: There's another option which I think combines the best options of each: Initially treat French as unintelligible, then when the protagonist learns French, don't treat it as a separate language.

@Cofer669

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There's another option which I think combines the best options of each: Initially treat French as unintelligible, then when the protagonist learns French, don't treat it as a separate language.

Early in the story, you'd have something like this:

"Where is the bathroom?" asked John. Antoinne responded with a few words of French. John frowned and shook his head.

In other words, don't include the French words themselves; just write that the characters are speaking French.

Later, once the protagonist has learned French, establish that other characters only speak French, then you won't need to reference the fact that they're speaking French every time. You can just write "I agree," Pierre replied and it should be clear to readers, especially if you reinforce a few times that the other characters are speaking another language.

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