Learn to speak French

1. 1

   Week 1: sounds and greetings

   Say hello (Bonjour) and thank you (Merci) until they feel natural. Learn the sounds that differ from English, and say ten short sentences about yourself. 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.

2. 2

   Week 2: everyday requests

   Learn to order, ask the price, ask where things are and say you do not understand. Build each as a full sentence and say it three times.

3. 3

   Week 3: questions and answers

   Practise question words and the answers to them. Listen to each French sentence first, then say it, then compare.

4. 4

   Week 4: short exchanges

   Chain sentences into a mini conversation: greet, introduce yourself, ask a question, answer one. Record yourself and listen back.

French uses the Latin alphabet, so you can read and sound out words from day one.

Reading comes faster than speaking. Silent letters, linked words and the French r take time, so most of your effort should go into listening and saying sentences aloud.

A good first target sentence: Je voudrais un café, s'il vous plaît. (I would like a coffee, please.).

• Ten to twenty minutes, same time every day.
• Say everything out loud, even when alone.
• Learn whole sentences, not isolated words.
• Repeat yesterday's sentences before learning new ones.
• After a couple of weeks, find a conversation partner or tutor and use what you have practised. At 30 minutes a day, French reaches working proficiency in roughly 3.8 years, and you will be speaking well before that.

Go deeper with most common French words, useful French phrases, and French verb conjugations.