Can You Learn French For Free?

Learning a language can get expensive. Text books, tutors and French courses are expensive, but it doesn’t need to be, you can learn French for free.

If you are reading this, you already have access to everything you need to learn French, for free …the internet.

You can find everything you need online and I will go through where you should be looking to learn French for free.

Free French Courses

There are plenty of websites that have free French courses and resources that you can use.

However, it won’t take you long to realise that a lot of these are just teasers and are trying to make you pay for the rest, which is fair enough.

A lot of these can be worth paying for, especially if you are an advanced learner. As a beginner you can actually learn a lot from what is available for free.

Even this site has some French basics to get you started. If you can check out my unofficial French Course and get a grasp of the basic structure of the language.

French Language Apps

Language apps are sort of like the courses where the really good ones will only give a few free lessons and then require payment to unlock the really good stuff, but again you can do a lot for free, especially if you a beginner.

Duolingo gets a lot of hate in the language learning community, but is free and it does offer you a lot. I think using it alone isn’t enough, but it has a lot going for it. The lessons are okay and the other features like its little stories that you can listen to and podcasts are all great tools, which are all for free.

I think apps are a great accompaniment to your language learning. If you use them in partnership with some other form of learning I think they can be very useful and should definitely be a part of your French study tool box.

(You can read more about – Language Apps I Have Used To Learn French For Free)

Learning French With YouTube

Youtube is a great resource for free French lessons. If you are a complete beginner, you can learn a lot of French from youtube alone. The foundations to all the grammar is all there for you as well as a lot of vocabulary, all for free.

You can also find lots of different teachers, so you can learn the same thing from 10 different teachers and really drill your understanding down.

If you told me I could only use one method to learn a language, I would pick YouTube.

The basics are all covered and you can find plenty of intermediate French too. You also have the fact that this platform is used by natives, so there is endless native French content on there for you to learn from or just use for your immersion.

You could even watch endless amounts of French lessons designed for French native speakers (children or adults).

If you look hard enough you can find anything and everything you would ever need to learn French, all for free and accessible in your own time.

(You can read more about – How To Use YouTube To Learn A Language)

Using Anki To Learn French

Anki is a great tool for learning anything, not just French. It is a free flash card software that will show you the flashcards in a spaced out way that is optimum for learning.

It will show the flashcards again just before you forget them, allowing you to remember them and store them to your long term memory.

Anki is great for learning French vocabulary. The only problem is that the words will be out of context. However, if you are using the other techniques that I discuss in this article then it’s fine. You will bump into the words in context elsewhere in your French learning.  

(You can read more about – Using Anki To Learn French)

Using Immersion To Learn French

Immersion is one of the best things you can do both for free and your progression in French.

This is simply exposing yourself to as much of the language as possible and absorbing as much as you can. This is done through things like TV shows, YouTube, radio, websites or books. Basically anything designed for natives can be used for immersion.  

Most of these can be found online for free and you can firstly just enjoy the content and more importantly learn the language.

Immersion will introduce you to new words, but really it is subconsciously exposing you to the language and getting you more comfortable with it which in turn will make you stronger in French.

French Language Exchanges

Language exchanges are free, but maybe not ideal for brand new beginner, but when you get comfortable they can be helpful.

This is just talking to native French speakers online, who in turn will be learning English and want you to talk to them in English for a while.

It’s not really the best way to learn as it’s more of a practice, you are speaking to a stranger on the internet so don’t expect any sort of lesson structure.

However, whoever you speak to can give you little tips and tricks about what way that French natives use certain words, or they just expose you to new words in general as they talk to you, so you can actually learn a lot.

You will also be able to identify your weaknesses very fast when you suddenly realise you do not understand something or know how to reply.

Most importantly it’s free and fun and you can make some cool French friends from doing these exchanges.

(You can read more about – Language Exchange Partners)

Using Library Books To Learn French

You’ve probably noticed that everything so far as been digital. If you want some physical text books for free, your local library might have one.

Unfortunately I can’t imagine the selection being amazing, but you never know. I would also imagine there are not many French novels there, but who knows. You may be surprised.

Sadly I looked in my local library to only find 2 French books, which were just 2 dictionaries, so not exactly very useful, but it is still worth checking since it could be a way to borrow a book for free.

Use All Of These Techniques To Learn French For Free

If you want to learn French for free, then you are probably not going to find the one perfect resource. This means will need to combine pretty much all of the techniques above to get some good results with your French studies.

If you are paying for a teacher/course then they should be able to provide you with everything you need. Although, even if you do it this way it can still be good to use more than one technique.

When you are learning for free you will just have to use what you can and the combination of everything will all add up and get you to where you want to be with the French language. 

(You can read more about – What Is The Most Important Aspect Of Learning French?)

What Are The Problems With Learning French For Free?

Learning for free is fine, but you need to know it is not perfect and will require you put in some extra effort.

No Structure

The biggest problem is that there is no structure to your learning, so you will need to build your own plan and make sure you study what you actually need to study. This can make things a little slower as you might not realise there are certain things you need to learn, or that you might need to learn them in a certain order.

However, this is fine, it’s not a race, you will get their eventually. A paid for course is going to make sure you cover everything you need and do it in the right order so it is always going to be more efficient, but that does not mean you can’t work it all out by yourself, for free. It is still entirely possible.

It’s Easier To Stay Committed When You Invest Money

A lot of people will say that doing anything for free is pointless as you will give up on it easily. Once you invest some cash into something, you are much more likely to stay committed.

I think this is true for some people, but I don’t believe it is true for everyone. Just because you paid for a course, does not mean you are automatically going to complete it or be successful.

Just look at how many gym memberships get paid for and then are never used. These people pay money to invest into their fitness goals and still give up. This is common across a lot of things. People will happily pay for something and then still not use it.

When language learning is hard, boring and progress is slow, people will give up and not worry that they spent money on a course. They will justify their reasons for quitting and the fact they paid is usually ignored.

Your level of determination and effort is much more important than how much you financially invested. If you can put the effort in you will make progress. 

(You can read more amount – Should You Hire A French Language Teacher To Help You Learn French?)

Conclusion

If you are willing to put the effort in and are willing to take the time to work out what you need to study, you can learn French for free.

All the right resources can be found for free online and while paying for lessons or a course may make everything more efficient, it doesn’t mean you cannot do this for free.

If you are committed enough you will find everything you need and make progress without needing to spend any money.  

(You can read more about – Beginner Language Learning Tools That Will Help You Learn By Yourself)