Lilata > Best online French courses – comprehensive review

Best online French courses – comprehensive review

Mia Lopez

So, you’re looking for a good French course. The timing couldn’t be better. With so many online courses available now, there’s something for everyone – even the pickiest of learners. The only problem is that in this sea of options, it’s hard to figure out what’s actually worth the time and what’s the best fit for you personally.

But don’t worry – I’ve done the legwork for you. I found the most popular and well-regarded courses on the web (free and paid), tried them, and read through thousands of learner reviews to summarize what they’re good and bad at. So now, you can enjoy this list of absolute best French courses, and I promise there’s something here you’ll love.

Sidenote: If you prefer to learn using apps, check out this detailed review of the best apps to learn French.

Table of contents

Best French courses by category

Here’s the deal: there’s no such thing as the best French course. There are a number of great options online that could be a good or bad fit for you specifically, depending on where you are in your learning journey, what your goals are, and what kind of learning style you prefer. Below, I’ve done my best to pick out great options for the most popular learning needs and cases, but I encourage you to explore the article beyond these picks and try a few different courses that sound like you might like them. There is a chance you’ll actually like them, which is very important for long-term progress. More important than some dummy on the internet claiming some course is the best.

Video courses

The majority of popular French video courses started as YouTube channels created by proactive, charismatic French teachers. Like most content on YouTube, these courses were free, but over time, they evolved into paid products that address the limitations of purely video-based learning. Specifically, they offer a clear learning roadmap and additional resources, such as books, interactive exercises, and extra video and audio lessons. Naturally, there are also courses that were developed as paid products by big publishers from the start. As well as YouTube channels that never went the paid route. I’ll touch on all of those.

Each publisher typically offers several courses: a general course for learners of different levels, along with a few courses focusing on specific topics like pronunciation or grammar. If you’re a beginner or unsure which course to choose, it’s best to start with the general course that matches your level. Later, if needed, you can explore a more specialized course, provided you enjoyed the general content.

With that out of the way, let’s dive into the actual courses.

Learn French with Alexa

A popular YouTube channel created by Alexa Polidoro, a native French teacher with decades of experience. The channel offers a number of free courses for beginners and early intermediate learners, with lessons that cover vocabulary, grammar, and more advanced topics in a fun and approachable way.

In addition to the free videos, Alexa also provides premium courses through her website, including ones designed to prepare you for the TEF and GCSE exams. These premium courses offer a more comprehensive learning experience with supplementary videos, downloadable guides, vocabulary lists, interactive quizzes, and assessment tests.

Free courses:

The perfect French with Dylane

The Perfect French with Dylane is a YouTube channel run by French teacher and author Dylane Moreau. It features hundreds of free French lessons for beginner and intermediate learners, including several specialized courses on grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary.

Alongside the videos, each course has a textbook with exercises, which you can buy for a modest amount of money if you want to practice your new skills, but it’s optional. You can see the full list of courses and supplementary materials on Dylane’s site.

Free courses:

Learn French with Vincent

One of the oldest French learning channels on YouTube. Vincent Lefrançois, a native French speaker and experienced teacher, created a huge number of free lessons that cover everything from basic vocabulary and grammar to advanced topics. His teaching style is serious, thorough, and visual, making complex concepts easier to grasp (as long as you have the patience).

The channel is related to the French4me platform, where learners can buy access to premium courses, e-books, and quizzes.

Free courses:

Courses by Damon Dominique

Damon Dominique is a YouTuber, traveler, and language enthusiast. He offers several unconventional yet practical paid video courses for beginners. Damon’s style is unique, engaging, and fun – he makes language learning less intimidating and more like a conversation with a friend. He mixes French and English during his lessons, making the content easier to digest, and encourages learners to embrace their accents rather than feel self-conscious.

That said, if you’re a complete beginner, the courses might be a bit challenging at first because they assume you’ve got a little bit of French under your belt. Also, the courses aren’t cheap. But if you’re already a fan of Damon’s YouTube content and like his teaching style, it could be a great fit for you.

Courses:

FrenchPod101

A popular Youtube channel and language platform primarily aimed at early-level French learners. It offers a wide range of audio and video lessons covering essential vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. One of its strengths is the inclusion of cultural insights, helping you not only understand the language but also the French way of life.

Aside from the free Youtube lessons, FrenchPod101 has a learning app with premium access to all courses and extra features like word lists and flashcards. It might not be the best app out there, but it does enhance the learning experience and it’s not expensive.

Free courses:

Comme une Française

Comme une Française was started by French teacher Géraldine Lepère as a YouTube channel, gained traction, and eventually grew into a learning platform offering several paid French courses. These courses are primarily targeted at beginners and intermediate learners, focusing on practical, conversational French that goes beyond textbook learning. Each course combines video lessons with written explanations and interactive exercises, touching on French culture and history, with a strong emphasis on speaking. The prices are quite steep, but if you enjoy Géraldine’s teaching style, it might be worth the investment.

Courses:

Easy Languages

Easy Languages is a non-profit project aiming to help people learn languages through videos with authentic conversations. In each episode, the host chats with native French speakers on the street about a specific topic. There are subtitles in both French and English so regardless of your level, you will be able to hear, read and “see” the language in its local habitat.

While these videos aren’t a comprehensive course taking you from A to Z, they’re a great resource to add to your learning routine, helping you practice listening, discover new words, and get comfortable with the way natives speak. In addition to the main channel, there is also a secondary channel called Easy French.

Free lessons:

French in Action

French in Action is a classic free video course created at Yale University in the 1980s. It’s known for its immersive approach, teaching entirely in French through a storyline that follows the lives of two characters, Mireille and Robert. This method helps learners get accustomed to spoken French in context, without relying on English explanations. The course includes 52 video lessons, along with a supplementary textbook, workbook, and audiotapes, all designed to provide additional grammar and vocabulary practice.

While the course is beloved by many learners, it can feel a bit outdated and escalates in difficulty quickly. So even though it’s intended for beginners, it might be helpful to learn some basic vocabulary before starting.

Course:

French by the Nature Method

A free narrated video course based on the classic book Le Français Par La Méthode Nature. The book focuses on teaching French in a natural way, similar to how children learn their first language. It gradually introduces vocabulary and grammar through fully French stories and dialogues, without relying on translation or rote memorization. Despite some outdated language and several dull chapters, the course provides a strong grammatical foundation and can significantly improve your ability to read and understand spoken French.

French Comprehensible Input

A YouTube channel that helps people learn French in context without relying on translations. Teacher Lucas tells stories using simple language, gestures, and images, making them accessible to everyone, from beginners to advanced learners. If you have trouble understanding something, you can always turn on subtitles.

Free courses:

Alice Ayel

Alice Ayel is a French educator who teaches French through comprehensible input, a method that emphasizes understanding and intuition rather than memorization or traditional drills. On her Youtube channel, Alice tells stories accompanied by simple drawings, in slow, clear French to help learners absorb the language naturally. These lessons are best suited for beginners and early intermediate learners. If you find it difficult to follow along, try turning on subtitles.

In addition to the free videos, Alice offers a fairly cheap premium program on her website. It gives you access to all lessons, plus video transcripts, community chat, books, and extra videos.

Free courses:

Français Authentique

A YouTube channel that helps learners improve their French through a natural, immersive approach. The content is entirely in French and is best suited for those who already have some foundational knowledge. While the lessons aren’t part of a cohesive learning course, they cover many useful topics and can be a valuable tool in your language-learning toolkit.

Also, Français Authentique offers premium online courses through its website. These courses are designed to improve your speaking proficiency and include video lessons, audio lessons, and supplementary PDFs.

Free lessons:

Wandering French

Wandering French is another YouTube channel focused on providing comprehensible input, in this case in Quebec French. The host, Hélène, uses her extensive teaching background and love of travel to create bite-sized, French-only lessons that are engaging and easy to follow. Her videos are mostly aimed at learners that already know some French.

Free lessons:

Latinum

Latinum is a YouTube channel that teaches languages using the Manesca method. It focuses on acquiring language skills through listening, repeating, and responding to simple questions in a series of structured exercises known as “mouvements.” This approach is geared toward naturally increasing proficiency over time. Latinum’s French courses are a solid choice for anyone looking to learn French using traditional, tested methods.

Free courses:

Audio courses

Similarly to video courses, audio courses often started as free podcasts that evolved into paid products with supplementary video lessons, written instructions, and interactive exercises to practice new skills. Although, many of the best and most comprehensive options have always been available only as paid products.

The biggest advantages of audio courses are that they quickly improve your listening and sometimes speaking skills. Plus, you can learn while doing something else. However, they aren’t great at explaining grammar and aren’t long enough to teach and engrain new vocabulary beyond the basics. Even though paid courses often address the grammar gap with additional materials, it’s still a good idea to supplement these courses with some visual and more structured learning tools.

Let’s explore our most interesting options here.

Coffee Break French

A popular free podcast that offers well produced and easily digestible lessons designed to fit into a coffee break. The course is divided into 4 seasons, each targeting learners at different levels – from absolute beginners to advanced. Every season features 40 lessons, each lasting 15-20 minutes.

For those looking to deepen their learning, Coffee Break French offers premium courses for each season, including bonus audio materials, video episodes, and lesson notes. Although, the price is quite steep. Also, some learners find that the later seasons have a bit too much English.

Free course:

Learn French by Podcast

A well-structured series of free French lessons designed for beginners and early intermediate learners, focusing on practical language use. Each episode begins with a dialogue or scenario in French, which is then broken down and explained by the host, covering key vocabulary, grammar, and usage. If you wish to delve deeper into the material, you can buy PDFs on the official website.

Free podcast:

Learn French with Paul Noble

This popular audio course gets you up and running in French very quickly without focusing on memorizing vocabulary or doing exercises. Its intuitive approach is similar to the Michel Thomas method and Language Transfer, with its own twist: you only hear Paul’s explanations and native speakers giving you pronunciation examples.

The course is split into two parts: one for complete beginners and the other for early intermediate learners. Both parts combined take about 20 hours to complete. It’s a very good and affordable starting point for learning French, but you might want to supplement it with resources that provide more vocabulary and practice.

Courses:

Language Transfer

Language Transfer is a free beginner-level course that teaches French in an interactive and exploratory way, referred to as “the thinking method.” This approach emphasizes understanding the structure of the language over rote memorization of vocabulary and grammar rules, much like the Paul Noble and Michel Thomas methods. The lessons mimic a classroom, allowing you to follow alongside another student.

The course is relatively short, with 40 lessons lasting about 10 minutes each, and doesn’t teach too much vocabulary. Nevertheless, it can be a valuable supplement to more structured learning resources.

Free course:

French Made Easy

A free podcast by Mathilde Kien that helps beginners master French through simple, bite-sized lessons. Each lesson focuses on practical vocabulary, pronunciation, or grammar, and makes complex topics easy to understand. In addition to the audio lessons, on her site Mathilde provides free cheat sheets and exercises.

Free podcast:

The FSI French Courses

In the 1970s, the Foreign Service Institute developed several language courses to train U.S. diplomats for overseas assignments. These free courses offer extensive audio drills and detailed written lessons aimed at quickly building language proficiency. While considered classics by generations of learners and highly effective, they are demanding, repetitive, and somewhat outdated. However, if you can get through one, you’ll learn a ton.

Free courses:

  • Introduction to French Phonology
    This course focuses on helping learners develop accurate pronunciation. It spans a little under 10 hours and covers various topics, including vowel and consonant sounds, intonation, and rhythm. It’s suitable for learners at any stage.
  • French Basic Course
    This intensive course is designed to build conversational proficiency through dialogues, drills, and exercises. With about 90 hours of audio and detailed written materials, it focuses on grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation.
  • French Fast Course
    This course focuses on the rapid acquisition of practical language skills, emphasizing essential phrases and everyday dialogues. Unlike the more comprehensive FSI courses, it includes less than 4 hours of audio, intended only to supplement the textbook and classroom practice.

French Easy Learning

This paid course by Collins is geared towards travelers preparing for a trip to France. It focuses on listening and speaking without delving into complex grammar, making it ideal for learning on the go. It’s a solid beginner course, however, some learners find the pace too slow and the content too basic, particularly those with prior knowledge of French. The course includes nearly 7 hours of audio, along with a 96-page booklet that complements the lessons.

Course:

Michel Thomas Method

Michel Thomas was a famous Nazi hunter and linguist who developed his own language teaching method. It focuses on building conversational skills quickly by understanding the logic of the language, without requiring memorization or drilling. Designed primarily for beginners, Michel’s courses emphasize learning through listening and speaking, with lessons structured like a virtual classroom where learners follow along with two other students.

While these courses are effective for rapidly gaining basic conversational abilities, they lack native pronunciation (Michel was not a native speaker), as well as reading and writing practice, and they teach limited vocabulary. Michel’s method influenced several others, like Paul Noble and Language Transfer, which some learners prefer as more modern, digestible, and affordable options. Although, Language Transfer is much shorter.

Courses:

Learn French With Alexa

A podcast hosted by the popular teacher Alexa Polidoro. It offers 20-30 minute lessons for beginners that cover various aspects of the French language and culture. While the total number of lessons is relatively small, each lesson is fun and engaging, making it a great intro to learning French.

Free podcast:

InnerFrench

InnerFrench is a great free podcast designed to help intermediate French learners enhance their comprehension skills through full immersion in the language. The host, Hugo Cotton, speaks clearly and slightly slower than natural speed, making the content accessible while still challenging for listeners. Each episode, which runs about 30 minutes, delves into a variety of topics, from French culture to personal insights, without relying on any English translations. If you struggle to follow along, full transcripts are available on the official website.

For those looking to take their French to the next level, InnerFrench also offers paid courses for intermediate and advanced learners. Unlike the podcast, they provide a structured learning roadmap, with topical videos, grammar lessons, and interactive exercises. The courses are on the pricier side, but many learners swear by them, especially those who needed to sharpen their grammar.

Free podcast:

News in Slow French

News in Slow French offers free weekly lessons designed to help you improve your listening and comprehension skills by presenting current events and cultural content at a slower pace. This format makes learning more interesting and helps intermediate learners transition to content for native speakers, although they have some episodes for beginners too. Each episode comes with interactive transcripts, vocabulary flashcards, and pronunciation guides.

To get access to older episodes and to be able to filter them by level, you’ll need to buy a subscription through their site or apps.

Free podcast:

Learn French by Dailyfrenchpod

A free podcast offering short, story-based lessons. Each lesson begins with a brief news item or cultural fact, which is then broken down into its key vocabulary and grammatical elements. The host, Louis, explains the usage of new words and phrases, often providing examples and occasional English translations. Primarily in French, the podcast is well-suited for intermediate learners looking to build their comprehension, but won’t help much with grammar or speaking.

Free podcast:

Learn French in Your Car

This free repetition-based audio course by Henry N. Raymond is designed for learners who already have some knowledge of French. It focuses on practical phrases and conversational skills, featuring clear pronunciation from native speakers. However, it doesn’t cover grammar in depth, making it not ideal for complete beginners.

Free course:

FrenchPod101

This free podcast offers bite-sized audio lessons for beginners and intermediate learners. You can start from older lessons that teach French from the very basics (although there aren’t many of them available for free), or listen to frequently published new lessons, that are available for the first few weeks before being removed.

For those seeking access to the whole course, FrenchPod101 offers a paid app that also provides extra learning tools like flashcards, quizzes, progress tracking, and detailed lesson notes.

Free podcast:

Frenchclasses.com

FrenchClasses.com is a free website offering a structured course across three levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. It features 36 beginner lessons that gradually lead to full immersion at higher levels, with a strong focus on listening skills through over 30 hours of audio content. Each lesson includes a transcript, contextual notes, grammar explanations, and exercises.

Apps

Apps are the most diverse category of French learning tools. Some provide simple exercises for beginners, some feature audio lessons for travelers, and others teach exclusively through authentic video content. Apps are expensive to develop, so there are only a few truly free options, although the paid ones are typically quite affordable. Compared to classic video and audio courses, there is a bit less human connection since there’s no teacher. On the flip side, apps are very easy to use, provide well-rounded practice, and can pack a ton of learning content. Here’s a quick run of the most notable options.

  • If you’re a beginner looking for a simple way to learn and practice the basics, try Lilata or Busuu. They offer a comprehensive and fun learning experience.
  • If you’re an intermediate learner, try LingoPie. This app teaches you the language through real French TV shows and movies with subtitles. If you’re on a budget, TV5Monde is a free alternative.
  • For speaking practice, Pimsleur is one of the best options. It’s completely audio-based and focuses on conversational practice in real-life scenarios. If you’re already fairly advanced and need a real person to talk to, you can find a language exchange partner using HelloTalk.
  • If you prefer to learn via audio, check out Language Transfer. It’s a simple, free app for beginners that teaches you to understand the structure of the language rather than specific rules. If you’d like a longer course with more activities, try Pimsleur.
  • For learning vocabulary, the best option is Memrise. It’s an advanced flashcard app featuring videos of native speakers and using clever approaches to improve memorization. Anki is a free and less user-friendly alternative (free on Android and very affordable on iOS).
  • For improving grammar, Wlingua is a great choice. It is very thorough in explaining the rules and making you practice them. The app offers a free version, though with some restrictions.
  • If you want to learn for free, try Duolingo. It can teach you basic vocabulary and language structure. But if you find the pace too slow or feel like you need more in-depth explanations, you can switch to other, more effective tools.

Apps are a huge topic and deserve their own review. If you’d like to dive deeper, check out these detailed reviews of all the best French apps and the best free apps.

Frequently asked questions

Is French hard to learn?
Whether French is hard to learn depends on your native language, learning style, and the amount of time and effort you put into it. For English speakers, French is considered one of the easier languages to learn due to its similarities with English, such as shared vocabulary and the use of the Latin alphabet. However, French pronunciation, grammar rules, and verb conjugations can present challenges, especially at the beginning. With consistent practice and the right resources, many learners find that they can make steady progress and eventually master the language.

Can I learn French online for free?
Yes, you can learn French online for free! There are numerous courses available that offer high-quality lessons at no cost. Popular options include Duolingo, which provides a structured approach to learning basic vocabulary and grammar, and TV5Monde, which offers French TV shows with subtitles. YouTube channels like Learn French with Alexa and Français Authentique also offer a wealth of free video lessons on various topics. While these free resources can get you started and help you build a solid foundation, you might need to supplement them with paid resources for more advanced learning and practice.

What is the fastest way to learn French?
The fastest way to learn French is by immersing yourself in the language daily, practicing speaking as much as possible, and using a variety of effective tools. Surround yourself with French content like podcasts, movies, and books, and try to think in French throughout the day. Speaking regularly with native speakers through language exchange apps or online tutors will accelerate your conversational skills. Intensive language courses, either online or in-person, can also provide a quick boost by dedicating several hours a day to learning. Additionally, using spaced repetition systems (SRS) like Anki or Memrise can help you memorize vocabulary more efficiently. Focusing on high-frequency words and phrases is crucial for quickly gaining the ability to communicate. Consistency is key, so make sure to dedicate time every day to your French studies.

Can I learn French in 3 months?
Learning French in 3 months is ambitious, but impossible. However you can make significant progress if you’re dedicated and use the right strategies. With focused, daily practice – especially in areas like speaking, listening, and essential vocabulary – you can reach a basic conversational level. Intensive immersion, where you spend several hours a day engaging with the language through apps, courses, and real-life conversations, will accelerate your learning. While you may not become fluent in 3 months, you can definitely achieve a solid foundation and be able to handle basic conversations and everyday situations in French.

Wrapping up

There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to learning French. The best course or app for you depends on your goals, current level, and preferred learning style. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to refine your skills, the options covered in this article offer a range of tools to help you on your journey. Remember, it’s important to try different resources and see what resonates with you, as enjoying the process is key to long-term success. Bonne chance!

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