How Long Will It Take To Learn French?

When you start thinking about learning French one of the first things you will wonder is how long it will actually take to learn the language.

A lot of people underestimate how long it will take but on average you would need to put a solid 18 months in to start to feel comfortable In French.  

This may take longer, or even shorter for some people, but if you can dedicate 18 months you should feel like you are getting somewhere with French. 

It’s Hard To Say How Long It Will Take To Learn French

It’s actually quite hard to say how long it might take to learn French as everyone is different. Every ones past experiences and abilities will play a role in how long it will take you to learn.

You then need to add in how much effort you put in and how you go about learning French. No two peoples journey will be identical, which makes it quite hard to say exactly how long it might take you.   

What Level Of French Are You Trying To Reach?

One of the main reasons why it is hard to say how long it will take to learn French is because it will depend on how much you want to learn.

While you are probably very fluent in English, you will still not know everything and the same is true for French. In theory you will be learning the language for the rest of your life and you will never actually “complete” it.

If you only want to get the basics, this is of course going to take you far less time than being very competent in French. 

How Long Will You Spend Learning French?

Another reason as to why it is hard to place a time on how long it can take to learn French is due to how much time you spend studying. We all have 24 hours a day, but no one is spending that whole time learning French.

However, someone who spends 10 hours a day is going to make progress faster than someone who spends only 1 hour a day, and of course they are still going to learn a lot faster than someone who only spends 10 minutes a day.   

Basically the more time and effort you put in, the sooner you will reach your goal in French.

It Will Depend On What and How You Learn French

You also need to take into consideration what you are learning and how you are going about it.

The more efficient your learning, the faster you learn. If you sit down with someone and they explain how the  grammar works, along with showing your examples, you are going to get to grasp with this much quicker than just reading a page in a newspaper and trying to translate everything word by word from a dictionary, trying to work it out like a puzzle.

Both methods will work, but one is going to be a lot more efficient and quicker than the other.

How Long Do Institutes Say It Will Take To Learn French?

While everyone is different, there are organisations that teach French courses and they expect their students to reach a certain level by the end of the course, so we can use these for a rough guide as to how long it might take to learn French.

The US Foreign Service is a government agency that teaches languages to people that will be sent overseas on diplomat duties. They say that their French course is about 600 hours over 24 weeks (about 6 months) and at the end a student should be proficient enough to do to their job.

Exactly what that means is a little unclear, but I assume if you are doing diplomatic activates, you will have a pretty good grasp of the French language. You can also see that this is quite the intense course, but this is a full time job for these students, which is why it is possible for them.

It does show that what you learn and how, as well what level you want to reach, all play a role in how quickly you can do it.

Time Doesn’t Matter Just Immerse Yourself In French And Have Fun

Asking how long it takes to learn French isn’t really a question you need to ask. The language will come, just let it take as long as it takes.

I know that is hard to accept, but it really just takes time and effort. The more of that you put in, the quicker you will get to a point where it feels comfortable.

I would honestly dedicate 18-24 months and put a lot of time in every day. Study as much as you can and immerse yourself in videos and podcast and books as much as you can.

If you do this you will see results. If you just dip in and out and do 5 minutes here and there, you will not see the progress you want. It’s a long hard slog, but it’s worth it and you will build yourself a strong foundation of French. 

Then when you feel comfortable, you can take your time slowly growing in the language and enjoying yourself.

Don’t Compare Yourself

I think it’s also important to remember that your journey to learning French is YOUR journey, no one else’s, so don’t compare yourself.

It’s all too easy to find people making way faster progress than you, but what they are doing may be different. They may be working twice as hard for twice as long, so it’s not right to compare.

Just do what you are doing and push yourself as far as you can go. If you keep doing this, you will learn French and you will see the results. It doesn’t matter if it takes you 10 times longer than someone else; all that matters is that you get to where you want to be with the language.

Conclusion

As you can see there are a lot of factors that are going to affect how long it will take you to learn French.

If you are able to dedicate around 18 months and put in a few hours every day, you will make progress. If you work harder and for longer each day, you may get there sooner, but on average after 18 months you should be starting to feel comfortable.

You probably won’t feel fluent, but you will be at least comfortable with the language and can build from there. Learning French will be a lifelong commitment, it’s more of a lifestyle, so don’t worry about the time and just enjoy what you can along the way.   

(If you are wanting to learn French you can check out my unofficial French Course and get a grasp of the basic structure of the language)