French · Curriculum
The French curriculum, start to finish.
23 chapters, 283 lessons. A new band of the 2,000 most common words every hundred ranks, the grammar that turns those words into sentences woven in, and a graded reader closing each chapter that you can read using only what you have learned so far.
- 23
- Chapters
- 283
- Lessons
- 45
- Grammar primers
- 31
- Story milestones
A frequency-first French course for English speakers: master the 1000 highest-frequency words - about 80% of everyday speech - before you drown in grammar, then read your way up the CEFR ladder.
Is French hard, and how long does it take? Read first.
Is French hard for English speakers?
French is one of the more approachable languages for English speakers, though slightly harder than Spanish. The US Foreign Service Institute rates it Category I at roughly 600-750 class hours (around 30 weeks full-time) to working proficiency, and it is often cited as a touch tougher than Spanish because of its vowels and spelling. English borrowed vast amounts of vocabulary from French after 1066, so the shared word stock is enormous and reading comes quickly. The real work is pronunciation - nasal vowels, the French r, silent endings and liaison - rather than grammar.
How long does it take to reach conversational French?
Budget around 150-200 hours to A2, 350-450 hours to B1, and roughly 600-750 hours to a comfortable B2, the level most people call fluent. The payoff comes early if you learn words in frequency order: the first 1000 lemmas cover about 80% of everyday speech (Nation, 2006), so you understand the gist of most sentences well before you have finished the tenses. Reading graded French from the start compresses those timelines considerably.
What A1 to C1 actually mean in French
A1 is basic survival: present tense, greetings, numbers, simple questions. A2 brings the passe compose and imparfait and enough vocabulary for shops, travel and small talk. B1 is where conversation becomes real and you meet the subjunctive and conditional; B2 is where you follow fast native speech, argue a point and read a newspaper without a dictionary. C1 is near-native command of register, idiom and nuance, which is more than most learners need unless they study or work in French.
France French vs Quebec vs African French
All varieties of French are mutually intelligible in writing and, with a little ear-training, in speech. Metropolitan (France) French is the default most courses teach and the safest starting point. Quebec French keeps older vocabulary, a distinctive accent and its own idioms, and is fiercely protected, but educated speakers switch to standard forms with outsiders. Francophone Africa - the largest and fastest-growing group of French speakers - uses standard French grammar with regional vocabulary and accents; learn standard French and you will be understood across all of them.
What French apps get wrong
Gamified apps front-load charming but low-frequency nouns - owl, strawberry, elephant - while burying the function words and verbs that hold a French sentence together. This is the wrong order: the top 1000 lemmas carry roughly 80% of speech (Nation, 2006), yet words like pouvoir, falloir, dont and pendant often appear late so the streak counter keeps ticking. We sequence every chapter by corpus frequency and back it with comprehensible reading, so your hours convert into French you will genuinely encounter.
The chapters
What you can do when you finish
- Read the rank-2,000 graded reader at the end with no lookups - every content word is from the chapters you just worked through.
- Hold a present-and-past tense conversation: ask questions, talk about routines, narrate what happened yesterday.
- Hedge a request politely, follow everyday speech, and recognise the core grammar that turns vocabulary into sentences.
- Cover the 2,000 most frequent words - roughly 80% of everyday speech by the frequency curve.
French learning: common questions
Frequently asked
How many French words do I need to be fluent?
Around 3000-5000 words gives you everyday fluency. The first 1000 cover about 80% of spoken French (Nation, 2006), so they are by far the most valuable to learn first; 3000 words carries most conversation and 5000 lets you read comfortably. Chasing rarer vocabulary beyond that yields steadily less.
How long does it take to learn French?
The FSI figure is about 600-750 class hours to working proficiency, or roughly 30 weeks full-time. At an hour a day part-time, plan on around two years to a strong conversational B2, faster if you learn high-frequency words first and read graded texts early.
Is French or Spanish harder?
French is marginally harder for most beginners, though both sit in FSI Category I at 600-750 hours. French pronunciation - nasal vowels, silent letters, liaison - and its less phonetic spelling create more early friction than Spanish. French does share more vocabulary with English, so reading can feel easier once you are past the sound system.
Can I learn French in a year?
Yes, you can reach a solid B1-B2 in a year with an hour or more of daily practice and regular reading, which is enough to converse, travel and work casually. Native-level fluency in a year is not realistic. Spend the year on the top 2000-3000 words and heavy comprehensible input rather than grammar tables.
Do I need to learn genders in French?
Yes, every French noun is masculine or feminine and the gender changes the articles and adjective endings around it, so you cannot skip it. The trick is to learn each noun with its article (un/une, le/la) as a single chunk rather than memorising rules. You will still make mistakes for years, and native speakers will understand you anyway.
Why is French pronunciation so hard?
French pronunciation is hard because spelling and sound diverge: many final letters are silent, words link together through liaison, and it has nasal vowels and an uvular r that English lacks. The good news is the rules are consistent once learned, so pronunciation becomes predictable. Listening far more than you speak in the early months is the fastest fix.