Learn French from English: The Full Course from A1 to C2

French, from your first bonjour to full fluency.

Evolang teaches French all the way to C2, the level of an educated native speaker, in speaking, listening, reading and writing. You already know thousands of French words: around a third of English vocabulary came from French. The challenge is the sound. French writes many letters it no longer says, and a few simple rules tell you which ones are silent. Try it on the right.

Your first French sentence, word by word

How most people introduce themselves. Choose a word to see what it means and why it is spelled and said the way it is.

Pronounced: bohn-ZHOOR! zhuh mah-PELL kleh-MAHNS eh zhuh swee duh LYOHN

“Hello! My name is Clémence and I’m from Lyon.”

This word Bonjour ! bohn-ZHOOR Bon (good) + jour (day). The polite greeting until evening. French puts a space before ! ? : and ;.

When silent letters wake up: liaison

A silent final consonant is pronounced again when the next word starts with a vowel sound. This is called liaison (lee-eh-ZOHN), French for “link”. It is why spoken French flows without gaps. An s or x links with a “z” sound.

Liaison is what lets a listener hear the plural. Le livre and les livres differ only in the article’s vowel, but les amis carries a clear “z”.

The French you already know

After the Norman Conquest of 1066, French was the language of England’s court and law for about three centuries. English absorbed thousands of French words, often for more formal or refined ideas. Many still match the modern French word through regular spelling patterns.

-ty → -té liberty → liberté, city → cité, quality → qualité

-tion → -tion nation, station, information: same spelling, French sound

-ous → -eux famous → fameux, nervous → nerveux, curious → curieux

-ly → -ment rapidly → rapidement, really → réellement

s + consonant → ê / é forest → forêt, hospital → hôpital, school → école

-ist → -iste artist → artiste, tourist → touriste

Watch for false friends: words that look alike but mean different things. Actuellement means “currently”, not “actually”; une librairie is a bookshop, not a library. The language comparisons guide sets French beside other languages English speakers learn.

The course map, A1 to C2

The course follows the six CEFR levels, the scale used by the official DELF and DALF exams. Each level lists what you will be able to do, then its lessons.

BeginnerIntroduce yourself, ask simple questions, read short notices.

Alphabet and accentsé, è, ê, ç and the rest PronunciationNasal vowels, the French r, u Silent letters and liaisonWhat to say and what not to Le, la, lesGender and articles The present tenseêtre, avoir and -er verbs NumbersIncluding soixante-dix Core vocabularyThe first words to learn FamilyAround the Sunday table The homeRooms, chez moi, flat adverts WeatherIl fait beau, il pleut The cityAu marché, à la gare, the métro Clothes and coloursUne robe bleue, je fais du 38 ShoppingJe voudrais, du and de Time and datesMoins le quart, le 14 juillet Everyday phrasesbonjour, bonsoir, du coup Verb tables25 verbs in seven tenses The bodyLa tête, j’ai mal au dos Coloursvert, verte, marron Possessivesmon, ma, mes, son or sa Hobbies and sportjouer au, jouer du, faire du Plurals-s, -x, -aux Adjectivesaccord, BAGS Adverbs-ment, bien, beaucoup Subject pronounsje, tu, vous, on, moi

ElementaryTalk about your routine and past events, shop, travel, make plans.

The passé composéavoir or être The imperfectDescription in the past Negationne … pas, ne … jamais QuestionsThree ways to ask Food and drinkOrdering in a café TravelTrains, hotels, directions HealthJ’ai mal à la tête, la pharmacie WorkElle est avocate, Cordialement FeelingsJe suis contente, j’ai peur SchoolCP to terminale, notes sur 20 NatureÀ la montagne, fleuve, randonnée Comparativesplus que, meilleur, mieux Reflexive verbsje m’appelle, elle s’est levée The imperativemange !, allons-y !, donne-le-moi Object pronounsle, la, lui, leur Holidays14 juillet, galette, réveillon Food cultureL’apéro, fromage, table manners Regions of FranceL’Hexagone, départements, Bretons NamesPrénoms, Madame, Jean-Pierre Vocabulary practice12 drills with audio Technologyun mail, l’ordi, arobase Sportjouer au foot, le Tour Punctuationespace avant ! ?, « »Intonationgroupes rythmiques, ?

IntermediateGive opinions with reasons, follow clear speech, write connected text.

Pronouns y and enJ’y vais, j’en veux The future and conditionalJe ferai, je ferais The subjunctiveIl faut que…Relative pronounsqui, que, dont, où Graded readingTexts from A1 to C1 ListeningHearing past the silent letters The gerunden marchant, en faisant HumourCalembours, second degré, mdr False friendsLibrairie, actuellement, attendre Confusing wordsjour or journée, a or à Media and newsla une, le JT, serait Sciencechercheur, expérience Money and the economybudget, brut, net, TVA Politicsl’Élysée, le second tour Business Frenchvouvoiement, la réunion Word formation-tion, -ment, re-

Upper intermediateTalk fluently with native speakers, follow news and films, write essays.

Past tenses togetherPassé composé, imperfect, pluperfect The passiveÊtre + participle Connectorscependant, pourtant, donc RegisterTu and vous, spoken and written IdiomsEveryday expressions Writing practiceLetters and essays Speaking practiceRole-plays and shadowing Reported speechelle a dit qu’elle était…Slang and verlanouf, meuf, le boulot, mdr Idioms, part 2avoir la flemme, proverbes Lawtribunal, porter plainte Academic Frenchla dissertation, cependant

AdvancedUse French at work and university, understand demanding texts.

The passé simpleThe literary past NominalisationFormal written style Spoken FrenchWhat people really say LiteratureMolière to today ExamsDELF and DALF Advanced readingThree C1–C2 extracts, annotated

MasteryUnderstand virtually everything; express fine shades of meaning.

The francophone worldAccents and vocabulary Regional FrenchQuebec, Belgium, Switzerland Style and rhetoricWriting with precision Advanced listeningFast speech, slang, verlan Advanced writingReports and arguments

A language of five continents

French is an official language in around 29 countries, and more than 300 million people speak it. Most French speakers now live in Africa. All varieties share one written standard; the sound and some everyday words change from place to place.

English	France	Quebec	Belgium, Switzerland	West Africa
breakfast	le petit-déjeuner	le déjeuner	le déjeuner	le petit-déjeuner
lunch	le déjeuner	le dîner	le dîner	le déjeuner
seventy	soixante-dix	soixante-dix	septante	soixante-dix
weekend	le week-end	la fin de semaine	le week-end	le week-end

France counts “seventy” as soixante-dix (sixty-ten) and “ninety” as quatre-vingt-dix (four-twenty-ten); Belgium and Switzerland use the simpler septante and nonante.