Discourse Markers

Discourse markers are crucial language tools to make your speech or writing more coherent and meaningful. They help to connect, organise and manage what we say or write.
They can be employed to indicate contrast, cause and effect, emphasis, agreement and disagreement, exemplification, summarising, and adding more information.
One notable feature of discourse markers is that they do not alter the meaning of sentences but help to guide the listener or reader in understanding the structure of what you’re communicating.

To indicate addition or to add more information, you can use markers such as ‘et’ (and), ‘de plus’ (furthermore), ‘aussi’ (also), ‘par ailleurs’ (moreover), and ‘en outre’ (besides).
To introduce contrast, try using ‘mais’ (but), ‘cependant’ (however), ‘toutefois’ (nevertheless), ‘néanmoins’ (nonetheless), or ‘par contre’ (on the other hand).
When explaining cause and effect, use ‘car’ (because), ‘à cause de’ (because of), ‘puisque’ (since), ‘donc’ (thus), and ‘par conséquent’ (consequently).
To emphasise a point, use ‘en fait’ (in fact), ‘effectivement’ (indeed), ‘vraiment’ (really), and ‘surtout’ (especially).
When summarising or concluding, ‘en résumé’ (in summary), ‘pour conclure’ (to conclude), and ‘enfin’ (finally) are handy.

Use these markers sparingly. Sprinkling too many in a single paragraph can make your text sound stilted and artificial.
Make sure to fully understand the nuance of each marker before using it, as misuse can lead to confusion.
As with quantifiers and intensifiers, the position is crucial as it can sometimes change the shade of meaning. For example, ‘encore’ at the beginning a sentence can mean ‘again’; however, at the end of a sentence, it can mean ‘still’ or ‘yet’.
In written expressions, using an extensive range of discourse markers may award you higher marks as it demonstrates your ability to structure your ideas clearly and coherently. It also enriches your writing style and evidences a solid grasp of the language.
Familiarise yourself with common collocations. For example, ‘au contraire’ (on the contrary), ‘en effet’ (indeed), and ‘par exemple’ (for example) appear frequently in French and will make your language sound more fluent and natural.