Learn French free — 450 lessons, A1 to C2

A free French course of 450 lessons in fifteen modules, from the first sounds of A1 to the written register of C2. Every word carries its article and a plain-English respelling, every lesson its rule, its watch-out line and its audio, and every page ends with practice you can do on paper today. Start at Module 1, lesson 1.

This course is the whole ladder: fifteen modules of thirty lessons each, in a deliberate order — the sound system first, so every later word is sayable; nouns always with their gender; sentences from Lesson 5 on; and by the last module, the written register a proficient user is measured on. It follows the CEFR — the international standard for language ability — band by band: Basic (A1 and A2) in Modules 1–5, Independent (B1 and B2) in Modules 6–10, Proficient (C1 and C2) in Modules 11–15. Module N assumes Module N−1.

It is written for two readers at once: a child working with a parent, and an adult starting from zero. The examples serve both on the same page, and nothing here talks down to either.

Reading teaches you ABOUT French; writing it by hand is what makes it stick. Each lesson ends with practice prompts for any sheet of paper — and the companion workbook turns that into a full program: write-in lesson pages, daily practice with built-in review, self-checks and a complete answer key.

Start here — Module 1: 6 units, 30 lessons

Unit 1 · Bonjour! Sounds and greetings

Greetings, the alphabet and accents, the sound patterns behind every respelling, and your first conversation.

Unit 2 · Le or la? First nouns

Gender as a habit: le/la/l’, un/une, twelve classroom words, c’est sentences and silent-s plurals.

Unit 3 · Counting and colors

Numbers 0–31, eleven colors, color-after-noun word order, and il y a for describing any room.

Unit 4 · Me and my family

Être and avoir in the singular, twelve family words, mon/ma/mes, saying ages, and the three-sentence portrait.

Unit 5 · My body, my pets

Body and animal words, describing eyes and hair with avoir, the grand/grande agreement pair, questions and denials.

Unit 6 · My week, my likes

Days of the week, j’aime opinions, your first -er verbs, position words, and the self-portrait paragraph.

The whole ladder — 15 modules, 450 lessons

Each module assumes the one before it. Open a module to see its six units and thirty lessons; every lesson page carries its words, its rule, a watch-out line, audio and a printable flashcard sheet.

Module 2 · Basic User, module 2 of 5 — CEFR A1, completed

Unit 1 · Le présent — the full present tense

Être, avoir and the -er verbs with ALL their persons: nous, vous, ils and elles join, plus aller, faire and venir.

Unit 2 · Questions

The question words — où, quand, qui, que, comment, combien, pourquoi — and quel, the asking "which".

Unit 3 · Ne…pas and numbers to 100

Real negation drilled, then the famous French numbers: soixante-dix, quatre-vingts and their friends, with prices in euros.

Unit 4 · The date and the weather

Months, seasons, saying the full date, and the weather phrases every French conversation opens with.

Unit 5 · La nourriture — food

Meals, fruit and vegetables, drinks, the partitive du/de la/des, and ordering politely with je voudrais.

Unit 6 · The house and the clock

Rooms and furniture, telling time on the hour and its quarters, and the shape of your own day.

Module 3 · Basic User, module 3 of 5 — CEFR A2, first half

Unit 1 · Le passé composé — the past, part I

The A2 gate: avoir + participle says what happened. Regular -é participles, the famous irregulars, questions and negation in the past.

Unit 2 · Le futur proche, and new verb families

Aller + infinitive says what is about to happen; the -ir and -re verb families join the présent.

Unit 3 · Agreement in earnest, and comparing

The -e and -s rules formalized, the special adjective pairs, and plus… que / moins… que for comparing anything.

Unit 4 · En ville — in town

The places of a French town, asking and giving directions, and au / à la for going places.

Unit 5 · Les vêtements — clothes and shopping

Clothes with their genders, porter, sizes and fit, and the shop dialogue from je cherche to je le prends.

Unit 6 · Reading and writing I

Connector words, your first real reading passages with questions, and writing frames for sentences of your own.

Module 4 · Basic User, module 4 of 5 — CEFR A2, completed

Unit 1 · Le passé composé with être

A small club of going-and-coming verbs takes être in the past — and the participle agrees like an adjective: elle est allée.

Unit 2 · Les verbes réfléchis — the reflexive day

Wake, wash, dress: the daily verbs French points back at yourself — je me lève, je me lave, je m'habille.

Unit 3 · L'imparfait — the way things were

The second past tense: c'était, il y avait, j'avais — for how things WERE, while the passé composé says what HAPPENED.

Unit 4 · Le, la, les — object pronouns

Stop repeating nouns: je le vois, je la prends, je les aime — the little words that stand for things, plus moi and toi.

Unit 5 · En voyage — travel

Trains, tickets and hotels: the words and sentences of a real trip, with à and en for how you go.

Unit 6 · Reading and writing II

Emails, invitations and longer passages — reading them, answering on them, and writing your own short messages.

Module 5 · Basic User, module 5 of 5 — CEFR A2 mastery + the B1 bridge

Unit 1 · The grand review: people

Family, descriptions, ages, the reflexive day and the classroom — everything about people, replayed at speed.

Unit 2 · The grand review: my world

Food, house, town, clothes, weather, dates and the clock — the vocabulary of daily life, consolidated.

Unit 3 · The two pasts, mastered

Passé composé against imparfait, the être club complete, reflexives in the past — the contrast that makes French stories work.

Unit 4 · Le futur simple, and your opinion

The one-word future arrives — je serai, j'aurai, je parlerai — with the opinion phrases that make you a conversation partner.

Unit 5 · Exam training

The A2 exam task shapes: reading notices and letters, the two short writing tasks, and speaking cards to say aloud.

Unit 6 · The self-check, and the view from the top

A full practice check in exam shape, two B1 preview texts, and the summit page of the whole Basic ladder.

Module 6 · Independent User, module 1 of 5 — CEFR B1, first half

Unit 1 · Raconter — telling the past

The two pasts in real stories, and the past BEFORE the past — the plus-que-parfait joins the narration toolkit.

Unit 2 · Work, school and the future

Jobs, studies and plans, told in a futur simple you now own in full — savoir and connaître included.

Unit 3 · Le conditionnel — would, could, should

The conditional arrives whole: polite requests, wishes, advice, and the si + imparfait hypothesis machine.

Unit 4 · Sentences that breathe

Relative pronouns — qui, que, où, dont — and the connectors that turn short sentences into real paragraphs.

Unit 5 · The pronoun machine

Object pronouns, y and en: say more while repeating less — the mark of an independent speaker.

Unit 6 · Your opinion, defended

Opinions with reasons, polite disagreement, and the B1 task shapes: the article and the letter that argues.

Module 7 · Independent User, module 2 of 5 — CEFR B1, completed

Unit 1 · Il faut que — the subjunctive opens

The mood French uses after necessity, will and wish: how to build it, the six verbs that refuse to behave, and when a plain infinitive does the job instead.

Unit 2 · La santé et le corps

At the doctor, at the pharmacy, and the time words that say how long it has been going on: depuis, il y a, pendant, dans.

Unit 3 · Le travail et l'argent

Jobs, studies, earning and saving — and the passive voice, met properly for the first time.

Unit 4 · Rapporter ce qu'on dit

Reported speech: statements, questions and instructions passed on, with the pronouns that have to change along the way.

Unit 5 · Ne... plus, jamais, rien, personne

Negation past ne...pas — the whole family, where each piece sits in a sentence, and the words they answer.

Unit 6 · Lire et écrire au niveau B1

The four written shapes B1 asks for: the short article read, the letter that explains, the opinion posted, the problem reported.

Module 8 · Independent User, module 3 of 5 — CEFR B2, first half

Unit 1 · Cause, conséquence, but

Why something happened, what followed from it, and what it was for — the three joints an argued sentence turns on.

Unit 2 · La concession

Admitting the other side and keeping your own: although, even if, in spite of, and the one that takes the indicative when every neighbor takes the subjunctive.

Unit 3 · Le subjonctif étendu

Past necessity into emotion, doubt and the negated opinion — and the contrast where choosing the mood changes what the sentence claims.

Unit 4 · L'environnement et la société

The subject matter B2 actually reads about, with the vocabulary of increase, decrease and proportion that every such text runs on.

Unit 5 · Les médias et la technologie

The press, the screen and the question underneath both of them: how do you say a piece of information is reliable?

Unit 6 · Argumenter par écrit

The three si-constructions together at last, formal against informal register, and the argued paragraph: claim, reason, example, qualification.

Module 9 · Independent User, module 4 of 5 — CEFR B2, completed

Unit 1 · Le récit écrit

Narration on paper rather than out loud: three layers of past at once, the gérondif, and the markers that tell a reader where they are in time.

Unit 2 · Le regret et le reproche

The tense for what did not happen — j'aurais dû, tu aurais pu, si j'avais su — and how to apologize in French without groveling.

Unit 3 · Le discours rapporté au passé

The tense shift: every reported verb steps one place back, and yesterday becomes the day before.

Unit 4 · Les relatifs complexes

Ce qui, ce que, ce dont, and the lequel family that lives after a preposition — the joints a long French sentence turns on.

Unit 5 · Le monde du travail

The company, the contract, the rights and the meeting — and the professional email, which has rules of its own.

Unit 6 · Les tâches B2

The four long written pieces the level is examined on: the argued essay, the formal protest, the account of a text, and the frame both ends of an essay need.

Module 10 · Independent User, module 5 of 5 — CEFR B1 + B2 mastery, and the C1 bridge

Unit 1 · Les trois passés, en contraste

Narration reviewed as one system rather than three tenses, and put to work on the four things B2 asks you to tell: a memory, a news item, a plot.

Unit 2 · L'hypothèse, les trois niveaux

Si with the present, si with the imparfait, si with the plus-que-parfait — one word, three distances from reality, finally on one page.

Unit 3 · Le subjonctif, la carte complète

The whole trigger map, the two tests that decide between moods and between que and the infinitive, and the four traps that catch confident writers.

Unit 4 · L'épreuve écrite

The written paper as it is actually set: reading the instruction, planning in three parts, the formal letter template, and the proofreading pass.

Unit 5 · L'exposé

A spoken presentation, prepared in writing: how to open it, illustrate it, defend it against an objection and close it.

Unit 6 · Le pont vers C1

The first sight of the level above — the formal register, the noun-heavy written style, and the literary past you will read but never write.

Module 11 · Proficient User, module 1 of 5 — CEFR C1, first half

Unit 1 · Le registre — the written voice

Three registers for one idea, the noun-heavy written style, and the literary past you must read but never write.

Unit 2 · Le subjonctif, mastered

Every trigger, the irregular forms, the indicative contrast that changes meaning, and the subjonctif passé.

Unit 3 · L'hypothèse et le regret

The unreal past: si + plus-que-parfait with the conditionnel passé, reproach, regret, and the reported conditional of the press.

Unit 4 · La voix passive — et comment le français l'évite

The passive, and the four French escapes from it: on, the pronominal passive, se faire, and the causative faire.

Unit 5 · Rapporter et relier

Reported speech with its tense shift, the compound relatives lequel and dont-family, the gérondif, and the neutral relatives.

Unit 6 · Argumenter avec nuance

Concession, cause and consequence at full strength, reservation, figurative language, and the C1 written shapes.

Module 12 · Proficient User, module 2 of 5 — CEFR C1, completed

Unit 1 · La langue littéraire

The two tenses French writes and never speaks, met at length and only to be read — plus the classical narrative voice they belong to.

Unit 2 · L'accord du participe passé

The rule in full, including the preceding object and the pronominal verbs — the corner of French grammar where careful native writers still hesitate.

Unit 3 · La phrase soignée

Inversion after aussi and à peine, the expletive ne, the participial clause, and the punctuation that lets a long sentence stay readable.

Unit 4 · La presse et les institutions

The state, the law and the public argument — the vocabulary every French newspaper assumes you already have.

Unit 5 · Le vocabulaire abstrait

Register pairs, verbs that say exactly what a writer is doing, abstract nouns that carry an argument, and how to stop reaching for chose and faire.

Unit 6 · L'argumentation C1

Thesis, antithesis, synthesis — and the two tasks the DALF C1 is built on: the synthesis of documents and the argued essay.

Module 13 · Proficient User, module 3 of 5 — CEFR C2, first half

Unit 1 · La mise en relief

English stresses a word with the voice; French rebuilds the sentence around it. Four constructions that put the emphasis exactly where you want it.

Unit 2 · Les tournures impersonnelles

Il s'avère que, il convient de, force est de constater — the machinery for asserting something without standing behind it, and how to hear who is really speaking.

Unit 3 · Les connecteurs rares

The joints that have no English translation, starting with or — a word most learners never use and every French essay depends on.

Unit 4 · La pensée et l'éthique

The abstract vocabulary an educated argument runs on: premises and corollaries, duty and legitimacy, taste and form — without the jargon.

Unit 5 · Les figures de style

Irony, understatement, euphemism, metaphor and escalation — what a French reader hears that a dictionary cannot tell you.

Unit 6 · Lire la pensée des autres

The essay, the review and the editorial: following a mind through a long text, and reporting what it actually said.

Module 14 · Proficient User, module 4 of 5 — CEFR C2, continued

Unit 1 · Les niveaux de langue

The full range, from what is said in a café to what is said at a lectern — recognized, marked, and switched between on purpose.

Unit 2 · Les expressions figées

The phrases a French listener hears as a single word, and the one rule that matters: knowing when not to use them.

Unit 3 · La syntaxe complexe

The constructions written French uses to say more in fewer words — the infinitive clause, the aside, the ellipsis, and the order things go in.

Unit 4 · Les langages professionnels

Law, medicine, finance and technology: enough of each to read a document written for someone else.

Unit 5 · La nuance

False friends, the words French has that English lacks and the reverse, and the hardest thing to carry across: a tone.

Unit 6 · Écrire long

The report, the note de synthèse and the complex formal letter — plus the revision pass a long text cannot do without.

Module 15 · Proficient User, module 5 of 5 — CEFR C2 mastery — the capstone

Unit 1 · La synthèse de documents

The C2 examination's hardest task, taken apart: reading several texts as one, organizing by idea, and keeping yourself entirely out of it.

Unit 2 · Le point de vue argumenté

The essay where a position is not merely defended but earned — and where the counter-argument has to be the strongest version of itself.

Unit 3 · L'oral préparé

A case built on paper and delivered without it: structure, evidence, the answer to the question you hoped would not come, and the close.

Unit 4 · La maîtrise du registre

The whole scale, reviewed and put to work — the same content written four ways, for four readers.

Unit 5 · La grammaire de la précision

A last pass over the five things that still go wrong at this level, and the two-minute check that catches each of them.

Unit 6 · Le sommet

The end of the ladder: what a proficient user actually does next, and the honest account of what fifteen books of written practice can and cannot give you.

The say-it key

Every respelling in this course reads by these rows — plain English syllables, the stressed part in capitals.

Spelling	Say	Example
ou	oo	le loup — luh LOO
u	ew (round lips, say "ee")	tu — tew
oi	wah	trois — trwah
é	ay	l’été — lay-TAY
è / ê / ai	eh	la mère — lah MEHR
eu	uh	deux — duh
on	oh(n) — through the nose	bon — boh(n)
an / en	ah(n)	grand — grah(n)
in / ain	a(n)	le pain — luh pa(n)
ch	sh	le chat — luh SHAH
gn	ny	la montagne — lah moh(n)-TAHN-yuh
j / soft g	zh (as in vision)	je — zhuh

Lesson audio is computer-generated speech, made with the open-source Piper engine; the French voice is trained on the SIWIS speech corpus (CC BY 4.0). It is a practice aid, not a native speaker — imitate it loosely and it will serve you well.

Reading is the start — writing is the work

This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The French Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.

Keep the words alive

Frequently asked questions

Is this French course really free?

Yes. All 450 lessons are free to read, with the vocabulary, pronunciation respellings, grammar points, audio and printable flashcards included. The companion workbooks are separate paperbacks for the written half of the work — the course does not require them, and they do not require the course.

What level does this course cover?

The whole CEFR scale, one band per five modules: Modules 1–5 cover the Basic User band (A1 and A2), Modules 6–10 the Independent User band (B1 and B2), and Modules 11–15 the Proficient User band (C1 and C2). Each module page names its exact scope, such as "A1, first half", so you always know where a lesson sits on the ladder.

Is it for kids or for adults?

Both, on purpose. The lessons are readable by a school-age child working with a parent and are written to respect an adult working alone — universal topics, no baby talk. Beginners of any age start at Lesson 1 and set their own pace.

How do I learn the pronunciation?

Two ways, together. Every word carries a learner respelling — plain English syllables with the stressed part in capitals, like boh(n)-ZHOOR for bonjour, with (n) marking a nasal vowel said through your nose. And every lesson has a listen button that reads its words aloud twice each, so you can say them back in the gap. The voice is computer-generated speech.

New lessons and French workbook news, first

One email when the numbers change. Double opt-in, no spam, unsubscribe anytime.