Avis already ends in -s, so its spelling stays the same in the plural. In un conseil municipal, conseil names a town council.
À mon avis, tu devrais visiter les deux appartements.
In my opinion, you should visit both flats.
This sentence does both jobs: it gives a view and recommends a visit. An answer to Quel est ton avis ? can include advice. To ask specifically for a next step, Que me conseilles-tu de faire ? means “What do you advise me to do?”