I’ve started learning French. Here are some resources I found useful.

Also see my post on exploring Paris.

Listen

• Radio France, different radio stations and podcasts (e.g. France Inter, France Info or France Culture); for French-only music, see Fip - Sacré Français
• ByteFM program France, en confidance about French music, moderated in German

Read

Beginner-friendly books:

• The Petit Nicolas, a series of easy-to-read books with a sense of humour (some of it dated and stereotypical)
• L’Étranger by Albert Camus, relatively easy-to-read

I’ve also enjoyed reading a book and listening to the audio book at the same time.

Other books I enjoyed reading:

• Jacaranda by Gaël Faye, the 2024 winner of the Prix Renaudot (Le Book Club interview, L’interview de 9h20 podcast, Kwibuka song, Butare song)
• Rue des boutiques obscures by Patrick Modiano, 2014 winner of the Literature Nobel Prize
• [Triste Tigre] by Neige Sinno, 2023 winner of the Prix Femina and Prix Goncourt des Lycéens

When trying to pick a new book to read, I look at the recent winners of French literary awards, for example:

• Prix Goncourt (and Prix Goncourt des Lycéens)
• Prix Renaudot
• Prix Femina
• Le Grand Prix du roman de l’Académie française
• Le Prix Médicis
• Le Prix Interallié

That makes it easy to find related materials, like reviews, interviews, podcasts and audiobooks.

Watch

There are numerous excellent French films and series. Here are some I’ve enjoyed watching:

Series:

• Le Bureau des légendes
• Dix pour Cent
• Lupin
• Loups Garous, reality-TV game show for the Werewolf game

Films:

• Anatomie d’une Chute
• Le Monde du Silence
• Notre Corps
• Le Dîner de Cons
• Les Trois Frères
• La Vérité si je mens !

Study

Resources

• Anki vocab flashcards with the mobile app and this basic community deck, but nothing beats creating your own flashcards
• Leo trainer for words I look up and want to remember in my daily interactions
• Bescherelle grammar book, concise description of French grammar, without any exercises
• Bescherelle verb conjugation book
• kwiziq, online learning platform

Language courses

Mostly in Paris:

• Language courses by the Paris municipalty (website) – very cheap but high demand
• Conversation groups in Paris’ public libraries (website)
• https://latelier9.com/ – relatively cheap, small groups, very casual
• https://languageteams.com/ – Qualiopi-certified, relatively expensive
• https://www.alliancefr.org/en/

There is Qualiopi, a national quality certificate for organisations that teach or offer services related to professional development. In my case, choosing a Qualiop-certified school was a requirement for getting my language course reimbursed by my employer.

Complications

The French language has lots of concepts and rules that make it complicated, here are some I struggled with.

• h aspiré, which stops the usual vowel contraction and liaison
• additional pronous “y” and “en”, and some short expressions like “t’y peux rien” or “t’y es pour rien”
• passe compose with etre and avoir
• complément d’object direct (COD), complément d’object indirect (COI) and other related, but different compléments like complément de mesure

Interesting things

Some things I stumbled upon while learning French:

• fin de semaine –– the more logical version of weekend, used in Quebec, also not the same as fin de la semaine
• septante, huitante and nonante – the more logical forms of soixante-dix, quatre-vingts and quatre-vingts-dix
• talkie-walkie instead of walkie-talkie
• ne pas casser trois pattes à un canard