This Guide will make you an expert in French for Free

Published in

BeyondExams

10 min readJun 28, 2021

“Le monde est plein de merveilles”. That was hard, wasn’t it? Oh! It feels so awesome when you can flaunt some French to people.

Je m’excuse.

DAMN! I can’t stop! Okay, let me try.

Free is always good, right? Free parking, free online courses, free food, you name it.

French language. It’s a pretty amazing thing to learn. What’s even more amazing? You can learn it for free.

I still vividly remember my french classes. I used to mess up most of the spellings and pronunciations which made my tutor livid. But that’s okay. You make mistakes and you learn from them.

French has always been a popular language to learn. Ever wondered about that?

Some people choose french because it’s spoken in so many nations across the world.

Others want to enjoy the richness of their literary, cultural, and historical heritage.

Also, you know,

According to www.languagecoursesuk.co.uk, around 220 million individuals in the world can speak French. Out of which 80 million are native French speakers. And on top of that, 29 countries have French as one of their official languages.
Reference to the US Census Bureau report, French is the 3rd most spoken language in the country excluding English.

Graph from censu.gov

Many just fall in love with the language the first time they hear it. If you have chosen french,

you know your reasoning behind it. (I’ll bet 100 bucks it’s to impress your mademoiselle).

Do you want to learn french but don’t have the time to attend classes?

Wondering how you can learn french for free online all by yourself?

Worry not. We have a panacea for that problem.

Pro tips and strategies to learn French online

Now I will give you the 6 best tips and ways based on personal experience that will make you a French savant in 3 months:

Use your auditory senses

Many french language beginners make the mistake of simply reading and writing it and they fail to realize that listening is equally important.

Writing French and speaking French are two very different beasts.

There are silent letters that beginners wouldn’t understand and will read for what it is.

What you do is translate the word or sentence into audio form for correct pronunciation. That will require a French audiobook.

Take, for example, the word ‘action’. In English, you pronounce it as ‘ak-shun’ but in French you pronounce it as ‘ak-syon’, enunciating the letter ‘i’.

Here is a great article to comprehend spoken French with audio examples.

“Spoken French taught in American classrooms is a fiction, based on ideas about how people should speak, not on how they do speak”.

Waught & Fonseca-Greber

University of Arizona

Basic vocabulary building

What you are going to do here is try to find the 100 core words of French.

After jotting those down, read it, write it, speak it out loud, listen to the correct pronunciation online, rehash them in front of the mirror.

I know the last one sounds very cliche but trust me, it works like a charm.

Having trouble finding the words?

This video will help you.

The Shadowing Technique

The idea behind shadowing is, essentially, to take a clip of a native speaker and copy

everything that pertains to their speech i.e. pacing, intonations, staccato, and most

crucial of all their pronunciations.

Keep in mind that choose those clips in which the speaker’s mouth is visible. This will make copying the position of their mouth easier.

Pro-tip for beginners — Don’t try to copy everything. You will stagger if you try to do so which is not good.

Instead, take it slow and steady. Better to be precise than to be hasty.

Start with 3–5 minutes of shadowing. Then work your way up from there.

Here is a quick video on how shadowing works.

Be cognizant of your strengths

French is complex. Don’t expect it to make sense with just one walkthrough.

Do you have to write everything that you read to keep it in your memory? Or do you have an eidetic memory that does not require multiple glances?

Whatever may be the case, work with your strong suits. Because you will do an exponentially better job at it.

According to an article by Gallup, a management consultancy company, individuals who say they use their strengths every day are 8% more productive and are 15% less likely to quit their jobs.

Always be consistent

Consistency is quintessential.

Study French daily for a short amount of time. DO NOT try to cram it in one go. That will be counterproductive.

You will feel fatigued and burnt out which you do not want when you are learning a language.

Spending 20–30 minutes daily on learning french will give you better results than sitting with your French ebook open for 3.5 hours staring at the wall wondering whether Earth is flat or not.

Repetition is of apex importance

Not reviewing what you learned is THE most common mistake most French learners make. They are so focused on learning new content they forget to review the older ones.

One way to hardwire the things you learned during your classes is through the Spaced Repetition System (SRS).

The idea is to make flashcards and pen down the things you want to memorize on the flashcards, in this case, the French vocabulary, sentences, phrases, etc.

A question in the front and the respective answer at the back.

Then you take a file and make 3 sections in it. One for all your cards, one for ‘frequent visits’ and one for ‘minimal visits’.

After that put all your flashcards in one section. Then you pick out the flashcards one by one. If you can answer it correctly, you put it in the ‘minimal visits’ section. If you get it wrong, toss it in the ‘frequent visits’ section.

But with everything being online and free, you can do that on your computer. Plus it saves paper. It’s a win-win.

It is highly effective and sought out by many language learners. Here is an article explaining how SRS works.

Frenchtoday, a blog, also talks about some tips for learning French. I recommend you check this out.

Real Benefits of Learning French

Apart from the intellectual benefits, perception of a foreign language such as French eases travel, magnifies career opportunities, and allows one to learn a lot more about different people and cultures.

Now let’s talk about how French will help you in different prospects of your life.

Academic advantages

Speaking French unfolds study opportunities in esteemed French universities, law schools that are top-ranked in Europe, France, and the world.

Students who are at a good level in French are qualified for French government grants for enrollment in graduate and postgraduate courses in France.

Some scholarships and grants provided by the organizations and societies are :

French Embassy Benjamin Franklin-Generation Study Abroad Scholarship

This scholarship offers financial aid to be applied on travel and related expenses for

undergraduate studies abroad at French higher educational institutions. Generation Study

Abroad universities that are participating nominate students. One cannot apply for it directly.

Charpak Scholarship

Charpak is a French government scholarship program that is divided into 3 sub-programs

that allows Indian students to study at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in public and

private educational institutions of France. More about Charpak Scholarship here.

Eiffel Scholarship Program of Excellence

This scholarship is provided by the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs in the field of law, economics, political sciences, and engineering sciences.

It is offered only for the Masters and Doctorate or Ph.D. levels that span from 12–36 months with a substantial stipend. Read more about it here.

Want to know about more French scholarships? This will help you out.

Societal benefits

A vacation or higher studies in France will be very easy if you are familiar with the French language.

There are around 80 million native French speakers. Learn French and voila, you have 80 million more people to talk to.

It also provides you with a multicultural perspective. According to a research paper by Osaka Jogakuin College, people who are bilingual and bicultural

from an early age may not adopt the same proportions of each culture but rather by trial and error. They then decide what works for them. It’s like the best of both worlds.

And not to mention the bragging rights that you’ll acquire. Previously you were just ‘Michael’. Now you are ‘cooler Michael’.

Occupation

Whatever your field and industry, learning french will help you communicate

with clients, vendors, and employees that live in francophone countries.

If you work in international business or politics, French is an extremely handy

language.

Organizations like NATO, United Nations, International Court of Justice, etc.,

have French as its official language.

The ability to speak French will give you a competitive edge in interviews.

The recruiters will always choose multilingual prospects over monolingual ones.

According to The Economist, you can get a 2.3 % bonus if you know French.

Another article by The Economist states that knowing a foreign language

adds around 13–15 % to your salary.

Here is the list of jobs that you can get if you know French :

Voice acting
Community representative of video game or a product
Translator or interpreter
Brand specialist for the French market

There are more. Visit this for more information.

Famous people who are native English speakers who speak French

Ever wonder which famous people speak French?

Let me stop your pondering. Many speak fluent French. It’s pretty much in their job description.

Serena Williams

This tennis superstar has been learning French since she was a teen.

“It’s way, way more nerve-racking than playing tennis”, she said.

This video demonstrates how fluent she is in French.

Bradley Cooper

The Hollywood actor speaks the language very well and is an admirer of France and

everything French. His pronunciation is excellent and so is his vocabulary.

He, sometimes, cracks jokes in French. He even interviewed in French.

Marlon Brando

This legendary actor’s third wife was French and as a result, he became adept in French.

This video showcases his French language skills.

Johnny Depp

He is the descendant of a French immigrant. He met his French actress former wife, Vanessa

Paradis whilst shooting The Ninth Gate. Here is a clip from that movie where he was heard

speaking French

Free Platforms to learn French Online

Enough talk about celebrities. Let’s get into some sources from where you can learn French online for free:

Duolingo

Duolingo has the biggest user base out of any language-learning platform.

Reason? It’s free and addictive. Their game-like approach is very fun to use.

To get started with Duolingo, create a profile and start the beginner’s course. You are all set to go.

Beyond Exams

It is one of the most intuitive free learning websites for beginners and intermediates.

You can find all the Youtube videos here.

Now you are thinking “why not just search it on Youtube?”

Because Youtube shows you the videos according to the views, likes, and comments i.e. more likes/views equals more chances of securing the top spot in your feed.

Beyond Exams’ algorithm measure the quality of the videos rather than the number of likes and views. After gauging that it provides you with the best results.

To access the content,