How to Learn French as a Beginner: Where to Start

October 2026  ·  10 min read

French is one of the most approachable languages for English speakers. A large share of English vocabulary came from French after 1066, so words like important, restaurant, question and possible are spelled the same in both languages. The US Foreign Service Institute puts French in its easiest group for English speakers, with an estimate of around 600 to 750 class hours to reach professional working proficiency.

The catch is that French does not sound the way it looks. This guide gives you the order that works: sounds first, then gender, then four verbs that unlock most beginner sentences, then the past tenses, with real listening running alongside everything. It ends with a 12-week plan you can follow from zero.

Where should a complete beginner start with French?

Start with your ears and mouth, not a grammar book. In your first two weeks, aim to do three things: learn how French spelling maps to sound, get comfortable with the handful of sounds English does not have, and memorise about 100 high-frequency words and phrases (greetings, numbers 1 to 20, days, je voudrais, il y a, c'est).

A sensible first-month routine is 30 to 45 minutes a day split three ways:

• 10 to 15 minutes of structured lessons covering one grammar point and a small vocabulary set.
• 10 to 15 minutes of listening to beginner material, with a transcript where possible.
• 10 to 15 minutes of speaking aloud: repeating audio, reading dialogues out loud, or describing your day in simple sentences.

How do you pronounce French correctly as a beginner?

French pronunciation has a small number of rules that cover most words. Learn these early and reading aloud becomes predictable.

• Final consonants are usually silent. Petit, grand, Paris and beaucoup all end in a vowel sound. Exceptions are often words ending in c, r, f or l ("CaReFuL"): avec, bonjour, neuf, il. The -er verb ending is the big exception to the exception: parler ends in an "ay" sound.
• The final -e is usually silent, but it makes the consonant before it pronounced. That is why petit ends in a vowel sound and petite ends in a clear "t".
• Nasal vowels. French has nasal vowels spelled an/en (enfant), on (bon) and in/un (vin, un). The n is not pronounced; the air goes through your nose.
• u versus ou. Tu (you) and tout (all) are different words. For u, say "ee" while rounding your lips tightly. This is the sound beginners most often get wrong.
• The French r is made at the back of the throat, close to a soft gargle. It does not need to be perfect to be understood.

What is liaison in French, and when do you use it?

Liaison is when a normally silent final consonant is pronounced because the next word starts with a vowel or a silent h. Les on its own sounds like "lay", but les amis sounds like "lay-zah-mee". The s becomes a z sound and links the two words.

Liaisons are required, optional or forbidden. Learn the required and forbidden ones first:

• Required: after articles and determiners (les enfants, un ami, mes amis), after subject pronouns before a verb (nous avons, ils ont, vous êtes), and after short adjectives before a noun (petit enfant).
• Forbidden: after et (and), so un homme et une femme has no link after et; and after a singular noun, so un enfant intelligent does not link.

Ils ont (they have, with a z sound) and ils sont (they are, with an s sound) differ only by that linking sound, so train your ear on pairs like these early.

How do you learn whether a French noun is masculine or feminine?

Every French noun is either masculine or feminine, and the gender changes the article, the adjectives and sometimes the past participle.

1. Always learn nouns with an article. Do not learn "table"; learn la table. Do not learn "livre"; learn le livre.
2. Use un or une for words that start with a vowel. L'arbre hides the gender, so note it as un arbre (masculine).
3. Learn the ending patterns. They are tendencies, not guarantees.

These endings are a good place to start:

Which French verbs should a beginner learn first?

Four irregular verbs do a remarkable amount of work in French: être (to be), avoir (to have), aller (to go) and faire (to do or make). They build the past and future tenses and cover many expressions where English uses a different verb. Learn their present tense by heart in your first three weeks.

• Être describes identity, nationality, jobs and location: Je suis anglais, Elle est médecin, Nous sommes à Lyon. It is also the helper verb for some past-tense verbs.
• Avoir is used for age and many physical states where English uses "to be": J'ai 30 ans (I am 30), j'ai faim (I am hungry), j'ai froid (I am cold). It is the helper verb for most past-tense verbs.
• Aller gives you the near future with no new conjugations: aller + infinitive. Je vais manger means "I'm going to eat". Beginners can talk about plans in week three.
• Faire covers weather and activities: Il fait beau (it's nice weather), faire les courses (to do the shopping), faire du sport (to do sport).

Alongside these, learn the regular -er pattern using parler (je parle, tu parles, il parle, nous parlons, vous parlez, ils parlent). Four of the six forms sound identical, so spoken -er verbs are easier than the spelling suggests.

When should you learn the passé composé and the imparfait?

Learn the passé composé first, around weeks 6 to 7, once the present tense of your core verbs is automatic. Add the imparfait a couple of weeks later, then spend time on how the two work together.

The passé composé is formed with the present tense of avoir or être plus a past participle: j'ai mangé (I ate / I have eaten), elle est partie (she left). A short list of mainly movement and change-of-state verbs (aller, venir, arriver, partir, naître, mourir and a few others), plus all reflexive verbs, use être, and their participle agrees with the subject.

The imparfait is built from the nous form of the present tense: drop -ons and add -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient. Nous parlons gives je parlais. The only irregular stem is être, which becomes ét- (j'étais).

The simplest way to keep them apart:

• Passé composé = what happened. Completed actions and events with a clear start or end: Hier, j'ai vu Marie.
• Imparfait = what was going on. Background, descriptions, feelings and habits in the past: Il faisait froid, Quand j'étais petit, je jouais au foot.

One sentence often holds both: Il pleuvait quand je suis arrivé (It was raining when I arrived). The rain is the background; the arrival is the event.

How do you get used to hearing real French?

Real French is fast, and spoken French drops sounds that textbooks keep. In everyday speech, je ne sais pas often becomes something like "chais pas", and ne regularly disappears from negatives altogether.

Work through listening in three stages:

1. Weeks 1 to 4: learner audio with transcripts. Short dialogues from your course, plus beginner material such as TV5Monde's free Apprendre le français resources. Listen, read the transcript, then listen again without it.
2. Weeks 5 to 8: slowed-down real content. RFI's Journal en français facile is a daily news bulletin in simplified French with transcripts. Podcasts made for learners, such as InnerFrench or Français Authentique, use natural French at a gentler pace.
3. Weeks 9 to 12: native content with support. French series such as Dix pour cent (Call My Agent!) or Lupin, with French subtitles rather than English ones.

Shadowing is the most useful listening exercise for beginners: play a sentence, pause, and repeat it aloud matching the rhythm, liaisons and intonation as closely as you can. For more ideas, see how to practise speaking a language alone.

What does a 12-week French plan for beginners look like?

This plan assumes about 30 to 45 minutes a day, five or six days a week. By the end, a consistent learner should be working solidly within A1 and starting on A2 on the CEFR scale: able to introduce themselves, handle everyday situations, talk about plans and tell a simple story about the past. For what each level means in practice, see the French CEFR levels guide.

A typical day in weeks 5 to 8: 15 minutes on a new grammar point, 10 minutes of vocabulary flashcards, 10 minutes of the news bulletin, then 5 to 10 minutes describing your day aloud. For flashcards, see the best way to learn vocabulary.

If you prefer structure done for you, Derstina's French path follows the same sounds-first, core-verbs-early order, with interactive lessons, games and conversation practice with native voices.

What mistakes should French beginners avoid?

Run through this checklist at the end of each week:

• Are you learning every noun with le, la, un or une, not on its own?
• Are you saying French out loud every day, not only reading it?
• Can you conjugate être, avoir, aller and faire in the present without hesitating?
• Are you listening to some French daily, even if it is only ten minutes?
• Are you avoiding word-for-word translation, for example saying j'ai faim rather than "je suis faim"?

The biggest mistake is waiting until you feel "ready" to speak. Comfort comes from speaking, not before it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to learn French as a beginner?

The US Foreign Service Institute estimates around 600 to 750 class hours for an English speaker to reach professional working proficiency in French. Reaching a solid A1 to early A2 level, enough for everyday conversations, takes most learners about three months at 30 to 45 minutes a day.

Is French hard to learn for English speakers?

French is one of the easier languages for English speakers because thousands of words are shared or very similar. The harder parts are pronunciation, since spelling does not match sound directly, and grammatical gender.

Should I learn French grammar or vocabulary first?

Learn them together, but start with pronunciation and a core vocabulary of around 100 high-frequency words and phrases. Then introduce grammar in small pieces, beginning with articles and the present tense of être, avoir, aller and faire.

Do I need to learn French liaison straight away?

Learn the required liaisons early, especially after articles such as les and un and after pronouns such as nous, vous and ils. These affect both understanding and how natural you sound, for example the difference between ils ont and ils sont. Optional liaisons can wait.

What is the difference between the passé composé and the imparfait?

The passé composé describes completed actions and events, such as j'ai mangé (I ate). The imparfait describes background, ongoing situations, descriptions and habits in the past, such as il faisait beau (the weather was nice). In a story, the imparfait sets the scene and the passé composé moves the action forward.

Can I learn French on my own without a teacher?

Yes, you can reach a good beginner level on your own with structured lessons, daily listening and regular speaking practice. The hardest parts to self-teach are pronunciation and conversation, so record yourself, shadow native audio and look for chances to speak with real people.