French Lessons
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📚 Looking for charts, word lists & practice games? Browse the Free Resources library →Désolé pour le retard: announcing a delay without losing the client
Your N+1, the CSE and fifteen other acronyms
How to say no in French without ever saying non
On se tutoie ? The tu/vous switch at work
B1 or B2? Read the marking grids before you book the DELF
Vrai ou faux, justifiez: the DELF reading question that quietly halves your score
The DELF B1 lettre formelle: the address block, the formules, and the 160 words that count
The DELF B2 essai argumenté: the four-paragraph shape examiners are waiting for
How to Type French Accents — é, ç, à on Every Device, No Copy-Paste
There’s no shame in having copy-pasted an é from Google. We’ve all done it. But you’re learning French now, and hunting accents letter by letter is fetching water with a teaspoon. Ten minutes of setup ends it forever — here’s the fastest route on every device you own.
The Unwritten Rules of French Politeness: Bonjour First, Kiss Twice, Arrive Late
Here’s the paradox: the French have a worldwide reputation for rudeness, yet live by politeness rules stricter than almost anyone’s. The trick is that nobody wrote them down. Let’s fix that.
The Music of French: Rhythm, Intonation and the Missing Word Stress
Learners tell me French sounds flat — one smooth ribbon of sound — until a native gets excited and the whole sentence turns into music. Both impressions are right, and they come from the same secret: French has no word stress. It stresses groups.
The French future tense (le futur simple): one rule, nine rebels, one trap
English builds the future with two words — “will” plus a verb. French does it with one: je partirai , tu verras , nous serons . Le futur simple runs on one formation rule, a short list of rebel stems, and one trap that catches every English speaker.
Your First 100 French Words — Organised by Job, Not Alphabet
Here’s the happiest maths in language learning: the hundred or so most common French words make up roughly half of everyday speech. Half. So we won’t learn them alphabetically, like a dictionary — we’ll sort them by the job they do in a sentence. Give a word a job and it sticks.
The DELF Speaking Test — What Actually Happens in the Room
The door opens, the examiner smiles, and every French word you have ever learned quietly leaves the building. Breathe. The speaking test — la production orale — is the most predictable part of the whole DELF. Here is exactly what happens, minute by minute, and how to walk out smiling.
Getting Around France — Trains, the Métro and the Art of Not Getting Fined
France has one of the best transport networks in Europe — and a vocabulary to match. Learn a handful of words and the country opens up: Paris to Marseille in three hours while the motorway crowd is still queueing at the péage. Here’s your survival kit.
French for Work Meetings — Speak Up, Disagree Politely, Survive the Visio
Meetings are where workplace French gets real: no rehearsal, everyone talks fast, and someone’s micro never works. The good news? Meetings run on a small set of fixed phrases. Master them and you’ll sound sharp from the first bonjour to the last prochaines étapes.
En France, au Canada, aux États-Unis: one little -e decides everything
Say “I’m going to France” and French immediately asks you a strange question: what gender is France? Mad, yes — but the system behind it is tiny. Four prepositions, one test, a couple of rebels. Ten minutes here and you’ll never hesitate at a departure board again.
Making Plans in French: From Ça te dit ? to On décale ?
Textbooks hand you « Voulez-vous aller au cinéma avec moi ? » — a sentence no French person has texted since the invention of the phone. Real plans run on ça te dit , on pourrait and a volley of short messages. Here’s the full toolkit, from first invitation to last-minute rescue.
French Jobs and Professions — je suis médecin, never un médecin
Someone asks what you do for a living, you translate from English, and out comes « je suis un professeur ». Every French ear winces. Job vocabulary is genuinely easy — most feminine forms follow three tidy patterns — but there’s one golden rule English speakers break daily. Let’s fix that first.
French at the Restaurant — Order, Ask and Pay Like a Local
You can survive a French restaurant with pointing and hopeful smiling. But doing it properly — getting a table, ordering, paying — takes about fifteen phrases, and they are the same ones every single time. Learn them once and dinner becomes the easiest French you will ever speak.
French Regional Accents: From Paris to Marseille to Québec
There is no single “French accent” — there’s a chorus. Learning to recognise the big ones turns confusing audio into geography, and makes natives light up when you notice.
French Prefixes & Suffixes: Multiply Your Vocabulary
French vocabulary isn’t a list — it’s a construction kit. Learn a dozen prefixes and suffixes and every new word you meet comes with four free relatives.
French Subjunctive Triggers: The Complete List
You know how to FORM the subjunctive — the real skill is knowing WHEN. Good news: the triggers come in five families, and once you own the families, the mood fires itself.
Your First Month of French: A Day-by-Day Plan
Motivation fades in week two; plans survive. Here is a first month that fits in 20 minutes a day and ends with you holding a real (small) conversation.
Writing a French CV: Format, Phrases and the Photo Question
A French CV is its own genre: one page, precise headings, and conventions recruiters check in seconds. Here’s the template in your head.
French Dining Etiquette: The Unwritten Rules of the Table
A French dinner runs on rules nobody announces but everyone follows. Break them and nothing is said — but everything is noticed. Here’s the code.
The French R: How to Actually Make the Sound
The French R scares more learners than the subjunctive — needlessly. It’s not a tongue-tip sound at all: it lives at the back of your mouth, where you gargle. Once your throat finds it, it never forgets.
French Fillers & Interjections: Euh, Bah, Du Coup, Quoi
Here’s a secret: fluency isn’t just vocabulary — it’s the little noises between the vocabulary. French conversation floats on fillers, and using three of them well makes you sound more natural than a hundred perfect sentences.
The French Passive Voice — and How Natives Avoid It
French has a passive voice — « la tour a été construite en 1889 » — but here’s the insider truth: natives often dodge it. Learn the form, then learn the dodges; the dodges are what make you sound French.
The French Gerund: En + Participe Présent
« J’apprends le français en regardant des films. » One little structure — en + -ant — covers English’s “while doing”, “by doing” and “upon doing”. It’s the most useful B1 upgrade there is.
French Hobbies Vocabulary: Talking About Free Time
« Qu’est-ce que tu fais pendant ton temps libre ? » After family and work, hobbies are the third pillar of small talk. The vocabulary is easy — the trick is picking the right verb.
French Colors: The Full Palette and the Agreement Rules
Colors are day-one vocabulary with a grammar sting in the tail: some agree, some don’t, and compounds freeze. Here’s the whole palette, sorted.
French Adverbs in -ment: The Complete Formation Rules
English has -ly, French has -ment — and the recipe is more regular than it looks. Three rules cover almost everything.
French Comparatives & Superlatives: Plus, Moins, Le Meilleur
French comparison is a three-position switch: plus (more), moins (less), aussi (as). Set the switch, add que , done.
French Reported Speech: Il A Dit Que…
Quoting people directly is easy; French conversation prefers reporting : « Il a dit que … » The price is a systematic tense shift — one table, learned once.
French Clothes & Shopping: Sizes, Trying On, Paying
Shopping French is a closed script — the same six exchanges in every boutique in France. Learn the props (the clothes) and the lines (the script) and you’re fluent inside the shop.
French Prepositions of Place: Sur, Sous, Dans, Devant…
Where is it? French answers with a dozen small words — learn them as pairs of opposites and the whole set locks in at once.
Ça vs Cela vs Ceci: Which “This/That” to Use
Three little words all mean “this/that thing”: ça , cela , ceci . They differ almost purely by register — and picking the right one instantly places you as a natural speaker or a walking textbook.
French Body Parts & Health: Avoir Mal and the Pharmacy
One structure runs all French pain: avoir mal à + body part. Learn the body, plug it into the machine, and you can handle a pharmacy, a doctor, or a French friend’s sympathy.
French Weather Expressions: Quel Temps Fait-il?
Weather is the world’s default small talk, and French does it with one strange, wonderful rule: the weather makes . « Il fait beau » — it makes nice. Learn the machine once and every forecast follows.
How to Write an Email in French: Openings, Closings, Templates
French emails run on formulas — which is excellent news: learn the fixed pieces and every email assembles itself. Here is the machine.
15 French Idioms Natives Actually Use
Idioms are where French stops being a subject and starts being fun. These fifteen are current, common, and safe in any company — literal meanings included, because they’re glorious.
French Family Vocabulary: La Famille Without the Traps
« Tu as des frères et sœurs ? » is guaranteed first-conversation material. Here’s the whole family tree — including the famous belle-mère trap.
French Food Vocabulary: Meals, Shopping and Ordering
Food is the fastest way into French life — and the vocabulary pays for itself on day one. Here’s what to know before your first boulangerie queue.
French Slang 101: Argot, Verlan and Everyday Street French
Textbook French gets you to the café; argot gets you the conversation at the next table. Here’s the everyday slang you’ll hear within five minutes in France — and the register rules that keep it safe.
The French Conditional: Would, Could and Should
You already use the conditional every time you order a coffee: « Je voudrais un café. » One tense covers would , could and should — and it recycles pieces you already know.
The Plus-que-parfait: the Past Before the Past
« Quand je suis arrivé, le train était déjà parti . » Two past events, one earlier than the other — the earlier one takes the plus-que-parfait , French’s “past before the past”.
French Object Pronouns: Le, La, Les or Lui, Leur?
« Tu as appelé ta mère ? — Oui, je l ’ ai appelée . » French replaces nouns with tiny pronouns that jump in front of the verb. The only real decision is: direct or indirect?
Telling Time in French: Quelle Heure Est-Il ?
« Quelle heure est-il ? » is the first question strangers will ever ask you in France. The answer system is beautifully regular — with one twist: after the half hour, French counts backwards from the next hour.
Faire vs Rendre: Two Ways to “Make” Someone
“This song makes me cry” and “this song makes me sad” use the same MAKE in English. French refuses: « ça me fait pleurer » but « ça me rend triste ». The split is mechanical — look at what comes after.
The Passé Simple: The Tense You Only Have to Read
Open any French novel and a strange tense stares back: « Elle ouvrit la porte, il fut surpris, ils allèrent au jardin. » That’s the passé simple — the literary past. Here’s the liberating truth: you will never need to SAY it. French speakers don’t use it in conversation. You only need to recognize it when you read.
French Text Speak: mdr, jsp, bcp — Decode Your French DMs
Your first real French DM will look like a cat walked on the keyboard: « slt, jsp si g le tps auj, dsl mdr ». That’s normal French texting — and it runs on rules you can learn in ten minutes. Here’s the decoder.
Faire + Infinitive: How French Gets Things Done
English needs clunky machinery for delegation — “I’m having my car repaired”, “she made me laugh”, “he got his hair cut”. French does all of it with one elegant tool: faire + infinitive , the causative. You don’t do the action; you cause it to happen.
The French E Muet: The Vowel That Vanishes
Read samedi slowly and you’ll say three syllables: sa-me-di. A French person says two: sam’di . That disappearing vowel is the e muet (also called e caduc — the “falling e”), and it’s the single biggest reason spoken French sounds faster than written French reads.
French Nasal Vowels: The Sounds Your Nose Makes
Say “song” and stop right before the ng — that buzzing, nose-routed vowel is roughly what French does on purpose, all the time. Un bon vin blanc (a good white wine) contains four nasal vowels and zero pronounced n’s. Here’s the whole system — it’s smaller than it looks.
Imparfait vs Passé Composé: Scene vs Event
Every French learner meets this wall: two past tenses where English mostly uses one. Here’s the mental model that works — think like a film director. The imparfait is your wide shot: what the scene looked like, what was ongoing, what used to happen. The passé composé is the cut: something happened, once, and moved the story forward.
Premier, Deuxième, Troisième: French Ordinal Numbers
French ordinals run on a single suffix: take the number, add -ième . Trois → troisième. Dix → dixième. Mille → millième. The entire system has exactly one real rebel — premier — plus four tiny spelling adjustments.
Tandis que vs Alors que: French’s Two “While”s
English “while” does two jobs — same time (“while I was cooking”) and contrast (“while I prefer tea…”). French splits the workload between tandis que and alors que , with overlapping duties and one clear difference in temperature.
Venir de: How French Says “I Just Did It”
English needs the word “just” — I just finished, she just left. French has a whole construction for it: venir de + infinitive , the passé récent. If you can conjugate venir, you already own it.
French Liaison: When Words Hold Hands (and When They Must Not)
Written French buries consonants at the ends of words; spoken French quietly resurrects them. Say vous avez and a z appears from nowhere: voo- z -avay. That resurrection is la liaison — and it’s not decoration. Some liaisons are mandatory, some are forbidden, and getting them wrong is instantly audible.
Chez: The Little French Word English Can’t Translate
Two letters… wait, four — and no English equivalent. Chez means “at the place of”, and once it clicks, you’ll miss it in every other language. From Latin casa (house), it turns any PERSON into a location.
French Punctuation: The Space Before ?! and Other Surprises
You can conjugate the subjunctive and still look like a foreigner in writing — because French punctuation plays by its own rules. Spaces appear before question marks, quotes grow wings, and decimal points become commas. Five surprises, five fixes.
Quand vs Lorsque — and the Future Rule English Gets Wrong
Quand and lorsque both mean “when”, and choosing between them is the easy part. The real prize of this lesson is a grammar rule where French is MORE logical than English — and where English speakers make a silent mistake for years.
Temps, Fois, Heure: Three French Words for “Time”
“What time is it?”, “three times”, “I don’t have time” — English recycles one word; French insists on three. Pick by asking WHAT KIND of time you mean: substance, occasion, or clock.
Mon, Ma, Mes: French Possessives and the His/Her Surprise
French possessives look like a simple vocabulary list — until you meet the rule that breaks every English speaker’s brain for a week: sa voiture can mean HIS car or HER car . French possessives agree with the thing owned, never the owner. Here’s the whole system.
Ce, Cet, Cette, Ces: How French Says “This” and “That”
Pointing at things is beginner-lesson-one material — and French does it with four little words. Ce, cet, cette, ces cover this/that/these/those, with one sound-driven twist and one surprise: French usually doesn’t care about the this/that difference at all.
Lequel, Auquel, Duquel: Compound Relative Pronouns Demystified
You’ve mastered qui, que and dont — then French throws « la raison pour laquelle » at you. Meet the compound relatives: lequel and its contractions. They look intimidating; they’re actually just agreement + arithmetic.
Gens, Personnes, Monde: How to Say “People” in French
English has one word for “people”; French spreads the job across three — and picks them by COUNTING. Les gens can’t be counted, personnes exists to be counted, and du monde measures the crowd. Here’s the sorting machine.
Jour vs Journée, An vs Année: The Pairs English Doesn’t Have
Why does French have BOTH « jour » and « journée » for day, « an » and « année » for year? Because it splits each concept in two: the masculine short form counts units of time , the feminine -ée form fills them with lived content . Once you feel that split, all four pairs snap into place.
French Plural Nouns: Beyond Just Adding -S
Good news: most French plurals just add a silent -s . Better news: the exceptions follow five clean patterns — including one list of seven words that every French child chants at school. Here’s the whole system.
Amener, Emmener, Apporter, Emporter: Bring & Take, Solved
Four verbs where English makes do with two — but the system is a tidy 2×2 grid. Amener, emmener, apporter, emporter : one axis is WHO/WHAT you’re moving, the other is WHICH DIRECTION. Learn the grid once, never hesitate again.
Encore vs Toujours: Still, Again and Always, Untangled
Two little adverbs, four English meanings — encore and toujours overlap just enough to be confusing. The fix is knowing which meanings belong to which word, and where the two genuinely trade places.
Futur Proche: The Easy French Future (Aller + Infinitive)
Want to talk about the future in French without learning a single new ending? The futur proche — aller + infinitive — is how French speakers actually discuss plans, and if you know the present tense of aller, you already own it.
Qui, Que, Dont: French Relative Pronouns Finally Clear
The moment you want to say « the film that I saw » or « the friend who called », you need relative pronouns — and French hands you three main ones: qui, que, dont. The choice follows one mechanical test. No guessing required.
À vs De: The Two Little Prepositions That Run French
Between them, à and de appear in nearly every French sentence — and choosing the wrong one changes meaning or just sounds off. There’s logic underneath: à points TOWARD things; de points AWAY from them.
French Si Clauses: If-Sentences in Three Patterns
« If I had known… » French builds every if-sentence from just three patterns — and one golden rule that instantly removes the most common mistake. Here are the si clauses , sorted from everyday to regretful.
The French Imperative: Give Orders Without Sounding Rude
Écoute ! Regardez ! Allons-y ! The French imperative is the tense of commands, invitations and recipes — and it’s refreshingly simple: take the present tense, drop the subject. Then learn two quirks and three polite wrappers.
Tout, Toute, Tous, Toutes: One Word, Four Spellings
Few French words work harder than tout . It means all, every, whole, very, completely — and it changes spelling depending on the job. Four forms, three jobs: here’s the map.
Pardon, Désolé, Excusez-moi: How to Apologize in French
French has three everyday “sorry” words, and they are not interchangeable: one is for bumping into people, one for getting attention, one for actual apologies. Learning how to apologize in French is really about picking the right tool — here’s the whole kit.
French False Friends: 12 Words That Don’t Mean What You Think
French and English share thousands of look-alike words — which is wonderful, right up until it isn’t. False friends (faux amis) look identical, mean something else, and generate the most memorable mistakes in the language. Here are the twelve that matter most, ranked by embarrassment potential.
On: The Most French Pronoun of All (and Why Nobody Says Nous)
Textbooks teach “nous allons”; the French say “ on va”. If one word instantly makes your spoken French more natural, it’s this two-letter pronoun — and it conveniently uses the EASIEST conjugation in the language.
Du, De la, Des: How to Say “Some” in French
English happily says “I want bread”. French refuses: a noun almost never stands naked. Enter the partitive articles — du, de la, de l’, des — the little words for “some”, and the reason learners say “je veux pain” exactly once before being corrected.
En and Y: The Two Tiny Pronouns That Make French Flow
Nothing marks real French like the little words en and y . They replace whole phrases, glue answers together, and hide inside expressions the French use hourly. Two rules cover almost everything.
French Adjective Placement: Before or After the Noun?
In English, adjectives always come first: a red car, a small house. French flips the default — and then keeps a short VIP list of exceptions. Master French adjective placement once and a whole class of mistakes disappears.
Your First Week of French: A 7-Day Beginner Plan
Starting French today? Here’s exactly what to do for the next seven days — about 20 minutes a day, everything free, everything on this site. By Sunday you’ll greet, introduce yourself, count, and survive a first mini-conversation.
Tu Me Manques: Why French Reverses “I Miss You”
« I miss you » in French is « tu me manques » — literally “you are missing from me.” The person you miss is the SUBJECT, and you are the object. It’s the single most famous reversal in French, and once it clicks, it’s actually beautiful.
Faire vs Jouer: Sports, Music and the du/au/de la Puzzle
Do you play football or do football in French? Both verbs exist, they split the territory — and each drags its own preposition along. One table ends the confusion for good.
Bon vs Bien: Good, Well, and the French Difference
Bon and bien both translate as “good” in a learner’s head — and mixing them up is instant. The grammar is the same as English good vs well … except French bends its own rule in a few famous places. Here’s the full picture.
Savoir vs Connaître: Two Ways to Know in French
English has one verb « to know »; French insists on two — and swapping them is one of the most reliable ways to sound foreign. The split is clean once you see it: savoir knows facts and skills , connaître knows people and places .
How to Say and Write the Date in French
Booking a table, signing a form, making plans — dates in French come up daily, and they work differently from English in three small ways: the order, the numbers, and the little word le . Two minutes and you’ll have it.
C’est vs Il est: Finally Clear
Both mean roughly « it is / he is » — and French speakers switch between them by instinct. The instinct follows two rules, and once you know them, c’est vs il est stops being a coin-flip.
French Connectors: Mais, Donc, Alors & the Words That Glue Sentences
Vocabulary makes sentences; connectors make paragraphs. These little linking words — mais, donc, alors, ensuite — are what turn choppy beginner French into flowing speech. Here are the ones that matter, in the order you’ll need them.
Quel vs Qu’est-ce que: How to Ask “What” in French
English has one « what »; French splits it in two — and picking the wrong one is instantly noticeable. The rule is beautifully simple once you see it: quel goes with a noun, qu’est-ce que goes with a verb.
Depuis, Pendant, Il y a: French Time Words Untangled
Three little expressions, one giant source of confusion. Depuis , pendant and il y a all deal with time — but they answer different questions, and one of them even changes which tense you use. Here’s the untangling.
French Numbers 100 to 1000 (and Beyond) Without Tears
You’ve survived soixante-dix and quatre-vingt-dix — good news: French numbers above 100 are actually easier. A few crisp rules and you can say any number up to the millions.
Voici vs Voilà: The Little Words French Uses Constantly
« Voilà » might be the most French word there is — waiters say it, teachers say it, everyone ends explanations with it. Its twin « voici » is more formal. Here’s how they work, and why voilà means far more than « there it is ».
French Silent Letters: The Rules Behind What You Don’t Say
French spelling looks intimidating because so much of it is silent . But the silence follows rules — learn them once and you can pronounce almost any French word correctly on sight. Here’s the system.
Il y a: The Most Useful Three Words in French
Three tiny words — il y a — do two enormous jobs in French: there is / there are , and ago . Master this one phrase and you can describe any scene and place any event in time. Here’s everything it does.
Avoir Expressions: Why the French HAVE Hunger, Fear & Luck
In English you are hungry. In French, you have hunger: « j’ai faim ». Dozens of everyday states use avoir where English uses to be — and using être instead is one of the most common beginner mistakes. Learn this one pattern and a whole family of expressions clicks into place.
French Accent Marks Explained: é, è, ê, ë, ç Made Simple
Those little marks above French letters aren’t decoration — the French accent marks change how a word sounds, and sometimes what it means. The good news: there are only five , and each has one clear job. Here’s the whole system in one lesson.
French Verb Tenses: The Complete Guide from A1 to Native
Most guides teach French tense by tense, in isolation. This one does something different: it walks you up the whole ladder — from your very first « je suis » to the shortcuts a native throws around at a café — so you can see exactly what to learn, in what order, and why. Read it start to finish and you’ll have a mental map of the entire French verb system. Every level links to a focused lesson (with games and a quiz) if you want to drill it.
French Reflexive Verbs: The Complete Beginner’s Guide
« Why is there a little me or se in front of the verb? » Welcome to reflexive verbs — one of the first things that makes French feel different, and one of the easiest to master once you see the pattern. They’re everywhere in daily life (getting up, washing, remembering), so a small investment pays off fast.
Ne… Pas and Beyond: French Negation Made Simple
« How do I say not in French? » Two little words: ne… pas , wrapped around the verb. Once you’ve got that, every other negative works the same way — just swap the second word. Here’s the whole system, from « I don’t » to « never », « nothing » and « only ».
Le or La? How to Guess the Gender of French Nouns
« Is it le or la ? » is the question that haunts every French learner. Here’s the reassuring truth: while gender is unpredictable in theory, the ending of a noun gives you a very good guess most of the time. Learn a handful of patterns and you’ll be right far more often than wrong — and you’ll know which words to double-check.
How to Talk About Your Daily Routine in French
Your daily routine is the perfect first thing to talk about in French: it’s personal, it repeats every day, and it uses a neat bundle of grammar — reflexive verbs , times , and sequence words . Learn the pattern once and you can narrate your whole day (tap 🔊 to hear each line).
How to Ask a Question in French (3 Ways, One Simple Rule)
Asking questions is where a lot of learners freeze — there seem to be so many ways to do it. Here’s the freeing truth: French has three ways to ask , and for 90% of situations you only need one . Learn that one, add the others later, and you’ll never be stuck for a question again.
French Homophones: The Words That Trip Up Even Native Speakers
Ask a French person to write « les chevaux qu’il a vus » and half will hesitate. French is full of words that sound identical but are spelled differently — homophones — and even natives trip on them. The good news for learners: there’s a simple replacement test for almost every pair. Master these and your written French will look sharper than most people’s.
French Small Talk: What to Actually Say After Bonjour
You’ve mastered « Bonjour ». The door is open — but then the French person says « Ça va ? » and your mind goes blank. Good news: small talk in French is almost entirely formulaic . Learn these ready-made bricks and you can hold a friendly exchange from « bonjour » to « bonne journée » without improvising a single word.
The French Subjunctive, Finally Made Simple
The subjunctive scares learners more than any other part of French — and it really doesn’t deserve to. It’s not a tense (it doesn’t tell you when ); it’s a mood — the form French uses when something is wanted, feared, doubted or necessary rather than stated as a plain fact. Here’s the whole thing on one page.
French for Travel: The Phrasebook You’ll Actually Use
You’ve booked the trip. You have three weeks. You don’t need fluent French — you need the forty phrases that actually come up , said politely enough that people warm to you. Here they are, grouped by the moment you’ll need them, each with a 🔊 button so you arrive sounding right.
How to Practise French Speaking — Even Alone
The number one complaint we hear: "I understand French, but I can’t speak it." The cause is almost never vocabulary — it’s that speaking is a muscle , and reading doesn’t train it. The good news: you can train it every day, entirely alone, for free. Here are the six methods that actually work, in order of power.
Your First French Conversation: The 4 Moves That Carry You Through
You don’t need 2,000 words to have your first real French conversation — you need about forty, arranged into four moves you can rely on: greet, introduce, ask, and exit gracefully. This guide walks you through all four, with the exact sentences (and audio) you can use tomorrow.
The French Past Tenses: Passé Composé & Imparfait, Finally Clear
Ask any intermediate learner what finally made French "click", and the past tenses come up every time. English has one simple past — I ate — but French splits that job between two tenses that work as a team : the passé composé and the imparfait. Once you see how the team works, half of French storytelling falls into place. This guide gives you the complete picture.
French for Job Interviews: Phrases and Strategy
A job interview in French is as much about register and structure as vocabulary. French recruiters expect a clear, confident parcours (career story) and the polite formality of vous throughout. Here's how to prepare and the phrases to lean on.
The French Present Tense: Your First Real Grammar
If greetings get you into a conversation, the present tense keeps you in it. It's the workhorse of French — and it covers more ground than its English equivalent, describing what you do, what you're doing right now, and even what you're about to do.
French Numbers 0 to 100 (and How to Actually Remember Them)
You'll use numbers constantly — prices, times, phone numbers, your age. French counting is logical and quick to learn… right up until the seventies, where it gets gloriously strange. Here's the whole picture.
French Pronunciation: How to Actually Sound French
You know the words. You’ve done the grammar. But when you speak, it still sounds… English. Pronunciation is the fastest way to sound more French — and it’s a set of specific, learnable habits , not a mystery. Here are the ones that matter most, each with a 🔊 button so you can hear and copy.
French Greetings: From Bonjour to Au Revoir
Greetings are the very first thing you'll use in French — and getting them right instantly makes you sound warmer and more at home. They're also where politeness lives in France: a good bonjour opens doors that grammar never will.
Tu vs Vous: When to Use Each in French (Without Offending Anyone)
Tu or vous ? It's the question that makes English speakers freeze — because English lost its 'thou' centuries ago. Get it slightly wrong and you'll be forgiven; understand the logic and you'll navigate French social life with ease.
25 Survival French Phrases for Your Trip to France
Planning a trip to France? You don’t need fluent French — you need the right handful of essential French phrases , said with confidence. This guide collects the common French phrases every traveler actually uses on vacation: greetings, ordering, directions, shopping and emergencies, each with its English translation and a pronunciation tip. Learn these basic French words and expressions before you fly, and France opens up differently.
How to Introduce Yourself in French (with Real Examples)
The introduction is the moment that decides whether a conversation flows or stalls. The good news: French introductions follow a reliable pattern. Learn the formula once and you can introduce yourself in any situation — a class, a dinner, a job interview.
Business French: 30 Phrases for Emails & Meetings
Whether you're relocating to a French company, dealing with French clients, or simply want to contribute in meetings, professional French runs on a surprisingly small set of phrases. Master these and you'll sound polished and confident — long before your grammar is perfect.
French for Absolute Beginners: Your First 40 Words & Phrases
Starting a new language is exciting — and a little overwhelming. The good news: you don't need thousands of words to start using French. You need a small, high-value set you can say with confidence. After teaching 500+ students, these are the first words I give every beginner, grouped the way you'll actually use them.