The best resources to practice reading in French

Contrary to a popular myth, you don’t need to live in France to successfully learn French. The key is to expose yourself as much as possible to French, and to try to find ways to be totally immersed in it. In addition to honing your listening skills by doing things like watching French TV and listening to …

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A Guide to the accent aigu, accent grave and other French E’s

When you’re studying a language, it’s important to learn about words and culture, but what about individual letters?  The French language has an interesting relationship to some of them. French vowels, as you’ve probably noticed, are sometimes topped by accents. These can serve an important purpose, but sometimes…not so much. And while many French people …

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9 common ways to say “Good morning” in French

There’s no specific way to say “Good morning” in French – at least not in French spoken in France. This may seem especially surprising since the French are extremely polite and have a number of different ways of saying “Hello” and ways of saying “Goodbye” for particular situations and times of day.   It’s not that the …

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The Best French Podcasts to Listen to (And the Ones to Avoid)

Podcasts are very à la mode these days, which means you can find at least one covering just about any subject imaginable. Luckily, that includes learning French. Let’s look at the pros and cons of some of the best French learning podcasts, including some recommended by students of our conversational French course! We’ll also check …

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28 Ways to Say Yes in French | With Audio Pronunciation

If you spend some time in France or do a lot of reading or listening in French, you’ll notice that the French don’t always answer “oui” when you ask them a question. Instead, they might use the equivalent of “of course”, “yup” or “maybe”, or expressions like “Of course”, “I agree,” and “That’s it precisely.”  There’s …

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How to say happy birthday in French (and the mistakes to avoid)

There are some cultural details we take for granted. If you’ve ever celebrated classmates’ birthdays in your French class, or seen a French movie or TV show where there was a birthday (un anniversaire), you might think you’ve got French birthday traditions down pat. Then there may come a day when you’re invited to a …

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