48 Great Resources to Help You Learn French

A no-nonsense overview of the best apps, video courses, and audio courses

I’ve been learning languages for over a decade, and with every new language and level of proficiency, I find myself researching relevant learning resources and tools. When I started learning French about a year ago, the cycle repeated again — searching, reading reviews, testing, and writing notes to keep track of everything.

With so many options and differing opinions out there, this process is quite overwhelming and time-consuming. To simplify things, I’ve taken all the French resources that experts and learners usually recommend, and collected them in one place, along with some key details like level, format, and price.

How this list works

All resources are divided into three categories: apps, video lessons, and audio lessons. They are roughly ordered from beginner-level to more advanced, and from more cohesive and course-like to more disjointed.

There are no bad resources on this list. Every tool and course here is loved and recommended by many because they resonated with those people on some level. That doesn’t necessarily mean they will resonate with you. Pick a resource you like and can see yourself sticking with for a long time, and give it a try. If it works — great; if not, there are plenty of other options. As good as these tools are, no single tool is perfect, and not everything works for everyone.

I tried to include as many free options as possible, but like with most things in life, “free” often means “not the best.” That’s why, even if a tool or course doesn’t cost anything, it usually has a paid version that is more comprehensive and better overall. I didn’t cover the paid alternatives for the sake of brevity, but generally speaking, if you find a good free learning tool, there’s a 90% chance its creator offers a premium version. If you buy it, you’ll not only get a more complete product but also earn some good karma for supporting the people creating free useful educational resources.

Disclosure: I’m a co-founder of Lilata. It’s an awesome French app for beginners. If I were you, I’d give it a try, but it’s okay if you don’t want to. There are 47 other resources on the list, and they’re pretty good too.

Apps

Lilata
A well-balanced app for beginners that teaches practical, conversational French. The course is sprinkled with humor, cultural tidbits, and bite-sized grammar and uses a progressive spaced repetition system. That said, Lilata isn’t the best choice for more advanced learners and requires a good internet connection. It’s a paid app with a free trial.

Babbel
A comprehensive app that covers grammar, vocabulary, and practical conversation skills. Babbel gives you a solid base in real-life scenarios but can feel a bit dry and classroom-like. The app is paid, with a free trial.

Busuu
Another fairly comprehensive app covering a bit of everything. It allows you to connect with other language learners and features videos of native speakers. The learning process is a little too simplified, and feedback from the community varies in quality. It’s a paid app with a somewhat limited free version.

Rosetta Stone
An old-school app that teaches French through images and context, without translations. It’s not the best choice for your main learning tool, as not much is explicitly explained, but it’s loved by many for offering a more direct and natural way of learning the language compared to translation-based methods. The app is paid and quite expensive.

Lingodeer
A well-balanced app covering all language skills with a particular emphasis on speaking and detailed grammar explanations. It doesn’t teach as much vocabulary as other apps and doesn’t focus on reviewing past lessons, although you can still do optional review sessions. It’s a paid product with a free trial.

Duolingo
A popular app for beginners with fun, gamified lessons. Its main advantages are that it’s very easy and mostly free (with ads). However, the lessons are shallow and repetitive, with little explanation of how the language actually works. Some users find the gamification excessive.

Memrise
A fun app for building vocabulary through spaced repetition and videos of native speakers. It’s not strong in other areas, so it won’t give you a deep understanding of the language or conversational skills. The app is mostly free with paid upgrades.

Anki
A flashcard app that uses spaced repetition to help you memorize vocabulary long-term. It’s highly customizable but can be tricky to use. The Android and web versions are free; the iOS app costs a small one-time fee.

Clozemaster
A unique-looking app that teaches vocabulary in context through fill-in-the-blank exercises. It can be a good tool for intermediate learners, but it gets repetitive over time and doesn’t teach much beyond vocabulary. The app is mostly free, but you’ll have to pay for additional features.

Wlingua
A comprehensive app with an emphasis on grammar. It’s thorough but doesn’t allow much speaking practice, the lessons feel dry and quite challenging. There’s a free version, with extra features available in the paid plan.

Pimsleur
An old listen-and-repeat style product focused on improving comprehension and speaking skills. It doesn’t offer much in the way of reading or writing practice. The lessons are effective at helping you to overcome the fear of speaking in real-life scenarios, but they are slow-paced, with a lot of repetition. It’s a paid and relatively expensive app.

Language Transfer
A basic free app built around an audio course that focuses on understanding the logic and structure of French. It’s somewhat similar to Pimsleur but much less dry and repetitive. The course is great for quickly grasping the basics, but it’s short and covers little vocabulary.

LingQ
An app that builds vocabulary and comprehension through French articles, books, and podcasts. You choose content, listen to the audio with a transcript, save new words, and review them later via flashcards. LingQ doesn’t offer much in the way of grammar, speaking, or writing. It’s a paid app for people who already know some French.

LingoPie
An app that teaches French through authentic TV shows and movies with subtitles. It’s great for improving listening skills and vocabulary, but it lacks structured lessons. LingoPie isn’t for beginners and is rather expensive.

FluentU
An app similar to LingoPie. The content library is different, everything else is more or less the same. The app is paid and expensive.

TV5Monde
A free alternative to LingoPie and FluentU from the French TV channel TV5Monde.

HelloTalk
This app connects you with native speakers for real-life language practice through text, voice, and video chats. You need to speak French fairly confidently already to benefit from it, and be ready for uneven partner quality. The basic version is free but limited.

Tandem
An alternative to HelloTalk with similar features and user experience.

Frantastique
A one-of-a-kind app that mixes quirky humor, storytelling, and French culture. It’s a great resource for early intermediate learners, though the unusual style may not suit everyone, and it’s on the pricier side.

YouTube channels and courses

Learn French With Alexa
This YouTube channel offers a ton of lessons for beginners and early intermediate learners taught in a fun and approachable way. It features both cohesive courses available as playlists and standalone videos on various topics.

Learn French with Vincent
A popular channel offering a massive library of lessons assembled into courses. The content covers everything from basic vocabulary and grammar to advanced topics. Vincent’s teaching style is serious and thorough but can feel a bit monotonous.

The perfect French with Dylane
A channel offering detailed courses on grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary for beginners and intermediate learners. The content is quite thorough, especially when it comes to grammar, but can feel a bit dry. There are supplementary textbooks available for purchase.

FrenchPod101
A channel offering a wide range of lessons primarily for early-level French learners. FrenchPod101 features different hosts with different teaching styles, covers all possible topics, and offers loosely coherent courses.

Comme une Française
A channel offering practical and culturally-rich French lessons, primarily aimed at beginners and intermediate learners. The lessons focus on real-life French usage, covering slang, expressions, and cultural nuances. There are no cohesive courses available.

Coffee Break French
This channel offers simple French lessons designed to fit into a coffee break. It’s podcast-based and half of the videos don’t have any visuals, while the other half have two people talking in a studio. They have a very good beginner course, but it’s audio only.

Français avec Pierre
A fully French channel offering lessons that blend grammar explanations, vocabulary building, and cultural insights. A lot of the content is structured into proper courses. Pierre’s teaching style is both academic and fun.

French Mornings With Elisa
A popular channel with a likable host. The content is completely in slow-ish French and primarily aimed at intermediate learners. There are no proper courses on the channel, all videos are unrelated and cover a host of different topics.

Français Authentique
One of the oldest YouTube channels offering lessons entirely in French, focusing on helping intermediate learners understand and speak the language naturally. There are some playlists on the channel, but it’s hard to call them courses, as the lessons are very loosely related and cover a lot of different topics.

Français avec Fred
A channel for intermediate and advanced learners, offering lessons entirely in slow, clear French. Fred dives into practical language tips and detailed grammar topics while keeping the content engaging and easy to follow. There are no full courses though.

InnerFrench
A podcast-based channel aimed at intermediate learners, offering long-form lessons that help improve comprehension through natural, slow French. The content focuses on interesting cultural and social topics, without overwhelming you with grammar. The channel doesn’t offer traditional courses.

Easy French
A YouTube series featuring street interviews with native French speakers on various topics. They will help you practice listening and pick up natural expressions if you can already understand native speakers relatively well. There are useful playlists on the channel, but they aren’t structured courses. Subtitles in both French and English make it easier to follow along.

French Comprehensible Input
A channel that helps learners grasp French through comprehensible input, a method that focuses on understanding and intuition instead of memorization and explicit rules. The host tells stories in French using simple language, gestures, and images, making the content accessible to everyone. The playlists nicely group the lessons by level.

Alice Ayel
Another channel that teaches French through storytelling. It’s quite similar to French Comprehensible Input but with a different host and vibe.

French in Action
A classic free course that teaches French through full immersion. It’s not a YouTube channel per se but can be easily found on YouTube. The series covers a range of topics and is supposedly intended for beginners. However, if you know little French, it will be hard to understand anything as the course is almost entirely in French.

Podcasts and audio courses

Learn French by Podcast
This podcast offers a cohesive French course for beginners and early intermediate learners, focusing on practical language use. Each episode begins with a French dialogue, followed by clear explanations of key vocabulary, grammar, and usage. It has a good balance between English instructions and French examples.
Spotify, Apple Podcasts

Coffee Break French
A popular podcast/course divided into four seasons, each targeting different levels, from beginners to advanced learners. The lessons introduce a topic, followed by a conversation, and an explanation of the vocabulary, grammar, and cultural nuances involved. The content is mostly in English, which can be good or bad depending on where you are in your language journey.
Spotify, Apple Podcasts

Learn French with Paul Noble
An audio course that quickly gets you started in French, focusing on understanding rather than memorizing rules and vocabulary. The course is divided into two parts: one for beginners and another for early intermediate learners. Paul’s teaching style is calming and stress-free, complemented by a French speaker providing pronunciation examples. It’s a paid course but quite affordable.
Learn French for Beginners: Spotify, Apple Books
Next Steps in French: Spotify, Apple Books

Language Transfer
A free, beginner-level course that emphasizes understanding the structure of French, similarly to Paul Noble’s course. It’s a short, easy-to-follow course mimicking a classroom. Language Transfer is great for building a strong foundation quickly, but it doesn’t go deep and doesn’t cover much vocabulary.
YouTube, SoundCloud

Michel Thomas Method
The grandad of intuitive, natural language learning methods, from which Language Transfer and Paul Noble evolved. There are several courses under the Michel Thomas umbrella for all proficiency levels and all of them cost quite a bit. While many people value these courses, others find them not learner-friendly, somewhat outdated, and lacking native pronunciation examples.
Foundation French: Spotify, Apple Books
Intermediate French: Spotify, Apple Books
Vocabulary: Spotify, Apple Books
Insider’s French: Spotify, Apple Books

French Made Easy
A beginner-friendly podcast offering compact step-by-step lessons covering all traditional, important topics. The lessons are mostly in English and focused on speaking. They are very simple and easy to follow.
Spotify, Apple Podcasts

French Easy Learning
An affordable audio course geared towards travelers. It focuses on listening and speaking in tourism-related situations without diving deep into how the language works. It’s great if you need to quickly prepare for a trip but a bit too basic for more serious learners.
Spotify, Apple Books

Learn French With Alexa
A free course offering great lessons for beginners, covering various aspects of French language and culture. It feels very similar to Alexa’s Youtube videos and it’s a great introduction to learning French, though the number of lessons is relatively small.
Spotify, Apple Podcasts

InnerFrench
A free-form podcast for intermediate learners designed to build comprehension skills and vocabulary. Each 30-minute episode covers various topics, from French culture to personal insights. The host speaks in clear slow-ish French making it easier to follow. In addition, you can find full transcripts on the InnerFrench website.
Spotify, Apple Podcasts

News in Slow French
This podcast’s name says it all. It offers short weekly episodes designed to help intermediate learners transition into genuine content for native speakers. The official site provides transcripts for each episode.
Spotify, Apple Podcasts

Learn French by Dailyfrenchpod
Another podcast offering short, news- and story-based lessons. Primarily in French.
Spotify, Apple Podcasts

Journal en français facile
One more news-based podcast, this time produced by Radio France Internationale. It’s a bit more advanced than the previous two and is updated more frequently.
Spotify, Apple Podcasts

The FSI French Courses
Developed for diplomats in the 70s, these free courses focus on building language proficiency through detailed lessons and drills. They are demanding and repetitive but highly effective for serious learners. The two most popular courses are Introduction to French Phonology (speaking course) and French Basic Course (comprehensive beginner course). There are a few fan sites hosting the audio files, along with supplementary textbooks and exercises.

Learn French in Your Car
A free repetition-based course that teaches practical words and phrases. It doesn’t explain any grammar and doesn’t teach you how to build sentences, so it’s better to use it as a supplementary resource with some other tools.
Spotify: Level 1, Level 2, Level 3
Youtube: Level 1, Level 2, Level 3

Don’t agree with this list? Want to add something to it? Leave a comment and it might change.