langula
FrenchLesson 1
bonjour
bohn-ZHOORhello
French · Français
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Learn French free in your browser — 80 lessons from A1 to B2, with flashcards and pronunciation practice. No subscription, no download.
Langula for iPhone and iPad · · Get it freeWhy learn French with Langula?
French opens 29-country doors
Cognates cut your reading time
Score your nasal vowels instantly
Lock in noun gender early
80 lessons, four CEFR levels
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How it works
Pick your language
French is preselected — add your source language and go.
Short daily lessons
5–20 minutes a day: new words plus due reviews.
Pronunciation & progress
Repeat aloud, watch your streak and unlock badges.
Your first French words
After the very first lesson you can greet people and say thank you.
From A1 to B2 — your structured learning path
Here is how your journey is built: four CEFR levels, 80 lessons. Each lesson teaches 20 new words and 6 example sentences — flashcards and pronunciation practice lock them in before the next level unlocks.
- CEFR levels · A1–B2
- 4
- lessons · 20 per level
- 80
- words & sentences per lesson
- 26
- A1
Your First French Steps· Beginner
Lessons 1–20Master the alphabet, accents, and French's core sounds: nasal vowels (bon, vin, blanc), the uvular R, and the rounded u and eu. Learn the tu/vous distinction, noun genders and articles, the present tense of être and avoir, regular -er verbs, and practical phrases for greetings, numbers, ordering food, and everyday introductions.
After this you can
- greet people and introduce yourself
- ask about numbers, time and prices
- order something in a café
- ask and answer simple questions
- A2
Everyday French in Action· Elementary
Lessons 21–40Talk about the past using the passé composé (with avoir and être) and the imparfait, describe plans with aller + infinitive, and use reflexive verbs and basic object pronouns. Handle real-life situations — shopping, giving directions, making appointments — and read short, simple texts with growing confidence.
After this you can
- talk about family, work and hobbies
- go shopping and ask for directions
- tell stories in the past
- make appointments and arrange to meet
- B1
Express Yourself in French· Intermediate
Lessons 41–60Navigate most travel situations and conversations with ease. Use the future simple, the conditional, relative pronouns (qui, que, dont, où), comparatives, double object pronouns, and begin the present subjunctive. Narrate experiences, give and justify opinions, and read contemporary French articles and straightforward literature.
After this you can
- express and justify your opinion
- travel alone and solve problems
- report on experiences and plans
- roughly follow films and podcasts
- B2
Fluent and Near-Native· Advanced
Lessons 61–80Discuss abstract and professional topics fluently. Command the subjunctive, the pluperfect, the conditional past, the passive voice, and reported speech, and recognise the literary passé simple in reading. Follow French films, news, and debates, write structured arguments, and refine your pronunciation, liaison, and register for near-native naturalness.
After this you can
- follow long discussions effortlessly
- express yourself spontaneously and fluently
- use French at work
- understand complex texts and news
- Start at A1
Your goal: fluent in everyday life
Level B2 complete — including a PDF certificate for every level you reach.
Learn French — free and at your own pace
French is spoken by around 310 million people across 29 countries on five continents — the only language besides English to span that range. It is an official or working language of the UN, EU, NATO, the International Olympic Committee, and the Red Cross, putting it at the centre of diplomacy, international law, and development work. And with the bulk of future speakers set to come from Sub-Saharan Africa, French is not just a European or Canadian affair: it is one of the world's genuinely growing global languages.
A few features of French catch learners off guard. Spelling is etymological rather than phonetic: final consonants are mostly silent, the plural -s disappears in speech entirely, and liaison flips a quiet consonant back on before a vowel — les amis sounds like “lez-ami.” Then there are the nasal vowels, un bon vin blanc, that have no English equivalent, the uvular guttural R, and the rounded front vowels French u and eu. Every noun is masculine or feminine, and articles plus adjectives must agree, making gender a permanent thread running through the whole language.
For English speakers, French is one of the more accessible major languages. The US Foreign Service Institute places it in Category I — roughly 600 to 750 class hours to professional proficiency — and a big reason is history: after the Norman Conquest of 1066, French reshaped English vocabulary so thoroughly that cognates like nation, excellent, and restaurant are already yours. The genuine obstacles are phonetic: the nasal vowels, the uvular R, and the persistent gap between what is written and what is actually said aloud.
Langula addresses French's particular hurdles directly. The in-browser pronunciation scorer gives instant feedback on the sounds English speakers find hardest — nasal vowels, the uvular R, the rounded u and eu — and because audio is never stored, you can practice aloud without self-consciousness. Leitner spaced-repetition flashcards with five boxes are well suited to drilling each noun together with its article, le or la, cementing gender from day one. Eighty structured lessons follow the same A1-to-B2 CEFR ladder as official French exams, and optional account sync keeps your daily habit alive across devices.
French for Beginners
French looks intimidating on paper — silent letters, nasal vowels, gendered nouns. In practice, the first steps are more manageable than most beginners expect, and the early wins come quickly.
The Latin alphabet with a twist
French uses the same 26 letters as English, so you can read words from day one. The challenge is that many letters behave differently. Final consonants are usually silent — Paris is pronounced /paʁi/, not /paʁis/. The letters c, r, f, and l are the main exceptions to that rule. French also adds accent marks: é (acute), è (grave), ê (circumflex), and ç (cedilla). These are not decorations. They change pronunciation and sometimes meaning entirely. The word ou means «or,» while où means «where.» Treat accents as part of the spelling from the very beginning, and you avoid having to unlearn bad habits later.
Your first French words
The very first vocabulary in A1 French covers everyday essentials: bonjour (hello), merci (thank you), s'il vous plaît (please), and oui/non (yes/no). Within the first week you add numbers one to twenty, the days of the week, and colour names. French colour names typically follow the noun — une voiture rouge, not une rouge voiture — which already differs from English word order. You also meet être (to be) and avoir (to have) early. These two irregular verbs underpin half of French grammar. Memorize their present-tense forms before moving on, and everything else builds on a solid base.
The sounds French beginners find hardest
French has four nasal vowels that English simply does not have: the sounds in pain, vin, bon, and un. You push air through your nose while shaping your mouth for a vowel — no English equivalent exists. The French R is another early stumbling block. It is produced at the back of the throat, not rolled like Spanish. Most beginners approximate it with a soft gargle and improve steadily with listening practice. Then there is liaison: when a word ending in a normally silent consonant is followed by a vowel-initial word, that consonant reappears in speech. Vous avez (you have) is pronounced /vuzave/, not /vu ave/.
Common mistakes beginners make in French
The most frequent error is pronouncing final consonants. Paris ends in a silent s. Vous ends in a silent s. The past participle parlé ends in a silent é. A small set of adjectives — grand, petit, beau, bon — comes before the noun, while most adjectives follow it: une maison blanche (a white house). Beginners mix these two groups constantly. Then there is tu versus vous. French uses tu with friends, family, and people your own age in informal settings, and vous with strangers, older people, or anyone in a formal context. Using tu with a French shopkeeper reads as rude. When in doubt, start with vous — a French speaker will invite the switch to tu if they prefer it.
How quickly can you reach A1 in French?
A1 is the entry level of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). At A1, you can introduce yourself, ask simple questions about daily life, and handle predictable exchanges such as buying a coffee or asking for directions. The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) rates French as a Category I language for English speakers — one of the more accessible options. Reaching A1 typically takes 60 to 100 hours of focused study: roughly 30 to 50 days at two hours per day. Consistent short sessions beat occasional long ones. Most learners who work steadily through the A1 lessons in Langula reach this milestone within six to eight weeks.
Langula's A1 path for French
Langula's French course spans 80 lessons across A1, A2, B1, and B2. The A1 section introduces vocabulary in thematic groups — greetings, family, food, numbers, time — alongside short grammar explanations. Leitner flashcards with five boxes reinforce each lesson through spaced repetition: words you know move to longer review intervals, words you struggle with return sooner. In-browser pronunciation practice lets you speak into your microphone and scores your output against the target phrase. No audio is stored at any point. After completing A1, a short in-app test lets you download a level certificate. No account is needed to start — open the site and begin your first lesson immediately.
More on French
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Frequently asked questions
- Is French hard to learn for English speakers?
- It is one of the more approachable major languages. The US Foreign Service Institute rates French Category I, meaning roughly 600 to 750 class hours to professional proficiency. The shared Latin alphabet and thousands of French-derived English words give you a running start. The real hurdles are pronunciation — nasal vowels, the uvular R — and the significant gap between French spelling and how the language actually sounds.
- Does French use tones or a special script?
- No. French is not a tonal language, so pitch never changes meaning, and it uses the familiar 26-letter Latin alphabet. The only additions are diacritics: the acute accent (é), grave accent (è, à, ù), circumflex (â, ê, î, ô, û), diaeresis (ë, ï, ü), and the cedilla (ç). These affect pronunciation rather than being entirely separate letters.
- Why doesn't French sound the way it's spelled?
- French spelling is etymological and conservative, preserving letters from Latin and Old French that are no longer pronounced. Final consonants are mostly silent, the plural -s disappears in speech, and liaison can flip a silent consonant back on before a vowel — so les amis sounds like “lez-ami.” Langula's spaced-repetition flashcards pair every word with audio so you absorb sound and spelling together.
- What is grammatical gender and why does it matter so much in French?
- Every French noun is either masculine (le chat) or feminine (la maison), and both the article and any adjective must match that gender. Because gender is often unpredictable from meaning alone, the most effective habit is to memorise each new noun with its article. Langula's Leitner flashcards are designed to drill exactly that, keeping le or la attached to the word from the start.
- How long does it take to reach a conversational level in French?
- With consistent study, many learners reach A2 within a few months and B1 — where you can handle most travel and social situations — in roughly 350 to 500 hours of focused practice, often within a year of regular work. Daily spaced repetition and speaking practice, like Langula's flashcards and in-browser pronunciation scoring, help speed that timeline up considerably.
- What is the difference between tu and vous, and between passé composé and imparfait?
- Tu is the informal “you” used with friends, family, and peers; vous is formal or plural and signals politeness or distance — choosing wrongly can sound rude or stiff. For the past tense, the passé composé (j'ai mangé) describes a completed action while the imparfait (je mangeais) describes an ongoing or habitual past situation. Mastering that contrast is one of the key milestones at the B1 level.
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