How to Learn French Fast and Easy

Make learning French fast and easy.

More people study French as a second language than any other language except English, according to Richard Shryock of Virginia Tech. Although you could spend years and years profitably studying French, you can learn French faster. Take advantage of the close relationship between French and English vocabulary and establish efficient study habits, so learning French becomes fast and easy for you.

Things You'll Need

• French audio courses
• French software courses
• French music CDs
• French videos
• French magazines

Instructions

1. Decide how much French you want to learn and how you will learn it. You need to focus your learning to learn fast. Decide to concentrate on French for travel, French for business or French for health care, for example. Select classes or home-study courses relevant to your needs.

2. Sign up for classes and purchase your study materials. For quickest learning, take immersion classes in a French-speaking country. If you cannot afford this, find classes and purchase materials that emphasize conversation and speaking over writing and grammar. Then you will learn the basics faster.

3. Use at least two different study methods to speed up your learning. For example, take a class and do a home study course at the same time or purchase two basic home study courses. If you are studying alone, make sure your courses have a good audio component.

4. Learn vocabulary faster by studying systematically. Learn first the words that are similar to English. These words, called "cognates," have the same or similar spelling. Many have different endings in English and French, such as "doctor" and "docteur." Find lists of these in many textbooks. Arthur H. Charles, Jr., author of "How to Learn a Foreign Language," suggests also learning related words such as synonyms or different parts of speech sharing the same root such as "bon" and "bonheur."

5. Learn grammar faster by concentrating on the basics. You can express most ideas with only three tenses, past, present, and future. Learn the present tense and past participle of verbs. The past participle means the English form "spoken" or French "parlé." Be sure to master the present tense of the helping verbs "être," "avoir" and "aller." Then you can form the compound past using "être" and "avoir" and the future with "aller." The future with "aller" is similar to the English future with "going to."

6. Practice extra listening in addition to your formal study. Listen to French music in your car, watch French movies or DVDs and watch French television on your computer. Find media you enjoy, so you spend more time and create your own immersion program.

7. 

   Read French magazines for fun.

   Practice extra reading in French for fun. In the beginning, you will need easy materials. Arthur H. Charles suggests reading picture magazines, such as "Paris Match" and comic books, at the beginning.

8. Get conversation practice outside of class. Join the French club at school or a community group that uses French. Play French board games, have sing-alongs and take part in activities you enjoy with your practice group. If you have fun with French and immerse yourself, you will learn faster and more easily.

References

• Virginia Tech: French The Most Practical Foreign Language
• S.D. Krashen: What Does it Take to Acquire Language?
• "How to Learn a Foreign Language"; Arthur H. Charles, Jr.; 1994

Resources

• French Institute: Alliance Française of New York
• French Television: TF1