How To Improve Your French Speaking Skills

Speaking in French is often seen as one of the hardest skills to master. Knowing what to say and how to say it is half the battle, but really the only way to get better at speaking is to speak more.

I will go through some ways you can speak in more detail below as well as some other ways that can help improve your speaking skills in French.

You Need To Do More Speaking In French To Improve

Of course the most obvious way to improve your French speaking skill is by speaking more. It doesn’t matter what the skill is, if you want to get better anything, you simply just need to do more of it.

(You can read more about – How Often Should You Study French?)

Read Out Loud In French

Reading out loud is not really speaking, but it is speaking, so it can still be helpful.

It’s probably a better exercise for your reading skills, but it also works your mouth muscles, which is why it is still good.

When you are reading out loud you do not have to think about what to say, you just read. This is why it’s not really training your ability to speak, as you are not really engaging your brain.

However, this does mean you get to practice your speaking without actually having to think about what to say. You just read what is there and get your mouth used to saying actual properly formed French sentences and sounds.

Talk To Yourself In French

One of the easiest ways to increase your time spent speaking French is to speak to yourself. There is nothing stopping you from speaking to yourself as you go about your day.

Yes, you may look crazy, but its good practice. If you are worried about what people think then speak in your mind.

Just narrate what you are doing, or what you want to do. If you want to go get a drink, explain to yourself in French that you are thirsty. Literally say “J’ai soif”. Just little things like this throughout your day are going to help you think and speak in French and make the whole process so much quicker and more comfortably.

When you actually have to speak to another human you will not struggle to find your words as you are so used to saying things in French to yourself.

Don’t Worry About Making Mistakes/ Sounding Silly

One of the biggest road blocks you will face when learning French is your fear. This is especially true when it comes to speaking.

It is so easy to worry about making mistakes or sounding stupid. The fear can be that strong that it prevents us from even trying to do it.

As I’ve already said, we need to speak more to get better, so being scared to do any speaking is not exactly ideal.

Really all you need to do is accept that you will make mistakes and you will look stupid. It’s going to happen, you can’t avoid it. You are a learner, this is what learners do and the sooner you can accept that the sooner you can start making progress with your speaking skills.

(You can read more about – What Are The Benefits Of Practising Your Speaking Skills In A Second Language?)

You Need More French Input To Get Better At Speaking

It may sound counterproductive, but to get better at speaking in French you need to do more listening and reading.

Basically speaking French is difficult for you as you do not really know French. You might sort of remember a bunch of words, or remember how some of the grammar works, but overall you are not comfortable in the language, certainly nowhere near comfortable in the same way you will be with your native language. 

The only way to get comfortable with the language is to be exposed to more of. This means you need to listen and read more French.

This extra exposure will subconsciously strengthen your French knowledge and when you actually go to speak it will be a lot easier.

There is no set amount that you need to read or listen to, but the more the better. It really is just about making yourself comfortable with what you know in French, the more comfortable you are, the easier you will find it to speak.

Practice Your Pronunciation To Improve Your French Speaking

Another issue we have when speaking French is that we struggle to do it properly. Our mouths are not use to making the sounds that are needed in French.

To get better at this, we just need to practice. It is literally a muscular weakness and we just have to train our mouth to get better at making the right sounds.

This can be done by simply saying words out loud or reading out loud like I discussed above.

When we are more comfortable with producing the correct sounds in French, we will in turn be more comfortable actually speaking.

The pronunciation is only a small aspect of speaking but making this more comfortable just removes this worry out of the equation and allows us to focus more on what we actually want to say.  

(You can read more – How To Speak Faster When Talking In French)

Use A Language Exchange To Improve Your French Speaking

A true test of your French speaking skills will be gained from speaking to a real French speaker, which you are going to find on a language exchange site.

Language exchange sites are amazing for finding new friends and practicing your language. A lot of the communication will be through text in the beginning but as you build some friendships you can start sending audio messages and even have phone calls.

This can seem a little scary, but it’s really not and you will really feel tested the first time you do this and gain so much from it. If you do this often enough you will really accelerate your French speaking skill very quickly. 

(You can read more about – Language Exchange Partners)

Conclusion

Speaking in French is only difficult as you are not comfortable with the language and you are worried you will look stupid and be embarrassed.

You need to stop worrying and just practice more. The more comfortable you get with French, the faster your speaking skills will improve.

Just put the time and effort into speaking and you will get better. 

(You can read more about – Advice For Anyone Learning The French Language)