Learn French with free online lessons
French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. A major world language, French is the only language other than English in
five continents, is an official language of 29 countries, one of six official languages used in the United Nations and spoken as a first language countries such as France, few provinces of Canada, parts of Belgium, western Switzerland etc. In fact, among its 275 million speakers, more than 96 million live in Africa, yet it also represents the 2nd most widely spoken native language and foreign language in Europe. According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de l’Agence universitaire de la Francophonie, the total number of French speakers will reach approximately 500 million in 2025 and 650 million by 2050.
And it’s quite natural and logical that you wish to learn a language spoken widely in all five continents. French is also widely taught all around the world, as a result French is offered via several Institutes of varying repute.It now becomes a challenge for the learner to figure out which courses are the right ones to pursue! Or how to assess the quality of these French programs, without wasting hours testing all of them!
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Podcasts are not only a great way to learn French, because they are great resources but also because they offer you convenience to learn from wherever you want and whenever you want — on your commute, while walking the dog, or to during your lunch break. For example FrenchPod101, Coffee Break French, Journal en Français Facile for a free news podcast.
Seek podcasts that provide you a step-by-step French learning, or that teach French as it’s spoken in the real world. Use Forvo a website that allows access to, and playback of, pronunciation sound clips in many different languages spoken by a native speaker in an attempt to facilitate the learning of languages. Forvo has an API to share its pronunciation with other websites.bIt has a large database and is a good reference for pronunciation.
Tune in to French radios
You can listen to radio from either France or Quebec on TuneIn. Checkout a few stations based on the dialects, and you could pursue the dialect that catches your attention.
YouTube is your best friend!
YouTube is a really good place to find free French videos to learn from! All you need to do is to search for good channels to subscribe. I recommend ones that give you hours of French lessons in an engaging medium, and help you learn the pronunciation of the words with facial expressions, body language and other non-verbal aspects of the French language. FrenchPod101,
French with Alexa, Comme Une Française TV, Français Authentique etc
Free Online Courses and Systems
If you’re interested in guided French lessons, there is an exceptional selection of free online French courses and systems available. Here are just a few websites that offer online French lessons at no cost such as TV5 Monde that offers French learners a variety of news articles organized by CEFR level to boost your French reading comprehension, or EdX that offers a free French language course from WestonHS called On-Ramp to AP® French Language and Culture. taught by a native French-speaking instructor through several free video lessons. You could also hop on to Learn with Oliver, an online flashcard tool that lets you learn and test yourself on French words and phrases.
Apps to rescue!
Apps are a handy way to learn a new language, especially for those who like to study on the go.
Memrise or Anki (for iOS, for Android, and for everyone else), are flashcard systems that allow you to create your own French vocabulary decks or download those already created by other users. The desktop version of Anki is free, as is the basic version of Memrise. MosaLingua is another flashcard app, that is available as both free and paid versions. Duolingo is a popular game based language learning app that introduces you to both French vocabulary and grammar. Drops is a good choice, to keep yourself engaged on the move so you get a significant chunk of vocabulary exposure in a short time of 5 mins on a free app via beautiful graphics and intuitive swiping. Clozemaster is an innovative learning app that uses cloze (fill in the blank) to help you master new vocabulary in French.
Free Online French Language Resources
Take a Free Online Course in French
MOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) not only offer French language courses, but they also offer courses on other subjects in French. This essentially means that you are able to learn more about an area of your interest/passion using French.
Coursera offers numerous courses taught in French on Coursera from negotiations, how to develop a startup, quantum mechanics, Java or even C++ .
EdX also offers a wide selection of courses where French is the language of instruction. With 40+ options, you can learn about Human Rights, Marketing, Algebra, Astrophysics or even Philosophy.
BBC Languages: BC’s French course is a good place to start with if you are looking for a fantastic introduction to the French language with video and tons of accompanying material. Class Central is an online portal that indexes free online courses from a variety of sites (including Coursera and EdX), with over 400 courses taught in French listed on their site at the moment.
Free French Online Language Reading Materials
Finding reading material appropriate for your level in the language can be a challenge. Thankfully, there’s a decent selection of French reading resources available to you as a learner online for free.
You could use Wikipedia to read short articles in French, and switch back to your native language to check your comprehension.
LingQ helps you acquire new vocabulary through its reading interface. While it’s free to sign up, long-term usage needs you to opt for a paid plan.
The French Experiment is a website that offers not only short reading excerpts, short stories in French, but is a practical useful grammar guide.
A boon for the French beginner, Lingua.com has a variety of easy reading material on day-to-day topics, packed with useful vocabulary that is free to download. LanguageGuide.org offers learners a well-curated collection of reading materials with audio accompaniment. eBooks Gratuits offers many classics that are available to legally download free online. If you’re at the level where you’d be comfortable reading Alexandre Dumas or other open domain material, eBooks Gratuits has a lot of material you can dive into.
Paralleltext.io is a website that lets you read classics such as Sherlock Holmes, Alice in Wonderland etc with the French and English text side-by-side on the screen! Click a sentence in French or English to hear it pronounced by a computer voice by a mere tap on the circle next to a sentence.
Finally,
It’s incredible how many excellent resources are available to learn French at no cost online. Though the list is not exhaustive that certainly or many more free friends resources waiting for you to explore them online. Go ahead and start your learning right from this moment, learning exploring from any of the apps, websites or online learning resources that you find convenient learning from!