What are you watching/reading/listening to this week?

You see it written down and think there's no way this can be difficult.

Then you hear it in an actual conversation and suddenly you're not even sure where the word begins or ends

French has quite a few words that seem straightforward on paper but sound completely different once liaison, connected speech, and normal speed get involved

Which word caught you off guard the most?

Two, three, four?

I guess it’s my turn to finally make these kinds of posts 😅 might make a journey post later on. Been roughly 12 months ½ of learning French to get here. Hope everybody will attain the score they deserve. Bonne chance les gars!

Merci à tous ceux qui m’ont motivé, même indirectement, ici 😎

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Hi everyone! I'll be moving to France later this year (from India) for work and I'm currently a novice to French Language .Want to get a head start before I arrive.

Would love recommendations for:

\- Online French courses/apps that worked well for you (structured levels, e.g., A1 → A2)

\- Tutors or classes geared toward people relocating for work/study, not just tourist phrases

\- Any tips for English/Hindi speakers specifically — I've heard pronunciation can be tricky

\- Whether to prioritize spoken French (daily life, admin, appointments) or reading/writing first

Budget-friendly options welcome, but open to paid platforms too if they're worth it. Thanks in advance!

Un nouveau sondage montre que de nombreux jeunes adultes au Royaume-Uni s’intéressent moins à l’achat d’une voiture. Le sondage a interrogé 1 000 personnes âgées de 18 à 29 ans. Plus d’une personne sur quatre (27 %) a dit qu’elle n’achèterait probablement pas de voiture dans les trois prochaines années. Certains préfèrent dépenser leur argent dans les voyages ou économiser pour s’acheter un logement. D’autres préfèrent marcher, prendre les transports en commun ou emprunter une voiture quand ils en ont besoin.

Vocabulaire : sondage (m) = survey / s’intéresser = to be interested / achat (m) = purchase / interroger = to ask / prochaines = next / dépenser = to spend / économiser = to save / logement (m) = home, housing / emprunter = to borrow

English translation

Gen Z is less interested in buying cars

A new survey shows that many young adults in the United Kingdom are less interested in buying a car. The survey asked 1,000 people aged 18 to 29. More than one in four (27%) said they probably would not buy a car in the next three years. Some prefer to spend their money on travel or save up to buy a home. Others prefer to walk, use public transport or borrow a car when they need one.

You can read more stories at Le News, In Easy French.

Hi! I’m JB, I’m French, and I’m looking for native English or Spanish speakers who already speak a little French and want to get more comfortable speaking.

I’d like to have one video call every week, you improve your spoken French, and I improve the way I explain French in English or Spanish.

So let's learn and improve together!

If you’re interested, send me a DM.

Je pense qu’on donne trop d’importance à l’idée de « parler comme un natif ».

Quand on apprend une langue, on entend souvent :

« Il faut avoir un bon accent. » « Il faut parler naturellement. » « Il faut utiliser les bonnes expressions. » « Il faut parler comme un Français. »

Et à force d’entendre ça, on finit parfois par croire que notre objectif est de faire disparaître toute trace de notre langue maternelle.

Je ne suis pas vraiment d’accord avec cette idée.

Bien sûr, une bonne prononciation est importante. Connaître les expressions courantes aussi. Mais parler français avec un accent étranger ne veut pas dire qu’on parle mal français.

Pour moi, le vrai objectif n’est pas de faire croire aux autres qu’on est français.

C’est de pouvoir raconter une histoire, donner son opinion, plaisanter, expliquer quelque chose, défendre une idée… sans passer plusieurs secondes à chercher chaque phrase dans sa tête.

Et surtout, pouvoir le faire sans avoir peur de faire une erreur.

On peut parler un français très naturel sans être natif.

Et peut-être qu’à partir d’un certain niveau, la question ne devrait plus être :

« Est-ce que je parle comme un Français ? »

mais plutôt :

« Est-ce que je peux vraiment m’exprimer comme je le veux en français ? »

Vous en pensez quoi ?

Hello, im trying to read more french books and i need some suggestions, kids books are also fine, history is also okay. Drop your suggestions!

I am looking for an app to improve my grammar. When I was taking French courses 10 years ago I was at a C1 level. After a period of no real French exposure for a few years, I started working in French and so my verbal fluency has improved a lot, but when trying to write things I realize I've lost a fair bit of my grammar knowledge, so I'm looking to re-learn some things.

So far I've tried Kwiziq and found it too cumbersome to have to look up the grammar rules on the site instead of a more full explanation right at the point of getting a question wrong. Wondering if there's another app I should try. Paying is okay if it's really going to meet my needs, but if there's something that's only like 5-10% worse that's free then that would be my preference.

Pour vous donner une idée de mon niveau d'écriture, je vais partager un peu plus d'information, sans avoir vérifié le grammaire. Je travaille dans un milieu de soins de santé, alors quant au vocabulaire, je suis très confortable en discutant des maladies, l'anatomie, et les termes scientifiques. Maintenant que mes collègues sont pour la plupart francophone, je trouve que c'est un peu difficile de toujours comprendre quand ils jasent. En tout cas, c'est vraiment le grammaire sur lequel je voudrais concentrer, mais ceci était juste pour vous donner une idée de mon niveau.

Merci pour vos suggestions!

Edit:

I would also really appreciate podcast recommendations! I listen to a ton of English podcasts. I'd like to find a French one that is native speakers but similar enough to the ones I like in English that it doesn't feel like a chore. Examples of English ones I like: If Books Could Kill, Behind the Bastards, Celebrity Memoir Bookclub, Maintenance Phase, What's News with You, Chosen Family, Just Between Us, Hard Fork, Al Jazeera (news updates, inside story), WHGS.

Basically they're all conversational-style podcasts between friends, and several of them have something that's being reviewed/analyzed (books, historical figures, tech developments). A couple of them are "comedy podcasts," which seems to mean that the hosts also do stand-up and then made a podcast about every day things. Some of the review ones are also hosted by stand-up comics. I tend to vibe better with podcasts where the hosts are very left wing in their perspectives, and even better if they're queer.

Hi everyone, I am a beginner French student who has been learning (for fun) for the last couple of years. I will soon find myself between jobs and therefore having some spare time on my hands during which I'm hoping to travel. I've loved learning French but I can't help feeling like I won't make real speaking progress unless I'm immersed in the language. I'm wondering what you all think about going to a French language school in France, specifically what that could do for my speaking abilities ? Is it enough to travel and try to talk with locals or do you think it could be better to also take classes in tandem ?

I am interested in watching French media. I do not have any video streaming services, which is limiting, but I did see a post mention arte.tv, and I've been watching that. (Though some of the shows feature a lot of speakers who don't speak french and it can be confusing for me).

Are there any other good solutions? I'd happily subscribe to a service that features french TV shows or movies, but would prefer to find alternatives OTHER than streaming giants like Netflix or Hulu. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

Hello,

I am about to start to learn French on my own. I would like some help in a good resources which could help me go over atleast B1 level?

A resource can be a good book, a good YouTube channel, or a website or an application. I am a Native English speaker.

Thanks.

I’ve noticed something while learning French on LingQ that has been surprisingly helpful for me.

When learning a sentence like “La rue est dans le centre-ville,” I used to approach it as one complete unit. I already knew the translation in my head - “The street is in the city center” - so I would just say the whole sentence in one go and feel like I had learned it.

But lately I’ve been trying something different.

Instead of immediately saying the whole sentence, I’ll go:

“La rue…” pause

…and let that register for a moment. Then:

“…est dans le centre-ville.”

I let the meaning settle naturally, and only then say the whole sentence again, this time a little faster and more naturally.

For me, that small pause seems to make a difference. It feels less like I’m simply recalling the English translation and more like I’m actually processing the French itself. I also feel like I remember the sentence and structure better afterward.

Maybe a lot of people already do this naturally without really noticing it, but I just wanted to share it in case it helps someone else too.

P.S. And if there happen to be any native French speakers or fellow French learners here who feel like making a new friend, I certainly wouldn’t complain. :)

I’ m looking for a French teacher/tutor for my son, who is in Grade 2, preferably for online classes.
He has an entrance/level assessment for basic French at his school to get enrolled in French as his second language in grade 3.
He needs help building a basic foundation and preparing specifically for the assessment.
I have the exam curriculum/topics and can share them via DM.
Please share, if you are teaching kids of you know someone.

Thanks

I’m really curious about your language learning goals and I want to understand what are the most difficult topics or the most difficult things that block you or block your motivation to learn the French language I intend on someday developing a solution to work around this and I’m just curious from the perspective of a foreign speaker what are the blockers of motivation? What are the barriers in the French language that stop you as a fun speaker from getting fluent?

For example, something I can think of is agreement which is a rule that is constant across the French language where you have to make sure that every thing agrees in gender number with the subject overall. This can be extreme complicated if you are not sure of what words are masculine what words are feminine or sometimes even plural. Another one is the agreement with passe compose with the verb être.

Please don’t give me a genetic answer. Give me as specific answers as possible. What is difficult? What is it that you find the most challenging in terms of topics grammar literature, pronunciation or whatever it is that you find relevant?

I just hit 25 hours of focused French immersion, so I figured I’d do a progress update.

For some background:

I’m Canadian, so I technically started learning French in elementary school. From grades 4–8, I had around 45 minutes of French a day. Unfortunately, it wasn’t particularly useful for actually communicating. We didn’t really read books or have conversations. In Grade 8 we were still learning vocabulary like la natation and le hockey.

That said, it gave me a foundation. I already knew basic things like colours, numbers, days, etc., so I wasn’t starting completely from zero.

My previous French study:

In 2024, I studied French for roughly 100hrs. Most of that was graded readers and watching Pokemon Indigo Leauge/Avatar: The Last Airbender. I read around 15 books, mostly A1–A2 level. They were extremely short, though. Usually I wasn’t reading things with more than 2–3 sentences per page. I could understand the general idea, but things like qu’il, qu’un, c’était, etc. would constantly trip me up.

I also counted quite a lot of listening to French music toward those 100 hours. I don’t count music anymore because I don’t feel like it’s concentrated enough to be useful as actual study time.

Why am I learning French?

There are a few reasons. And the biggest practical reason is my career. In about 10 years, French will be a requirement for some of the promotions I want. I don’t want to cram French into my life at the last possible moment and scrape by on an exam. I’d rather start now and see how far I can actually take it.

Ideally, I’d eventually like to be good enough to help teach/instruct French in some capacity in my career. I’ve been on courses where French-speaking-only people were included and watched instructors struggle to even say something as basic as Comment vas-tu ? It was painful to watch, and I’d really like to be someone who can actually help in that situation.

My partner is also French speaking. She had 12 years of French schooling and has worked in French speaking jobs. We’ve also decided that when we have children, we’d like to speak French at home with them.

So there are some pretty good long term reasons to get serious about it now.

What I’ve done for these 25 hours:

I’m averaging about 2 hours and 5 minutes per day.
My main activity is watching content with French audio + French subtitles.

I’ve watched all of Yuri!!! on Ice and about 2/3 of a season of Love Is Blind France, which I’ll finish this week. I use Language Reactor and auto pause quite heavily. My goal isn’t necessarily to understand every individual word, but I want to make sure I’m actually getting the gist of every sentence instead of letting French wash over me. And I’m already noticing a difference.

At the beginning, I needed auto pause constantly. Now, in slower scenes, I can turn auto pause off and just watch the conversation, with maybe 70–80% comprehension. That feels like a pretty significant change after only 25 hours.

Yuri!!! on Ice:
I watched the entire thing with French audio and French subtitles. I hadn’t seen it before and already love skating, so it was an easy choice because I was genuinely interested in the story rather than forcing myself through “study material.” I’d estimate that I understood maybe 60–70% of the overall story.
There was one pretty hilarious moment where I felt completely blindsided at the end.

I was thinking to myself, “They haven’t even held hands yet. How are they exchanging rings?”

So clearly I missed some of the emotional development. Or maybe Yuri and Victor just have the most aggressively off screen relationship progression imaginable.

Either way, I’m planning to watch it again after around 150–200 hours of French and see how much more I understand.

Love Is Blind France:
This has actually been fantastic immersion. There have been multiple moments where I’m watching something happen and thinking: “Oh no. There’s no way they just did that.” That leaves me feeling like I’m not just translating individual sentences anymore, but that I’m understanding the context in real time.

It also exposes me to vocabulary and sentence structures that I don’t hear much in Canadian French.
It’s noticeably more formal at times, and there are still moments where I have to translate through English first and think, “That was a very weird, roundabout Medieval English way of saying that.”

Some things I’ve noticed at 25 hours:

My reading has gotten MUCH better. I can read subtitles faster. I can understand local signage without thinking about it. I’m also pausing less and having to rewind less now as well. And overall I’m recognizing phrases more quickly.

I am also noticing that I’m starting to think in French. When I’m alone I find it comes more naturally to express small sentiments in French. Simple things usually like, “C’est très chaud,” or “J’espère!”

A most noticeable one was something like, “J’aimerais aller chez moi. Je voudrais dormir dans mon lit.”

Which came out of nowhere but makes sense given I’ve been away from home for four months.

Ive also been texting my partner in French more frequently. And I understand what she says to me but I notice a large gap in how to respond with simple words like, “would, could, should, etc.” Which is something I hope gets cleared up by watching more reality tv overtime and having more natural conversations.

What I’m NOT doing:

Interestingly, I haven’t gone back to Anki. I know a lot of people swear by it, but I realized that I don’t get much enjoyment from studying French as fragmented vocabulary and isolated sentences. I actually like French when it’s attached to something.

I’m also no longer counting French music toward my hours. I listen to it, but I don’t consider it concentrated enough to count as study.

Next checkpoint: 50 hours.

🇫🇷

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

I'm based in Karachi and learning French as part of my Canada PR plan.

Where I'm at: working through NLF Academy online to get myself to a solid A1/A2. Once that base is in place, I plan to move to paid classes to push toward B2, since I don't think self-study alone will get me through the speaking and writing sections.

Two things I'm hoping to get out of this post.

**1. Anyone else in Karachi doing this?** I'd like to know you exist. Comparing notes on what's actually working beats grinding through it alone, and I suspect there are more of us than it looks.

**2. Feedback on Alliance Française de Karachi, specifically for TCF prep.** Their site lists both TCF and TEF Canada, bookable through the year, and they run adult and private classes. What I'd like to hear from people who've actually been there:

- quality of the teaching, and whether class sizes let you speak much

- whether their prep matches the real exam format, or whether it's general French with an exam label on it

- classes vs self-study plus a private tutor, if you've tried both

- anything about the test centre experience itself

Any experience welcome, including the unflattering kind. Better to know now than after paying for a term.

Hi! I’m currently learning French and looking for a French practice partner based in British Columbia, Canada. I’d love to find someone I can regularly practice speaking and listening with—ideally through calls or voice chats. I’m still learning, so no pressure to be perfect! 😊🇫🇷
If you’re also learning French and interested in practicing together, feel free to message me!

Hi, I want to test my French level. Is there any good app or website that can give me an idea of my level, like A2, B1, B2, etc.?

I’m looking for something similar to a DELF-style test, even if it’s not official.

Any recommendations?

For example pronouncing "pour" like "port" or "l'amour" like "la mort"?