Learning French requires consistency, but sometimes it may feel difficult to fit into your daily schedule.
That’s why I made this guide— to help you find a way to get that French practice in, even when you’re busy!
Whether you want to practice French online or just change up your routine to include some daily French practice, this post will give you plenty of resources and strategies to try out!
Download a language exchange app. You can text, call or video call your language partner even if it’s for just 5-10 minutes.
Do online word games (like Scrabble) and crosswords in French
Do online grammar and vocabulary drills for 2-5 minutes. Digital Dialects has plenty, for example. TV5Monde has over 4,300 exercises that are organized by level, from A1 to B2.
Watch a few scenes of a movie or TV show you’ve already seen in French
Follow a French recipe
Keep a dream journal in French
Make your grocery lists and daily to-do lists in French
Write a French postcard
Create an Instagram, Twitter or Facebook account in French and post your thoughts on your feed or stories
10 Ideas for Daily French Grammar Practice
Have a “Grammar Minute.” Set a timer for one minute every day to review as many grammar notes as possible.
Find a quote online and learn its grammar structure
Do online quizzes and exercises for verb conjugations and grammar points. Exercises.one has 51 French grammar exercises organized by topic, such as tenses, pronouns, adverbs, etc.
Find a French sentence online, scramble the words and then rewrite it grammatically correct
Write 5 sentences using a grammar point you recently learned or need to review
Analyze 3-5 grammar points used in French song lyrics
Watch 5 minutes of a French movie and write down any sentence structures you didn’t understand or wouldn’t have been able to form on your own
Pick a topic and take 5 minutes to write or make an audio recording of an argument in favor or against it, focusing on grammar structures for persuasion
Look back at your old French journals, texts, etc. and spot any grammar errors you used to make
Create flashcard decks only for specific grammar points and review them during your commute, in the shower, during breakfast, etc.
10 Ideas for Daily French Listening & Speaking Practice
Listen to French radio stations while commuting, exercising or doing chores
Spend 5 minutes listening to a podcast episode. If you can, find a transcript that lets you read along.
Listen to one verse of a song and try to dictate on a piece of paper what the singer is singing. Then check your dictations against the actual lyrics.
Listen to 30-60 seconds of a French audio—such as a YouTube clip, movie scene, etc.—and repeat what you hear immediately after. Try not to pause the audio.
Record yourself for 2-3 minutes a day talking about something in French. If you need topic ideas, use a random topic generator like this one.
Talk to Siri in French (this only works if you’ve changed your phone language to French)
Say your thoughts out loud in only French for 5 minutes
Watch a short French YouTube video, then summarize what the video was about in 30-60 seconds in French
Sing French songs out loud while in the shower or in the car. Focus on pronunciation.
Look around your home. Choose the first thing you lay eyes on and try to describe it out loud in French. Repeat this for 3-5 items.
13 Ideas for Daily French Reading & Writing Practice
Write a short story in French. It can be as short as five sentences or as long as a page.
Write a short daily journal entry in French to talk about what happened during your day and your current thoughts
Write captions for your social media posts in French
Participate in French Twitter chats on a topic that interests you
Join online French forums (like Reddit), Facebook groups or Discord chats
Get a French penpal and write emails or letters to them in French
Choose an object around you and write a detailed description of it in French
Use a random question generator, then journal about your response in French
Look up the lyrics to a French song. Choose 3-5 sentences, then rewrite them using synonyms and other grammar structures where possible.
Start a blog in French
Spend 5 minutes reading an interesting blog in French
Join (or start) an online French book club
Write a short fan letter to your favorite French celebrity, musician, or author
This fun website is a great resource for online French learning.
Plus, it’s totally free and has something for all levels!
For total beginners, there are some fun children’s books. They also have online French lessons that are user-friendly and easy on the eyes, and are particularly useful for vocabulary building.
If you are more advanced, The French Experiment may look too easy at first glance.
But don’t be fooled. This website has tons of lessons that cover little details you may have forgotten or never thought to study (such as conversation fillers).
Incorporating this information into your daily lesson will keep your routine fresh, varied and fun!
Check out these 19 best websites to learn French, no matter what level you’re at! From interactive courses to authentic French resources, for beginner to advanced…
You need to find ways to speak with actual French people to develop your French skills.
Fortunately, italki makes it easy by connecting you with French tutors online.
You can choose from hundreds of tutors based on their rates, experience, teaching specialties and more. Then just select a date and time for your lesson on the italki calendar.
If you prefer to keep things on a budget, italki also has a free option to connect you with a language exchange partner.
Subscriptions and Social Media for Daily French Practice
Frantastique is another great website that offers personalized French lessons. Their philosophy is to teach you French in just 15 minutes per day.
Frantastique looks at your specific needs and tailors the materials to you. That way, you can progress as quickly as possible without covering lessons you already know.
Their program mixes short daily lessons with custom reviews of your work to focus on your strengths and weaknesses..
If you don’t already know the difference between the third person singular and plural conjugations of the verb aimer (to like), switch to French on Facebook and you can be sure you’ll never forget.
Similarly to Twitter, Facebook makes for an easy way to change up your daily routine to include French.
Read through French posts and even write your own to practice your French reading and writing skills!
If you love to watch YouTube, there are thousands of videos out there in French!
Whether you want something that is geared towards French learning or simply want to watch something you’re interested in, there are plenty of French creators you can look into!
You can check out our in-depth guide to learning French on YouTube here:
In this post, we share the top 34 French YouTube channels of 2024, ranging from language learning to comedy to science. Any of these channels is suitable for learners…
This lovely collection of short stories will give you some great, easily-digestible reading material for shorter spurts of French comprehension practice.
The stories take on all kinds of topics and writing styles, so there’s bound to be something you’ll enjoy here for casual reading.
Another excellent collection of French learning materials, but this time it’s all podcasts (with the accompanying transcripts).
The diverse range of discussion topics found here means that you’ll get engaged in these materials easily.
Strategies for Daily French Practice
If you’re serious about learning French, you need to force yourself to sit down and study every day, even if you have other things you want to do.
The good news is that there are several ways to make this easier so that daily French learning becomes an enjoyable habit.
Here are some of the best strategies to make sure that you practice French daily:
Block out time in your calendar for daily practice. Carve out time in your schedule for daily French lessons now, and it’ll be much easier to avoid distractions.
Use the 10:10:10 daily split. You’ll study ten minutes a day of either listening or speaking and ten minutes a day of either reading or writing. The last ten minutes are for vocabulary building or verb conjugations.
Try the Pomodoro techniquefor studying in spurts with regular breaks. It’s a great way to keep you on track and motivated!
Prep your resources before you start. Otherwise, you’ll spend more time looking for what to work on than actually working.
Evaluate your goals. Tailor your daily lessons to where you’re currently at and what you wish to achieve in the near future.
Search for anything that interests you in French. Instead of looking up a fun fact in English, try searching and reading the answer in French!
Use search functions to check your grammar and spelling. It’s quick and easy.
Like anything worthwhile, learning French takes hard work and consistency. With these daily French practice ideas and resources at your disposal, you’ll look forward to studying rather than dragging your heels.
If you like learning French on your own time and from the comfort of your smart device, then I'd be remiss to not tell you about FluentU.
FluentU has a wide variety of great content, like interviews, documentary excerpts and web series, as you can see here:
FluentU brings native French videos with reach. With interactive captions, you can tap on any word to see an image, definition and useful examples.
For example, if you tap on the word "crois," you'll see this:
Practice and reinforce all the vocabulary you've learned in a given video with learn mode. Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning, and play the mini-games found in our dynamic flashcards, like "fill in the blank."
All throughout, FluentU tracks the vocabulary that you’re learning and uses this information to give you a totally personalized experience. It gives you extra practice with difficult words—and reminds you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned.
