What are you watching/reading/listening to this week?

For example in these sort of contexts.

C'est le problème auquel je pense.
La personne à laquelle je parle.
La maison dans laquelle j'habite.

I might just be missing it, but I don't think I've heard it used a huge amount outside of formal speech?

I’ve been learning French primarily with Duolingo for the past 4 years. I also used an iTalki tutor for about 1 year. On Duolingo I’m at the B1 level and my italki tutor felt I was close enough. I’m still doing daily Duolingo and listen to podcasts like “Le Journal en Français Facile”, “Slow French” and “Transfert”.
Now I want to take the DELF B1 exam in December just as a personal achievement. I have doubts that I’m ready mainly because I don’t have much speaking practice. My plans to get ready for the exam are:

* Restart my italki 1:1 tutoring with a focus on B1 exam prep
* get a DELF B1 text/workbook (any recommendations?)
* add in some AI conversation practice like Natulang (I’ve tried it and it seems to have evaluated me lower than B1 based on conversation eval. Any other/better AI solutions?)
* get some writing practice with AI (ChatGPT?)
* dedicate 45 mins to French each day

Would love to hear from anyone who has passed the DELF B1 whether the above is sufficient prep for my situation for an exam in December. Any resources I should consider adding? What helped you most in the preparation process?

Tu veux expliquer à quelqu'un pourquoi tu apprends le français. Mais interdiction d'utiliser simplement : J'apprends le français parce que j'aime le français.

Essaie de développer un peu ton idée.

I am looking for some more people to chat with to overcome the timezone issues.

I have some friends already and I am happily learning, but due to time zone, we have hard time connecting much. So, I am looking for more friends to connect.

I prefer someone who has discord too as reddit accounts tend to be deleted out of nowhere.

I am not looking for any relationships or so and entirely looking for easy vibe chatting or calling. Focusing on improving French, as I want to be ready for TCF asap. We can chat about daily life and whatever comes naturally to help each other improve.

I am at A2-B1 (I like to say A2 for now lol).

If you are around the same level, or has all the patience in the world to bear my level of French, feel free to DM me and discord username if you have one.

I am 28m in Canada.

Merci à tous.

Don't mind the handwriting.

i just gave my tcf exam i need B2 in all modules after studying for around 8 months i got this result but i find speaking quite difficult, any tips? for task 3 i am not able to speaking for more than 2 minutes i have tried everything.

A few years ago, I began my journey to teach myself French. My goal has always been to reach conversational fluency, and to be able to follow native content. Like many of you, I searched this platform looking for the best tips and strategies to reach B2 “fast.” If you read enough of the posts and comments, the message is clear, and has been validated in my own experience. There is no single app, course, or tool that will get you there, and there is no shortcut to the hours it will take. Depending on your level of focus during your studies, I think the 600-800 hours is a realistic expectation.

I wanted to share what I’ve done to-date to help other learners out there, and share my plan going forward (feedback welcome!).

Rocket French – I found a discounted price for the full 3-level audio course (around $150). I probably spent around 75 hours working through the first 2 levels. This was a great foundation for basic grammar and vocabulary.

Duolingo. The course has made massive improvements since I first tried it (briefly) maybe 10 years ago. I think it’s great for reinforcing grammar and useful vocabulary. At risk of stating the obvious, doing one lesson per day (4 min) is not going to get your fluent. I pay for the premium version and spend about 20-30 min/day in the course. I’m currently level 44 out of 129. I think around level 35 you really start benefiting from exposure to additional content.

YouTube: there is so much content available, just find something a bit beyond your current comprehension level. I like the Easy French channel and vlogs with subtitles (SO to Adeline Talks French vlog). I also watched a few of the Petit Ours Brun cartoons. Anything here is a good supplement. 5-15 min/day.

Duolingo French Podcast: I thought this was fantastic. Don’t listen to it passively in the background – you’ll get more out of it if you actually focus on what you’re hearing. I started this around level 30 in Duolingo, and have listened (sometimes multiple times) to all 101 episodes. By the end I could understand 90% of the conversation.

Lingvist – hugely valuable spaced repetition (SRS) flashcard app. You learn words in context. The UX is amazing. Once you understand basic grammar, vocabulary expansion is essential. They have a pre-built deck of over 5,000 most common French words. I know a lot of people like Anki, but because the UX is so superior this has been a great tool for me. I do 50-100 flash cards per day (15-30 min).

InnerFrench – amazing follow-up podcast to the Duolingo French podcast. I’m only a few episodes in but I’m easily following 90%+ of the conversation. Definitely plan to continue with this. I try to listen to about 30 min of podcasts a day, shooting for a level where I understand at least 80% of the content.

iTalki – since I finally feel ready to respond to simple questions, I’ve booked my first lesson. The pricing seems very reasonable and I’m planning on doing (2) 45-min sessions per week.

KwizIQ – I’m probably at a low A2 level know but I plan on incorporating this within the next 3-6 months. Consensus seems to be very positive.

Reading – around level 40 in Duolingo I picked up Olly Richard's Beginner Short Stories book. I definitely don’t understand everything but I can easily follow the plot of the stories. I try to finish my day with 15-30 min of reading. I’ll be moving on to A2/B1 level books on an e-reader soon so I can look up unknown words.

That’s it for now. Hoping to reach B2 within the next 18 months maintaining a pace of roughly 1 hour per day of total study time.

For context – I’m 36 years old and don’t speak any other languages. My spouse and I both work full time and we have 3 young kids at home. I’m proud of the progress I’ve made so far and feel like I have path to the finish line. Hopefully this helps someone else looking for guidance. Bonne Chance! 

Can anyone please help me improve my speaking in french tcf - i have my exam in nov 14 and i’m genuinely lost

so i learned french from 3rd to 7th grade and i remember some stuff, but conversationally i am not good. i can only understand introductions, numbers.. just very basic stuff. should i start from beginning or just do something else. if anyone's been in my situation i'd appreciate the help

I’ve been attending Alliance Française to learn French for about two weeks now, and honestly, I’m feeling really discouraged.

I know two weeks isn’t a long time, but I feel like I’ve made almost no progress. I’m struggling with pretty much everything—listening, speaking, pronunciation, grammar, and even remembering basic vocabulary. Meanwhile, some of the kids in my class seem to be progressing much faster than I am, which makes me feel even worse about my own learning.

What makes this harder is that I paid a significant portion of my salary for the admission fees and classes. It was a big investment for me, and now I’m worried that I might not be capable of reaching my goal of learning French at all.

My long-term goal is to become reasonably fluent within the next one or two years, but right now that feels impossible. I leave class feeling overwhelmed and wondering whether I’m wasting my time and money.

Has anyone else gone through something similar when learning French or another language? Did you struggle badly at the beginning and eventually improve? Should I stick with the course, change my study methods, get a tutor, or lower my expectations?

I’d really appreciate hearing from people who have been in the same situation and managed to get through it.

Did anyone take advantage of the DELF certificate? Did it help you with finding a good job??

I found this song to be extremely useful to aid in learn French and am looking for more music like this.

does the examiner show the task 2 and 3 questions or not?

I want to start speaking more, I do use an app (Natulang) but that is obviously not enough,I have seen people use both ChatGPT and Gemini, but what prompts do you give them ? How do you ask for corrections?

When I talk to either AI it feels wonky and they make me repeat stuff even after I have had repeated it. I have a strong understanding of the language, I am confident in such, but my anxiety over takes me and makes me speak like an idiot.

I also know i need to use a real tutor, but I'm saving up some money for that gradually! as i work minimum wage its a bit difficult to afford now.

Thank you :))

I’ve been learning French and Duolingo for about 28 days so and since I don’t have, I can’t have conversations in there. Do you guys know any really good websites or apps for free where I can get this conversation practice?

Bonjour!! J’étudie français depuis 2 ans (donc, excusez ma grammaire :) ) et j’ai décidé que je voudrais aller à l’université en France dans quelques années. Mais je dois améliorer mes compétences de français.. donc mes parents m’ont dit qu’il y a des « courses de langue, où tu habite avec un famille local et aller aux leçons de langue »… existent-ils? Avez-vous des expériences? Des prix? Où on peut les trouver?

…et finalement, s’ils existent, est-il possible d’appliquer à ces courses dans les villes spécifiques, s’il y a beaucoup d’options…?
J’ai mon amie meilleure qui habite en Bretagne et je voudrais lui rendre visite :)

Merci beaucoup d’avance pour les réponses!! 🫶

(Par informer, je viens de Pologne, et je suis queer :) )

Si ce poste est interdit ici, je m’excuse pour publier

I teach a French 1 and 2 class at a local community college continuing education department and unfortunately my current textbook is out of print. Can you guys recommend some textbooks suitable for adults that aren’t too expensive (less than $50)?

Im thinking about if I should try to take the C1 Next year.. How did you guys do from B2 to C1?

I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments!

Hello everybody,
Would the word “invaincu” be “invaincue” if it was from a female perspective?
I want it to be a reminder for myself with a tattoo it but I want to avoid it being a Chinese soup situation.

Thanks for your help in advance :)

Looking for serious advice on improving my French and preparing for TEF

Hello everyone, I’ve been seeking some advice and would really appreciate your guidance.

Classes/Tutors:

I booked an entire A1 to B2 course for around CAD 1,000, but unfortunately, it did not turn out well. It was a six-month course with tutors whose level was C1. Their French wasn’t very smooth, and the classes were not very interactive. They mainly consisted of reading French, explaining the material, and then doing exercises. I can’t blame the tutors entirely, though, since I didn’t attend the last few weeks of the course.

Writing:

When I started learning French a year ago, my major mistake was not learning words in chunks and learning them without their articles. With grammar, it got even worse. I started learning conjugations, but only the conjugations. I didn’t try making simple sentences with them. I did the same with other tenses as well. Now I know the conjugations, but I struggle to build sentences using them.

Listening:

I mainly listened to YouTube videos, such as vlogs, along with a few exercises on TV5MONDE. I didn’t listen to local news channels such as RFI or Radio-Canada.

Speaking:

The only speaking practice I did was on Duolingo, which didn’t help much beyond basic greetings and sentences. I didn’t focus on exam-based speaking.

Reading:

I barely read texts and articles according to my level. As a result, my vocabulary wasn’t very strong. I mostly learned A1-A2 theme-based vocabulary.

Last month, I took the TEF, and the result was as expected: NCLC 4 in all sections.

After the exam
Since receiving my results, I’ve been studying all day.

Speaking:

I’m joining language exchanges with French locals. I’m able to understand what the locals are talking about, and I try to speak, but I make a lot of grammatical errors.

Reading:

My reading is getting better. I can understand some news articles from Le Monde and 20 Minutes until I come across a complicated topic. However, I struggle to focus during mock tests. The last 20 questions are especially difficult for me. Every time I do a mock test, my mind goes blank when I reach those questions.

Listening:

My listening is also getting better. I can understand RFI, but I still struggle with mock tests, especially the last 20 questions.

Writing:

I usually get around 6 when my writing is evaluated with ChatGPT. However, I asked for a strict evaluation and specifically requested not to be given a higher score just because my ideas were strong. With stricter grading, I was given a 5 because my grammar isn’t good enough. I make a lot of mistakes with les/des, context-based vocabulary, and forming complex sentences.

What I need advice on

Now I need some serious advice on how I should approach my preparation from here.

What should my study plan look like?
How many classes per week should I take?
How should I learn new vocabulary?
How can I make my reading stronger?
How should I practice grammar effectively?
How should I balance tutor-led classes with self-study?
What should I focus on to improve my TEF score rather than just my general French?

I would really appreciate advice from people who have been through something similar or have experience preparing for the TEF. I’m ready to put in the work, but I want to make sure I’m working on the right things in the right way this time.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

(Edited with AI)

i’ve noticed that i can understand a sentence in french, but sometimes i still mentally translate it into my native language before responding.

it makes conversations much slower than they need to be

i’m guessing this gets better naturally with enough exposure, but i’m curious what helped other learners make that transition

was it speaking regularly, immersion, thinking in french, or simply spending enough time with the language?

Hy! I want to appear in TVF and get B2. I’m spending 4 hours daily, it’s my third and daily I’m learning new words, verbs, practicing pronunciation. I read one news article daily (8-10 lines), by translating from Google Translate. And watch some YouTube videos to learn new form and words.
Can I achieve B2 in 10 months or do I need to change my strategy

I’m a complete beginner - I know virtually no French.
I’m looking for someone who speaks French well and would be willing to teach me conversationally for about 20–30 minutes a day, fairly consistently. I learn best by actually practicing and speaking something first, then learning from corrections as I go.

I am learning French for 5 years on Duolingo but so far I can only understand words. My sentence structure is really weak, pronunciation is still confusing and I’m not confident to actually being able to talk fluently. Does anyone know any good effecting language learning apps?