Home / Best apps to learn a language / French
Prices and language coverage checked in September 2026.
French has 396 million speakers by the 2026 report of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, 65% of them in Africa. That count uses a new method, which adds children aged 6 to 9 who can read and are schooled in French in the countries of the South; by the old method, the one behind the 321 million of 2022, the figure is 348 million. Every big app sells a French course, and nearly all of them teach the French of France; Mango Languages is the one structured course in Canadian French. The bigger difference is the free plan: Busuu and Duolingo can be followed to the end without paying, Babbel and Pimsleur cannot.
English speakers start ahead on the page: about 28% of the words in an English dictionary come from French and another 28% from Latin (Finkenstaedt and Wolff, 1973), although the most common English words are Germanic. The head start stops at the ear, and the ear is what to test an app on. Free input is everywhere (TV5MONDE’s exercises, RFI’s slow news bulletin, 4,242 French ebooks on Project Gutenberg), so the paid part should be what the free material lacks: a syllabus, or a person who corrects you.
The US Foreign Service Institute puts French in category I (of I to IV), about 750 class hours for an English speaker to reach professional working proficiency.
Duolingo, Babbel, Busuu, Pimsleur and Speak each teach one French and none of them has a Canadian course; Babbel’s French page says “Most learners start with standard European French”. Quebec French sounds different (tu comes out like “tsu”), has its own everyday words (magasiner for to shop, fin de semaine for weekend, courriel for email) and says tu to strangers sooner, and Belgium and Switzerland count septante and nonante for 70 and 90. The only structured Canadian French course we found is Mango’s, 95 lessons; for Quebec listening there are LingQ’s two Quebec courses, Dreaming French’s Quebec guide and Radio-Canada’s podcasts, and Preply lists 548 Canadian French tutors. Learn standard French, and add Quebec listening early if Canada is where you are going.
French spelling keeps letters nobody says (the plural -s, the -ent of finissaient), and liaison joins words (les amis). In conversation the ne of a negation mostly disappears: adult corpora from the 1990s on keep it in 1.8% to 18.8% of negations, 8.2% in Paris, so you hear “je sais pas”. In five corpora of speech from France, Belgium and Quebec, nous is at most 4.4% of the subjects that mean we; on does the rest. A 2011 study in the journal Language timed French read aloud at 7.18 syllables a second against 6.19 for English (Spanish was faster, at 7.82). Pick apps with native audio beside every text, and listen for hours beside any course.
Every noun is masculine or feminine, and about 80% of nouns have an ending that predicts which (Lyster, 2006); learn the rest with the article. Every past sentence makes you choose between the passé composé and the imparfait, and the 19th-century classics tell their stories in the passé simple, a tense of written French only. The shared vocabulary helps, but check the false friends: actuellement means currently, librairie a bookshop, attendre to wait for, sensible sensitive and éventuellement maybe. Kwiziq and Babbel explain the grammar; Duolingo and Pimsleur leave most of it implicit.
Duolingo labels its French course B2, and we found no independent test of the label. Busuu’s course page says A1 to B2 and its help centre A1 to C1; Babbel runs to B2 with extra content into C1; TV5MONDE stops at B2 and Mango at B1. Pimsleur names no level, and one learner who finished all five levels put their speaking at about B1. Past B2 no course carries you: books, radio, podcasts and people do.
The DELF (A1 to B2) and DALF (C1, C2) are one exam per level, pass or fail, with a diploma valid for life; in 2026 they cost US$135 (A1) to US$245 (C1, C2) at L’Alliance New York and Alliance Française de Chicago. The TCF and TEF are scored tests valid for two years, with Canada versions for immigration. Since 1 January 2026 France asks for A2 for a first multi-year residence card, B1 for a first 10 year resident card and B2 for naturalisation, plus a civic exam of 40 questions (pass at 32). In Canada’s Express Entry, NCLC 7 in all four French skills adds 50 points with CLB 5 in English (25 with a lower English score or none), and 2026 had 10 French-language draws with 50,500 invitations by 16 September.
Best free daily course
The French course runs to B2 by Duolingo’s own label and was rebuilt in September 2025 and February 2026; an unofficial tracker counts 994 units and 1,147 short Stories. Duolingo does not say which French it teaches and has no Canadian French course. It builds a daily habit better than it trains your ear for spoken French.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A free daily French habit from zero; on a laptop, without the Energy cap.
Best free course with corrections
Busuu’s French page says a free account can work through the whole Complete French course in order, with ads: 330+ lessons, A1 to B2 on the course page, although the help centre says A1 to C1. French speakers in the community correct your written and spoken answers. Next to Duolingo, it is the free course to choose if you want a syllabus rather than a game.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A1 to B2 learners who want a syllabus they can use free and a French speaker checking their answers.
Best structured course
One French course, in the “standard European French” that Babbel says most learners start with, with grammar explained inside the lessons and no ads. Babbel’s own labels run it to B2, with extra content that extends into C1. It is the paid syllabus we would pick for French; Busuu gives you a similar course free with ads.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A1 to B2 learners who want French grammar in order, no games and no ads, and will pay for it.
Best for speaking from lesson one
150 thirty minute audio lessons in five levels, about 80 hours, in which you answer out loud and words come back at spaced intervals; Level 1 also teaches you to read with correct pronunciation. Pimsleur publishes no CEFR level: one learner who finished all five levels put their speaking around B1 and their listening at A2 to B1. All Access adds an AI Conversation Coach for French, in beta.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A trip in two months, a long commute, or anyone who wants to speak French before they read it.
Best free listening exercises
TV5MONDE turns news reports, music videos and film clips into exercises graded from A1 to B2, with subtitles and a transcript, more than 2,000 of them on the site and new ones every week. The French is “as it is spoken in Paris, Geneva, Dakar, Montreal, Brussels”, in the app’s words. Everything is free.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: Free, levelled listening practice from A1 to B2 in more than one accent, and anyone with a TCF date.
Best live tutors
Preply is a marketplace of French tutors you can filter by regional accent (Parisian, Canadian, African) and by country of birth, paid for as a subscription. Below B1, pick a trained teacher who can explain in your language; from B1 on, a weekly lesson gives you a person who hears your French and corrects it.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: Anyone from A1 who needs a person to talk to, with the accent of the place they are heading to.
Best for reading real books
Lingo7 puts a translation in your own language under every sentence of a French book (49 languages), reads it aloud and drills saved words in 12 kinds of exercise. Of its 99 French books, 2 are B1, 67 B2 and 30 C1 by our estimate; below B2, start with the Stories. It is our app, and it has no course.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: B2 readers who want the French classics with their own language under the text, A2 and B1 learners starting with the Stories, and anyone with their own EPUBs.
Best graded video from zero
Graded videos in French, tagged from Superbeginner to Advanced, with an hours tracker, in the same app as Dreaming Spanish. The French library is young: 754 videos and 155 hours in September 2026, about a tenth of the Spanish one, growing by about 15 hours a month. It teaches no grammar, by design.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A daily listening habit from the first week, beside a course.
Best Canadian French course
A course built on conversations, with grammar notes inside the dialogues, which Mango maps from A1 to B1 over five units and 585 lessons. It is also the only structured Canadian French course we found: French (Canadian), 95 lessons on Québécois. Many US public libraries give it free with a library card.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A0 to A2 learners with a US library card, and anyone who needs Quebec French from the start.
Best grammar trainer
Adaptive grammar quizzes (kwizzes) with a lesson for each point, sorted from A0 to C1 and built with Lawless French, plus a Brainmap of the rules you know. French grammar is where a course’s gaps show (gender, the passé composé against the imparfait, the subjunctive), and Kwiziq finds those gaps and drills them.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: Finding and fixing grammar gaps between A1 and C1, beside a course or a tutor.
Best podcast course
A teacher takes a learner through French on the recording, over four seasons of 40 lessons of 15 to 20 minutes, from Beginners to Advanced, and the audio is free. Mark Pentleton, a former secondary school teacher from Scotland, has run it since 2007, and a native speaker joins in Season 4.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: Commuters who want a structured audio course from zero at no cost.
Best for French YouTube
French subtitles and a translation into your language side by side on YouTube, with a dictionary on click, free for the part that matters. French YouTube has deep learner channels, from Easy French’s street interviews to Français avec Pierre. The Netflix side broke in June 2026 and in September works with known bugs.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: B1 and up with a laptop, turning French YouTube into listening practice.
Busuu + Duolingo + Dreaming French
Pick one free course and do it every day: Busuu if you want a syllabus and a French speaker correcting you, Duolingo if the game keeps you going. Watch Dreaming French’s Superbeginner videos from the first week, and put Coffee Break French or Language Transfer’s free Introduction to French in your ears on the commute. Pimsleur is the paid choice if you want to speak before you read; heading for Quebec, take Mango’s Canadian course, free with many US library cards.
TV5MONDE + Kwiziq French + Preply
Keep your course going to B2, or move to Babbel if you want grammar in order and will pay. Work through TV5MONDE’s A2 and B1 exercises, find your grammar gaps with Kwiziq’s level test, and book a Preply tutor once a week with the accent you need. Start reading with Lingo7’s Stories at A2, then graded readers you import; its shelf of classics starts at B2 in practice, by our estimate.
Lingo7 + Language Reactor + Preply
Courses thin out here. Read the classics on Lingo7’s shelf or your own books, watch French YouTube with Language Reactor, move from RFI’s Journal en français facile to French radio, and talk about all of it with your tutor. With a DELF, DALF or TEF date, work the official sample papers (for the TCF, TV5MONDE’s practice tests), and book a tutor who has taught that exam.
| App | Role | Levels | Coverage for French | Free | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duolingo | Best free daily course | A0 to B1 | One French, not named, no Canadian course; B2 by Duolingo’s label; 994 units and 1,147 Stories by an unofficial tracker | Every lesson; Energy cap on a phone | US$13 to 17 a month, US$7 to 10 a month yearly |
| Busuu | Best free course with corrections | A1 to B2 | 330+ lessons, A1 to B2 on the course page (A1 to C1 in the help centre); no Canadian course | Whole course, in order, with ads | US$10 to 15 a month, US$6 to 12 a month yearly |
| Babbel | Best structured course | A1 to B2 | Standard European French to B2, with content into C1, by Babbel’s labels; no Canadian course | One lesson after sign-up | US$18 a month, about US$9 a month yearly |
| Pimsleur | Best for speaking from lesson one | A0 to B1 | 150 lessons in 5 levels, about 80 hours; the variety is not stated; no vendor CEFR claim | 7 day trial | About US$20 a month, or US$575 once |
| TV5MONDE | Best free listening exercises | A1 to B2 | A1 to B2; French from Paris, Geneva, Dakar, Montreal, Brussels and elsewhere; 2,000+ exercises | All of it | Free |
| Preply | Best live tutors | A1 to C2 | 6,953 French tutors with an accent filter (Parisian, Canadian, African); 548 on the Canadian French page | None | US$3 to 40+ a lesson, subscription only |
| Lingo7 | Best for reading real books | A2 to C1 | 99 public domain books, by our estimate 2 at B1, 67 at B2 and 30 at C1; Stories in two versions, adapted for A1 to A2 and original for B1 to B2; your own books in 7 formats (EPUB, PDF, FB2, DOCX, TXT, Markdown, HTML); native audio in a France accent; translation into 49 languages | First page of each book | US$5 a month, US$2.50 a month yearly |
| Dreaming French | Best graded video from zero | A0 to B1 | 754 videos, 155 hours; 7 guides from France, 1 from Quebec, 1 from Lebanon; 4 difficulty tags, no CEFR labels | 17 hours of free video | Free videos; Premium US$9.99 a month |
| Mango Languages | Best Canadian French course | A0 to B1 | French to B1 (5 units, 585 lessons) and French (Canadian) (4 units, 95 lessons), counts as of June 2026 | Free through many US libraries | Free via many libraries; US$10 a month yearly |
| Kwiziq French | Best grammar trainer | A1 to C1 | Grammar from A0 to C1, no C2; no Quebec content; DELF A1 to B2 guides, no mock exams | 10 quizzes a month | $31.49 a month, $12.54 to 16.75 a month yearly |
| Coffee Break French | Best podcast course | A0 to B1 | Standard French, no Quebec content; 4 seasons of 40 lessons, Beginners to Advanced; no CEFR labels | The podcast lessons | Free podcast; US$269 a season |
| Language Reactor | Best for French YouTube | B1 to C2 | Any French YouTube video with subtitles; Netflix working with known bugs in September 2026 | Most of it | US$6 a month, US$3.33 a month yearly |
Prices are US store or vendor prices as of September 2026, yearly plans shown as the monthly equivalent. The same app often costs less on its own site than in the App Store, and more in Europe than in the US.
Free on this site: public domain French books you can open in the app, and short French texts at A1, A2 and B1 with a translation.
We have no affiliate deals with any app named here, and none of the links pay us. Prices and coverage come from the vendor’s own help or pricing pages or its US store listing, checked in September 2026, and every other figure names its source in the text; the judgement calls lean on independent reviews, and on the one star reviews for the parts a landing page never shows, like what happens on renewal. Where a vendor’s pages contradict each other, the card says so.
Refund rules, the traps to avoid and the same apps compared by level for every language are on the best apps to learn a language page.
For a start, yes, and it is free: the French course runs to B2 by Duolingo’s own label, with 994 units and 1,147 short Stories by an unofficial count. On its own it is not enough: on a phone the free plan’s Energy runs out after about 2 to 3 lessons a day, by a third-party count (the web version runs on hearts), speaking is mostly short answers, Video Call is paid, and we found no independent test of the B2 label. Add listening (TV5MONDE, Dreaming French) and a person to talk to once you can put a few sentences together.
For most learners, standard French: Duolingo, Babbel, Busuu, Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone and Speak each teach one French, with no Canadian course. If you will live or work in Quebec, or aim at Canadian immigration, add Canadian listening early: Quebec says tu sooner, turns tu into something like “tsu” and has its own everyday words (magasiner, fin de semaine, courriel). The only structured Canadian course we found is Mango’s French (Canadian), 95 lessons, free with many US library cards. For input there are LingQ’s two Quebec courses (72 lessons), Dreaming French’s Quebec guide (117 videos), Clozemaster’s Quebecois set (1,223 sentences) and Radio-Canada’s podcasts; for speaking, Preply’s 548 Canadian French tutors and italki’s tutors from Quebec. Mauril, from CBC and Radio-Canada, is free but works only in Canada.
For a course, Duolingo (every lesson free, with Energy capping study on a phone) or Busuu, whose French page says a free account can work through the whole A1 to B2 course in order, with ads; French speakers correct your answers on the free plan too. For listening, TV5MONDE, free from A1 to B2. Add Language Transfer’s free 40 track introduction, the Coffee Break French podcast and, with a US library card, Mango. For a tutor you pay: Preply from US$3 a lesson on a subscription, or italki from US$4 an hour with no subscription.
The US Foreign Service Institute gives French 30 weeks of full-time class and self-study to reach professional working proficiency in speaking and listening, the same 30 weeks as Spanish. Language schools count about 530 to 650 guided hours to B2 (Centre International d’Antibes; Alliance Française de Leeds), which at an hour a day is a year and a half to nearly two years. The apps cover the first part of that; the rest takes listening, reading and people.
None of them is an exam course, so start with the official material: France Éducation international’s free DELF and DALF sample papers, with audio and answer keys, and the free TEF sample tests from Le français des affaires. TV5MONDE has free TCF practice tests and a simulator made with France Éducation international and the Paris Île-de-France Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Kwiziq has DELF A1 to B2 guides tied to its lessons, without mock exams. On italki, DELF preparation runs US$25 to US$60 an hour and DALF US$35 to US$85, by italki’s own blog. The DELF and DALF are one exam per level and valid for life; the TCF and TEF are scored tests valid for two years. For residence and nationality, France accepts a DELF or DALF diploma with no time limit, or a TCF or TEF result under two years old.
For feedback on your own voice, a person: a Preply or italki tutor. Pimsleur makes you answer aloud in every lesson and adds Voice Coach feedback with Premium. Speak scores pronunciation, but an independent tester got full marks with mispronounced words. To hear modern spoken French next to the careful version, French Today’s À Moi Paris records each chapter three ways (slower, enunciated and modern spoken French), and the first five chapters of every level are free.
Reading grows your vocabulary, and English speakers start ahead, but it will not teach you to follow speech: silent letters, liaison and the dropped ne (kept in under a fifth of spoken negations in corpora since the 1990s) mean the page does not show the sound. Lingo7, our app, puts a translation under each French sentence, reads it aloud in a France accent and drills the words you save in 12 kinds of exercise, for US$5 a month or US$30 a year. Its French shelf starts at B2 in practice, by our estimate, so begin with its Stories or a graded reader, then Maupassant’s Contes du jour et de la nuit and Arsène Lupin around B1 or B2.
Read your first page free, in French.