The best way to learn French speaking

1. 1

   You say sentences out loud

   Speaking is a skill you only build by speaking. An app that only taps and swipes trains recognition.

2. 2

   It uses whole sentences

   Sentences teach word order, endings and rhythm that single words cannot.

3. 3

   You hear native-style audio

   Listening and speaking feed each other. You need to hear how it should sound.

4. 4

   Feedback is specific

   Knowing which word you missed is more useful than a red cross on the whole sentence.

5. 5

   It is short and daily

   A ten-minute habit you keep beats a long course you drop.

Every sentence goes through the same four steps, and the last one is the point.

• Order

  Rebuild the French sentence in English from a bank of words.

• Translate

  See the English and build the French sentence word by word.

• Listen

  Hear the sentence in French and type what you understood.

• Speak

  Say it out loud and see which words landed.

French drops or links many letters when words meet, and it has nasal vowels English does not use. Reading a sentence silently teaches you little about how it sounds. Hearing it, typing it and then saying it is the quickest fix.

• Hello

  Bonjour

  Hello

• Thank you

  Merci

  Thank you

• A first sentence

  Je voudrais un café, s'il vous plaît.

  I would like a coffee, please.

Play buttons use your device’s own voice and appear only when it has one for French.

An app builds habit, vocabulary and the muscle memory of speaking. It does not replace talking with people. Once you can say a handful of sentences, find a conversation partner or tutor and use what you practised. See how long French takes to plan your time.