r/learnfrench

About two hours a day for French and basically zero budget. Not looking for the fastest method, looking for the most sustainable one that will actually get me to conversational level.

Current fr͏ee stack: Language Transfer for foundations, genuinely excellent and free. French podcasts for listening. Prom͏ova app for speaking practice scenarios. Paid addition: Ank͏i with a good French deck.

Everything I read says early speaking practice is the key difference between people who plateau at reading comprehension and people who actually become conversational. So prioritizing output over input even at beginner level.

What free or ch͏eap methods moved your French forward the most? And for people who learned French online, what was the turning point where it stopped feeling like studying and started feeling like actually using the language?

I know this is a tired topic, but I'm still not sure of a good way to go... it's probably a bit of analysis paralysis because there are so many choices now.
I'm a long-time paid Duolingo user who's made it to that dreaded A2/B1 barrier, and I'm definitely confident like Duolingo isn't really going to get me past it. I, realistically, only have about 15 minutes per day to practice, so I'd like it to hit hard and not be a game. What have you all used instead that you've liked and felt like it really helped?
People have mentioned Frantastique, Busuu, and Babbel a lot, but they all seem to be about the same in a lot of ways from what I'm reading. But, I'd love to get some personal recommendations of those or other platforms.

For those who scored B2 in expression orale TCF Canada, how did you structure your response for tache 3 (Whwre you have to give an argument)?

Hello hello! I studied French in school for about 14 years and completed the DELF B2. The problem is, I’ve always treated French as just an academic requirement, so I never really engaged with it beyond that.

Now that it's been 3 years since I've last studied French, I've noticed that I started forgetting some vocabulary and grammar. My weakest point has always been speaking (followed by listening), which makes since I've never had real-life practice.

Now that I have more time, I don't want to lose the efforts that I've put for 14 years and I truly want to become fluent in French. I just don't know where to start from again.

I was thinking that maybe watching some shows in French could be a great start but I'm not sure if this is the right approach. Does anyone have any recommendations regarding shows or a better way to get back into the language?

So I’ve been getting a little creative with how I study French lately and found something that’s actually been working really well. I’m around a B2 level and have been watching shows on ICI TOU.TV with only French subtitles. I understand maybe 60–70% of what’s going on, but the speed and the Québec accent still make it pretty challenging.

What I started doing is recording the dialogue using the Notes app on my iPhone with voice-to-text. Then I take a scene I struggled with—usually a more emotional or fast-paced one—and paste the transcript into ChatGPT. I tell it what show I’m watching and which episode I’m on, and then ask it to help me practice.

It’ll ask me questions about what I understood, get me to summarize the scene in French, correct my grammar, and explain expressions or things I missed. It turns it into something way more interactive instead of just passively watching.

Honestly it feels a lot more effective than just watching episodes straight through. Curious if anyone else is doing something similar or has other ways to break down native content.

Question mainly for native speakers or pretty much any francophones who are passionate about pronunciation in general :

Is there any scenario, either soutenu or courant, where : Thomas a / Julien a / Tom a / Camille a would be pronounced with enchaînement?

I'm asking because based on YouTube video :
Master French LIAISONS: Rules for Mandatory & Forbidden Liaisons (timestamp 1:09 ; video id -xYGbnLkfbA&t=125s) from Parlez-vous FRENCH : Learn French Online :

Featured sentence:
"Patrick arrive aux États-Unis demain." with enchaînement between "Patrick" and "arrive".

IPA transcription:
[pa.tʁi.ka.ʁi.vo.z‿e.ta.z‿y.ni.də.mɛ̃]

She mentioned that it's an enchaînement (and therefore mandatory).

While on several other unrelated videos read by a different native speaker, in storytelling style, she omitted the enchaînement for Thomas a / Julien a / Tom a / Camille a, and provided this feedback :

>I tend to pronounce them independently to make it more clear, it’s often the case when someone narrates a story. You could pronounce it with enchaînement 

Edit : YouTube reference
French Listening Practice | Story for Learners - Natural Speed. (timestamp 1:07 ; video id -PDNBOw6b-Jo&t=5s) from Excuse My French

So now in terms of learning on how to pronounce this correctly depending on the situation, would you say that it's indeed an enchaînement, but somewhat "optional"?

Because from text books it's stated that liaison facultative is "optional", but enchaînement should be mandatory, so now I am confusing myself.

Do you see yourself doing : either with or without enchaînement, with the same logic as the liaison facultative, depending on formal vs informal or courant vs soutenu?

Edit : or should this be split instead into:

• enchaînement consonantique (e.g. Patrick arrive / Tom a / Camille a) with liaison (pronounced)
• enchaînement vocalique (e.g. Thomas a / Julien a) with no liaison (not pronounced) ?

I hope my question is clear enough... Merci !

Bonjour mes amis,

I’m not sure if I’m posting this in the right place (or if this counts as advertising). If not, please forgive me and feel free to point me in the right direction.

One of my friends is a French teacher and currently has space for a small group (2 serious students). He’s only looking for students in the EST time zone.

If you’re interested, please let me know — I’d be happy to connect you.

Merci 🩷

4 months of French!

Bonjour! A full English breakdown of the results of 4 months of French study for 2-3 hours per day can be found below (after I give an attempt to summarize things in French! I apologize in advance for my terrible attempt.).

TLDR: Close to zero -> Strong A1/Weak A2 in 4 months. CI is effective. Grammar helps solidify input. Practicing conversations is critical.

Depuis quatre mois, j'étudie le français. J'ai commencé quand mon entreprise (c’est une entreprise de Montréal) a dit qu’il y aura cours de français. J'ai été très heureuse! J'aime les langues et je voulais apprendre le français depuis quelques ans. J'ai décidé que j'essaierais beaucoup fort d’apprendre le français. Depuis cette fois, j’étudiais pour au moins deux heures par jour. J’entends à CI pendant trente à soixante-dix minutes chaque jour, lis des livres faciles, vais à mes cours, et pratique ma prononciation. Maintenant, je peux comprendre un peu de média français comme les émissions de CBC. Aussi, je peux parler (un peu mal) avec mes collègues français!

J'adore le français et j'espère que je peux m’améliorer beaucoup dans le reste de 2026!

---

Hey all!

I started my French learning journey a few months back (in December of 2025) and thought I would share a realistic perspective of what someone who is working full time can achieve while studying for around 2 hours per day. My studying has been rooted in engaging with Comprehensible Input (CI), though I’ve significantly augmented a traditional ALG regime with classes, grammar work, conversation practice, reading, and pronunciation drills.

I’m Canadian and have always consider French to be a vital part of the Canadian identity; sadly, the prairies --- where I grew up --- are not exactly bastions of Quebecois culture! Unfortunately, life always seemed to get in the way of me really committing to learning until late last year. My company, which is primarily located in Montreal (I’m in Ottawa), announced that they were going to start offering French courses to all employees. I was ecstatic! This was exactly the type of opportunity I had been waiting for, and I decided to commit fairly hard: I was going to take French seriously for at least a year and see where I ended up. I was starting from near zero (just Duolingo for around 30 hours spread over 5 years), but I had messed around with Esperanto a bit earlier, so I had an idea about how to approach language learning. I started that week (mid December 2025) and went hard over the winter holidays to obtain a foothold.

After 1 month of study, I did an oral test to determine placement for my work classes (and an Alliance Francais class that I decided to take as well). In both cases I tested in as a weak-mid A1 (course A2.3 for AF). At this point, I was able to start struggling through things like early InnerFrench Episodes. Now, 3 months later, I can actually talk with my French coworkers (so long as they’re willing to be patient and keep the topics relatively straightforward), order food, read basic French books (CLE A1/A2 novels), and pull info out of French broadcasts. Overall, I think I’m a weak A2: I’m not fluent in any situations but can get by in simple ones. In terms of CI, I can understand videos from Dreaming French easily < 45, well 45-55, ok 55-60, and can struggle through videos in the 60s.

It’s been a fantastic experience, and I can’t wait to continue my studies!

What I did:

30-70+ minutes of CI per day ~6-8 hours per week

6 hours of French classes (Alliance Francais + work classes) per week

3-4 hours of grammar work per week

2 hours of pronunciation work per week

1 hour of French talking group per week

1-2 hours of reading French novels per week

Overall around 19-23 hours per week

Comprehensible Input: Mix of Dreaming French, immersion.co, FCI (YouTube), and InnerFrench. All are wonderful resources! I love FCI (Lucas is the absolute best CI teacher out there), though DF, IC, and IF have all been a huge help. I would highly recommend subscribing to both DF and IC as neither have enough content on their own. I also tried Alice Alye but I really didn’t vibe with her series. I try to mix up the level of difficulty of my CI quite a bit, keeping 50% fairly simple, 30% a bit challenging, and 20% quite tough.

Alliance Francais classes: These have been awesome at helping round out my understanding of French. About 90% of each class is in French (minus occasional explanations in English if a student is not understanding an answer to a question), so there’s a lot of listening to a native French speaker. Plus, I get to hit things that I miss through my self study plus get a ton of practice interacting in French. You really get in what you put out: if you’re willing to make a fool of yourself and try to do all of your interactions in French (asking questions in French when you don’t understand, offering answers when the professor asks the class, etc) you can get a ton of value. If you just sit and absorb things I think it can be useful but loses a lot.

Grammaire progressive du francais: Went through the A1 book and am currently working through the A2/B1 book + the conjugation book for A2. I found grammar work to be incredibly helpful; however, I see it as a far more useful tool for locking in different concepts that you pick up through all the input rather than a core driver of progress.

Pronunciation work: FSI French introduction to phonology is wonderful. Going through the lessons has massively improved my accent.

French talking group: I practice a bunch with other learners of a similar skill level at my work. This is great for building confidence and learning how to communicate even if you don’t have all the right vocabulary.

French novels: I read the Lecture CLE en français facile series. It’s excellent: it helped me build up a ton of vocab and learn all sorts of grammar structures that you don’t really see in low-level CI.

Overall:

Just start learning French. Don’t wait! Go listen to CI and, if you have time, add in the rest. Don’t be afraid to speak: making a fool of myself regularly has helped me learn a ton!

 

 

Hello guys, i might be so delusional but i heard few times that people pass b2 in 7-8months with almost full time studying…

I really wanna ask if that’s possible and if someone had done it before?

If you done that, how many hours you prepped,please?

I booking native speaking teacher 2 a week.

For rest studying on my own except first one month i had a private tutor.

Listening podcasts and reading massively helps??

Please advice your fastest take aways..

i will get tutor one month before the exam for exam structure preparation.

Salut tout le monde!

I see so many learners stuck in the "grammar loop" where they know the rules but freeze when it's time to actually speak. If that's you, I'd love to help.

I’m Ambre, a native speaker and a tutor. My approach is pretty simple: we skip the boring drills and focus on real-life scenarios, fluency, and gaining the confidence to actually hold a conversation. Whether you want to talk about cinema, daily life, or just stop overthinking your sentences, I'm here to coach you through it.

I'm currently looking for a few new students (all levels welcome, but intermediate is my sweet spot!).

If you're interested in a more natural, human way of learning French, feel free to send me a DM or check out my booking link here: https://calendar.app.google/37UwT9h1Q2tQnaQQ6

Looking forward to chatting with some of you!

I think I'm a fairly solid A1 at the moment. I want to take a french class soon. Would I sign up for a class advertised as A1 or A2? Does an A2 class mean you need to already be at A2 level or does it mean 'working towards A2'? Thanks

When someone says they are at B2 level, what is mean? Does it mean that they could just about pass a DELF B2 exam, or does it mean a proficient level of B2? There’s a world of difference between a 51% score and a 95% score