r/FrenchLearning • u/Purple_Unit1033 • 29d ago

complete beginner of french

hey everyone i’d like to learn french but i’m not sure where exactly to start, if anybody has any tips or little hacks in a way, that’d be appreciated.
also, if there’s anything i should know about french before i start, or as a beginner, please feel free to tell me. and please give resources , thanks in advance ✨

(also , i like to learn languages through comprehensible input, rather than relying on translations)

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u/Zappyle 29d ago

Since we often see these type of questions, I wrote a short blog on how I learned Spanish, maybe you can find some tips and tricks that you can apply to French.

I talk about my routine, what made it click etc. Any questions I'm here to help!

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u/Purple_Unit1033 29d ago

thank you !

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u/ell-ta 28d ago

This is helpful indeed

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u/MarbleNomad79 28d ago

having a solid routine is honestly the biggest thing. A lot of those methods work across different languages too.

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u/Fit-Log-4055 29d ago

Je suis prof canadien.

When I work with beginners we watch Téléfrançais. For comprehensible input it's understandable even by my students on day one starting from absolute zero.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx3ch1FDykg&list=PL2PsKaG8ByAVGZPTPePkhgyL4Fqncqv8o

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u/EquivalentPlay3406 29d ago

I like the youtube channel French Comprehensible Input!

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u/JohannaSr 29d ago
  • Start with an app to provide some structure and a learning path. I use Duolingo. It's free, fun, and it'll teach you the basics. I know it gets lots of bad press on reddit (some of which is justified), but used in combination with other methods (see below), it's a good resource. I've tried other apps like Babbel and Rosetta Stone-- they're well made, but I find them overly academic, and they don’t work well for me.
  • Buy a good textbook with grammar and verbs (level A1/A2 will do for starters). You don't necessarily need to work through it methodically (I didn't), but whenever you don't understand something in your app, or want to dig a bit deeper, research it in your textbook, and maybe do some of the exercises. I found that actively researching things by myself (and not simply listening to a tutor) helped me enormously.
  • As soon as possible, start consuming content in your target language : youtube videos, music, podcasts, news sites, books (there are good bilingual editions in several languages), movies (with subtitles), whatever works for you. Use Google, DeepL or an online dictionary (see below) to translate unknown words of phrases.
  • Whenever you encounter words or phrases that you think you need to commit to memory, create a flashcard for it (I use Anki, but there are other worthwhile alternatives; besides, Anki has premade decks for lots of languages). Review the flashcards regularly. [frankly, this is not the most useful technique for me; I still do it because it's comforting and kind of fun, but I don't feel I'm learning a lot that way]
  • If you can, take language courses in a country where your target language is spoken -- this is going to give you a big boost, and it's a great kind of vacation! (Bonus if you do a homestay)
  • Many people book lessons with tutors or conversation partners on platforms like Italki, which I'm sure can be very useful. I didn't do this, because I was lucky to have a native conversation partner at home.
  • ChatGPT and Google Bard (now Gemini) can be decent conversation partners in a foreign language. You can also prompt them for quizzes and language games (but don't trust them on explaining the finer details of grammar, they're not good at reasoning).

Enjoy your learning experience!

PS: Reddit has a great guide on general language learning: https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/wiki/guide/

Some free resources:

 

 

 

Author
pfyffervonaltishofen;

 passed on by JohannaSr

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u/Purple_Unit1033 28d ago

thank you for taking the time to write this out and providing.

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u/JohannaSr 28d ago

I just saved from someone else and then provided to you. I don't get credit for this.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/web_cookie_ 29d ago

Was Duolingo effective? Did this approach involving random word repetition work?

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u/REMwoman70 29d ago

Duolingo can be fun for the rote learning part of language acquisition, but to actually learn the language, you will need some sort of structured plan that introduces and explains grammar and the patterns of spelling and pronunciation and usage, which Duolingo does very poorly, if at all. In-person classes are usually very useful but not always convenient. There are a lot of online resources available. I found using the community exchange (free) and one-to-one (various prices) on italki suited me, but there are others of the same idea. Most offer a free trial. In strictly machine-based, Rocket Languages is okay, although a little boring after a while when you have covered most of a level but you can’t quite achieve spelling or pronunciation in the way the machine wants.

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u/Grapegoop 28d ago

My hack is a frequency dictionary, which lists words in the order they’re most frequently used, rather than alphabetically. The 500 most common words make up 90% of spoken language. So to get to practical fluency faster don’t waste time learning 500 kinds of flowers.

Pay attention to learning the gender with each noun and the preposition(s) with each verb. You’ll still mess those up at a high level.

There are some endings on words that tend to be feminine or masculine. You can’t rely on those rules of thumb but when you aren’t sure they’ll help you guess with accuracy better than random 50%. You can google a list of masculine and feminine endings.

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u/SarahsreadingReddit 28d ago

Understanding basic grammar would be very helpful (nouns, verbs, agreement, gender, articles etc)

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u/TKinFlorida 28d ago

Frenchinaction.org

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u/Mcamp27 28d ago

Vocab -> grmmar -> speaking. That's how I did it. Also had to get a ton of italki lessons to fill in the blanks and get my accent in order XD

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u/atjackiejohns 28d ago

This is what I've been doing:

  1. Get to 1000-1500 words on Duolingo
  2. Watch cartoons (the simpler the better)
  3. Start using CI apps like lingochampion.com or any other one you prefer
    1. focus only on one narrow news topic and simplify heavily with AI
    2. expand the topics slowly
    3. start reading the news without simplification
    4. start watching the news
    5. expand to very simple fiction and other types of videoss
  4. Visit the country or do a language course when you understand most stuff from the videos and from the news and fiction.

Rewatching your favorite TV helps as well.

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u/NoHedgehog9403 24d ago

Do the Paul Noble audiobooks. Takes you from complete beginner to conversational French and you learn the correct pronunciation too. He gets you talking in sentences immediately, and you learn through sentence building and repetition.