If you’re looking to parlez-vous français but aren’t sure where to start, French lessons can be a convenient way to pick up basic French . Speaking even beginner French can be hugely helpful if you’re planning to travel or study in Europe. French is also the official language of 29 countries , is spoken on five continents, and shares many cognates with other Indo-European languages, including English.
While you may have fallen head over heels with the idea of learning this popular romance language, French lessons from a tutor can be expensive, and courses taught in a classroom may be too time-consuming for busy professionals. That’s why many language learners opt instead to take French lessons online, where you can progress through learning at your own pace. Unfortunately, online French lessons can also be problematic, with many sites and apps offering unrealistic promises about fluency.
Rosetta Stone has over twenty-five years of experience helping language learners speak French with confidence. Our bite-sized lessons are designed to help learners speak French in context coupled with extended learning features that sync across devices. With dynamic language learning software and an award-winning mobile app, Rosetta Stone lets you take French lessons anytime and anywhere.
French for Beginners
Successful French lessons are about more than learning the words. Lessons should be about learning the language with plenty of opportunities to practice speaking out loud and get feedback. Many language learners will memorize a phrasebook back to back but find themselves unable to understand a native speaker on the street. But what good is learning to speak French if you can’t find the words you want when you need them in an impromptu conversation?
Failure to provide feedback and practice speaking is where other online French lessons and gamified apps leave French language learners in the lurch. That’s why Rosetta Stone structures basic French lessons to start with the French sounds , followed by common words and conversational phrases taught in the context of everyday situations. Rather than drilling on vocabulary lists and memorizing verb conjugation tables, our French lessons focus on immersive techniques that give you plenty of practice speaking the language.
Following our Dynamic Immersion® method, Rosetta Stone prepares you to adapt and improvise in French conversations. Words and phrases are taught in the context of the everyday situations in which they occur, from buying a ticket for the bus to shopping at the grocery store. Each bite-sized French lesson will frame new vocabulary in the context of what you already know so you’ll be able to scale towards speaking the language with confidence.
Getting Beyond Basic French
Once you know some basic French and common conversational phrases, it’s time to focus on speaking the language. After all, the goal of taking French lessons is to both understand and be understood in impromptu conversations. To accelerate your learning, French lessons can be combined with other immersive experiences like watching French movies with the subtitles turned off to get a feel for the flow and colloquialisms of the language.
Immersive experiences are essential to developing an ear for the language, but practicing speaking French out loud is the best way to learn how to say it like a local. When you’re practicing French pronunciation, there are some accent marks in the language that can guide you about where to place stress in the syllables or sounds. Getting beyond static marks on the page however and finding opportunities to refine your spoken French is crucial to building confidence with the language.
Perfecting Your French Pronunciation
Rosetta Stone gets you speaking French correctly from your very first lesson, providing feedback on your pronunciation with a patented speech recognition engine called TruAccent®.
Embedded in every lesson, TruAccent® will compare your pronunciation to that of thousands of French native speakers, helping you fine-tune your accent before moving onto the next lesson. Because confidence comes from practice, Rosetta Stone also offers Live Tutoring sessions with native French speakers who can help complement your French lessons with insightful feedback.
Try Our Award-Winning App
Surround yourself with French whenever, wherever with the Rosetta Stone app .
Download a unit and knock it out on the train or a flight. Select a 5-10 minute lesson and sneak it in while you wait in line or for your ride to show up. And explore dynamic features, like Seek and Speak, where you can point at an object in the real world and get a translation .
The best part? You don’t have to choose between app or desktop. Both come with your subscription and sync, so you can switch between devices seamlessly.
