The best digital resources for learning French - Coucou French Classes (2023)

FAQs

Which is the best online platform to learn French? ›

The most effective and efficient way to learn French is by immersing yourself in the language. If you happen to find yourself in a French speaking country, or know someone who is fluent in French, try striking up a conversation using some basic greetings and phrases.

The best app to learn French overall is Babbel. With a complete course designed by professional linguists, Babbel can take you from complete beginner to conversational in just a few months. Other great apps to learn French include MosaLingua, Mondly, and Busuu.

For most people, around 30 minutes of active study and 1 hour of language exposure a day is a schedule that will give you great results. It's a model that's sustainable over a long period to help you reach fluency.

Which is better, Babbel or Rosetta Stone? After a thorough review of the language learning courses from both Babbel and Rosetta Stone, we have to give the edge to Babbel as the better language program (albeit a narrow victory).

Get to know French grammar

Study with a French grammar book. Join an online program, either an application or a learning website and make grammar fun. Enlist a tutor for grammar lessons (try to find a native) Watch online grammar videos on useful topics to bring learning to life.

One of the most important things to do when you start learning French is to understand basic vocabulary, phrases, and numbers. Beginners usually start practicing words that will help them when meeting French people, ask basic questions, and introduce themselves.

Is it possible to learn French in 3 months? ›

While you certainly won't master it in three months, especially if you can only put a few hours a week into it, you can make sure to be more efficient by following an initial plan of action. Let's take a look at what you should do in the first hour, first day, first week and first month of learning French.

The main difference between Duolingo and Babbel is that while Babbel focuses on a more robust and traditional form of teaching a foreign language through comprehensive lessons, Duolingo tries to gamify your learning and offer a modern experience.

According to the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), French is a category 1 language. This means learning French takes 23 – 24 weeks (575 – 600 hours) for most English speakers. This makes French one of the easiest (and fastest) languages to learn.

If you are an English speaker, learning French requires 575-600 hours of study (or 23-24 weeks full- time). It is the same for other European Romance languages (French, Italian, Spanish etc) and the Germanic ones (Danish, Swedish, Dutch/Afrikaans Norwegian – not German).

With the right tools and support, you can be on your way to speaking a new language like a pro in just six months! Trying to learn a new language can be daunting, but it's not impossible. With the right approach and some dedication, you can be speaking a foreign language in just six months.

French is a Category I language, so it's relatively easy to learn for native English speakers. It will take approximately 580 hours or 23 weeks of study to reach complete French fluency. Which we could break down as the following: If you study for 1 hour every day, you can learn French in 1.5 years.

However, it is estimated that a truly fluent French speaker knows around 3,000 words.

Many find French hard to learn because of the complex grammar and linguistic nuances that don't exist in English, especially for those who have never studied another European language specifically Romance languages like Spanish or Portuguese. Spoken French can also be challenging!

Can I learn French online on my own? ›

It's quite easy to learn French by yourself, and with so many great websites and apps that also have the ability to download content offline, you can learn from anywhere. Provided you are willing to put the time in and stick to a course or program, there is no reason why you can't learn French by yourself.

Learn French in just 5 minutes a day. For free.

Whether you're a beginner starting with the basics or looking to practice your reading, writing, and speaking, Duolingo is scientifically proven to work.

Duolingo is the fun, free app for learning 40+ languages through quick, bite-sized lessons. Practice speaking, reading, listening, and writing to build your vocabulary and grammar skills.

Plus, many users noticed that they would study and keep their streak up for days and days, and still not be able to speak the language or could only speak at an intermediate level. And this comes from a lack of human interaction and real speaking practice. So, no, you can't become fluent with Duolingo alone.

Can Duolingo make me fluent? Research shows that Duolingo is an effective way to learn a language! But the truth is that no single course, app, method, or book can help you reach all your language goals.

Babbel offers four different subscription options to choose from: a month-by-month plan, which costs $14 per month, a 3-month plan which costs around $30 ($10 per month), a 6-month plan that costs around $50 ($8.50 per month), and finally a 12-month plan, which is the best value at around $7 per month.

Duolingo uses plenty of example sentences to help you learn words in context. And since words are frequently reused in different examples, you'll get to see how a word may be used in more than one context. Duolingo offers over 20 languages, so you'll have over twice as many language options as Babbel.

While Rosetta Stone will help you build a solid foundation, it won't make you fluent. When you feel like you've maxed out on learning with Rosetta Stone, you might need to push yourself into situations where you're actively using the language instead of reacting to an app.

The short answer is as much as possible.

Realistically, however, at least 20 minutes per day should be dedicated to learning a new language. The ideal amount of time to spend on daily study, if you can find the time, is an hour, but you don't need to cram it all in at once.

How many minutes a day should I practice French? ›

On the other hand, if you study for 15-20 minutes every day, French will become much easier. Language learning is all about practice. And the more you use your French, the easier it will become to learn and remember everything.

With the right amount of motivation and commitment, a healthy learning habit, plus the right tools and method to guide you, yes you can teach yourself French. As a French teacher for many years, I've come across a lot of people who would rather spend time learning a new language by themselves.

The most important French greetings include bonjour (hello), enchanté(e) (nice to meet you), bonsoir (good evening/hello), salut (hi), coucou (hey), Ça fait longtemps, dis donc (long time no see), Âllo (hello), Ça va? (how are you?), tu vas bien? (have you been well?), quoi de neuf? (what's up?), au revoir!

To become completely fluent, however, learning should start before the age of 10. There are three main ideas as to why language-learning ability declines at 18: social changes, interference from one's primary language and continuing brain development.

The “A” Levels: Basic User

A1 or Beginner: It is the most basic level of language learning. At this level, the user can do the following tasks: Can recognize and use known expressions and fundamental phrases that used in everyday needs.

Level B1, which is sometimes referred to as 'Threshold' or 'Breakthrough' stage, is the point at which a French speaker moves away from the most simplistic language usage and is able to cope with most of the situations they are likely to encounter when travelling around a French-speaking country.

Regardless of your definition of fluency, you'll need to practice the language if you want to master it. If you want a short answer, yes, you can become fluent in French in one year (or even less), especially if you follow the 10 steps included in the next section.

Learning Spanish or French

All in all, neither language is definitively more or less difficult than the other. Spanish is arguably somewhat easier for the first year or so of learning, in large part because beginners may struggle less with pronunciation than their French-studying colleagues.

Duolingo is one of the best French learning apps on iOS and Android. It uses a game-like format to deliver bite-sized lessons to learn vocabulary, grammar, conjugation, writing, pronunciation, and listening. Duolingo is a highly recommended app for beginners who wants to learn French.

Can you become fluent in French with Babbel? ›

If you're looking to achieve an advanced level of fluency and really master French, Babbel just might not the best option out there. Of course, once you get to that point, you could always add in some live classes in order to get some more conversational practice under your belt.

While it won't help you become fluent, Babbel can definitely improve your conversational skills. Its lessons cover reading, writing, speaking, and listening, so it's a great way to start learning a language.

The best app to learn French overall is Babbel. With a complete course designed by professional linguists, Babbel can take you from complete beginner to conversational in just a few months. Other great apps to learn French include MosaLingua, Mondly, and Busuu.

It's possible to learn English by yourself by using language apps like Babbel and Pimsleur. These can help you achieve a conversational level. However, if you really want to become fluent, it's best to practice with native speakers. This is really easy to do with apps like italki.

Final Thoughts On Babbel Vs Duolingo

Babbel is harder for beginners and it might be better to use it after getting acquainted with the language. Compared to Duolingo it pushes students to write more than read and has a far more conversational approach, almost entirely teaching in the form of conversations.

French is probably one of Duolingo's best courses for speaking thanks to features like audio lessons. However, it still falls short in terms of getting you to a solid conversational level. At least by itself, anyway. The main problem is that (audio lessons aside) the speaking exercises aren't conversation exercises.

When learning a new language, the fastest and most effective way to absorb new material is by actively listening. You'll be able to engage with what you're hearing on a deeper level, even if you don't understand what's being said.

The answer is an emphatic yes, especially if you're new to a language and want to develop a strong base of vocabulary and grammar. It's well structured, clear, and moves at a deliberate pace. Use Rosetta Stone faithfully for a few months and you'll learn to speak, read, write, and understand basic words and phrases.

Although the two companies are similar in several respects, I just think Babbel is the better overall language learning program. I do like that Duolingo offers a free version and how they try to gamify learning, however, if you're serious about learning a new language, I think Babbel is the better bet.

Which is better Duolingo or Rosetta Stone? ›

Yes. After thoroughly testing out and reviewing each language learning app, we found Rosetta Stone to be a superior program to Duolingo. While we like Duolingo's gamification of learning, Rosetta Stone is simply more comprehensive and effective.

Duolingo can't make you fluent by itself

The other way in which the research is misleading is that learning a language requires more than just an app, in the same way learning just about anything requires more than just a textbook. It's clear that we can achieve a lot with 'just' Duolingo.

How long does it take to learn French? According to the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), French is a category 1 language. This means learning French takes 23 – 24 weeks (575 – 600 hours) for most English speakers. This makes French one of the easiest (and fastest) languages to learn.

Compared with Parisians, Southern French people speak French at a slower rate, which can make it seem easy to understand.

Babbel vs Rosetta Stone: Final Verdict

While both are good for building a strong vocabulary base, Babbel offers better opportunities to hear real-life conversational phrases. While this isn't enough to make you fluent, it's the better choice if you want to practice talking to people naturally.

You will never become fluent, by any definition, with Rosetta Stone. The content and methods simply aren't there. Your whole life. Just as with any other method.

Make friends with native speakers.

Native speakers are great teachers (and the best way to learn a language) because they know all the in's and out's of the language, they are experts in conversational speaking, and they can teach slang, jokes, and references that you may otherwise not be privy to.

The fastest way to learn a new language is a well-established language learning program and practice, practice, practice! The phrase “practice makes perfect” is particularly relevant when it comes to learning a new language.