If you want to learn French in 2024, you’re in the right place.
I’ve spared you the guesswork by testing these 18 French-learning apps out myself. And now, I’m giving you my review of each to help you find the one that works for you!
In this post, you’ll discover the 18 best apps to learn French based on your interests and needs.
Summary: TV5Monde turns TV broadcasts from France into French lessons.
Best for: Native French video and audio, vocabulary, grammar explanations, reading, writing, listening
Price: Free
TV5Monde is a native French television channel that broadcasts TV shows and news in France and all over the world.
In addition to its broadcasts, TV5Monde offers a well-rounded French learning app that allows you to learn the language completely from native French speakers.
The app has four levels of French, starting at beginner and ending at upper intermediate. Each level has dozens of videos featuring native French audio on a wide range of topics.
Each video comes with complete subtitles in French and multilingual transcriptions to follow along.
There are also a number of exercises such as quizzes, fill-in-the-blanks and crosswords to check your understanding.
Pros:
Authentic content
Diverse programming
Exposure to various accents, dialects and colloquial expressions used by different French speakers
Many programs come with subtitles
Cons:
Some of the content may be challenging for beginners, as it is primarily targeted at a native or advanced French-speaking audience
Summary: Rosetta Stone teaches you new words through pictures instead of translation.
Best for: Immersion, listening, reading, speaking, vocabulary building
Price: Free trial available; subscription required for full access
One of the oldest and most popular learning methodologies around, Rosetta Stone sets itself apart by offering a completely immersive experience.
From the very beginning, it teaches French purely through French—there’s not a word of English in the course.
By doing this, Rosetta Stone simulates the environment that it believes is most conducive to learning a new language—when we were young children learning to speak our mother tongues.
You’ll be taken through a well-sequenced program where you’ll be exposed to words, sentences and phrases that build on top of what you’ve already learned.
By linking concepts and objects directly to French words (instead of their English equivalents), Rosetta Stone is an extremely effective method.
Pros:
Employs an immersive learning method, focusing on visual and auditory cues
Speech recognition technology
Offers a structured curriculum that guides learners through different levels
Incorporates cultural context into its lessons
Cons:
Limited grammar explanations
Can be relatively expensive
Advanced learners might find the content less challenging or insufficiently comprehensive
Summary: FluentU teaches you French through authentic content, like music videos, movie trailers and more.
Best for: Immersion, listening, vocabulary, learning French culture
Price: Free trial available; subscription required for full access
FluentU immerses learners in French through a variety of authentic videos with interactive subtitles.
The interactive French-English captions allow you to tap on any word in the subtitles and see an in-context definition, a pronunciation guide, further video examples and an image.
Videos are categorized by skill level and genre with an option to search for videos that contain a specific word or phrase.
If you want to practice new words, you can save them to multimedia flashcard decks for later review through personalized exercises.
There are also quizzes that come with every video to test your knowledge. These learning tools can make native-level material accessible even for beginners.
Pros:
Learn with real, authentic content
Adapts to your learning pace and style by recommending videos based on your progress and interests
Summary: Français Authentique provides study materials for upper-intermediate and advanced French learners.
Best for: Listening, native French audio, vocabulary and phrases, transcripts and exercises
Price: Free
This app is based on the successful Français Authentique YouTube channel.
Français Authentique’s YouTube channel has over one million subscribers, and its host, Johan, has helped countless people improve their French through his French vlogs and podcasts.
Français Authentique’s YouTube channel is completely in French, as is the app.
This includes the actual in-app audio and video content as well as the descriptions and supporting materials. Because of this, the app is recommended for high beginner and intermediate learners.
The audio and video content revolves around podcasts produced in slow, clear French. Topics include common vocabulary and grammar topics, lifestyle vlogs, self-improvement and productivity.
New audio and video content is constantly added and PDF files can be downloaded from the app for learners to follow along.
Pros:
Focuses on authentic, everyday conversations in French
Follows a natural progression, starting with basic concepts and gradually building up to more complex language structures
Emphasis on listening skills
Content is often presented in real-life contexts
Available in various formats, including podcasts and courses
Cons:
Lacks a structured learning path with clear lesson plans and progression markers
Summary: Brainscape provides French flashcards optimized for the best learner experience.
Best for: Pronunciation explanations, grammar tips, reading, listening, flashcards
Price: First level is free. Additional levels available at a cost
At first glance, you may be thinking, “what’s so special about French flashcards?” But let me tell you, these flashcards are pretty special.
For starters, each flashcard comes with native French audio, so you can hear exactly how a French word or phrase is pronounced.
Secondly, these flashcards don’t just present French words and translations by themselves. Instead, they include words that are in complete sentences to provide context.
Further, each flashcard comes with in-depth explanations of grammar points, so you’re learning new words and how to fit them into your existing French at the same time.
Brainscape also uses SRS and offers four levels up to intermediate. At the end of all five courses, you will have mastered more than 15,500 cards.
Pros:
Offers structured learning paths and courses for learning French, providing a clear roadmap
Adapts to individual learning styles and progress, adjusting the difficulty of flashcards accordingly
Supports multimedia elements such as images and audio, enhancing engagement and comprehension
Can track your progress, including mastery levels and time spent studying
Cons:
Limited free content
Some users may find the depth of content insufficient for reaching an advanced level
Summary: Mango Languages takes ordinary conversations and dissects them for ultimate French study and comprehension.
Best for: Listening, reading, flashcards, everyday vocabulary and phrases, travel vocabulary
Price: Free with some library memberships
Mango Languages is one of the best all-around apps for learning basic French.
The primary Mango Languages French course has four units with five lessons in each. Each lesson revolves around a written and spoken French conversation.
The subsequent activities include dissecting the grammar and vocabulary used in the dialogue through a flashcard-based approach.
The app also allows you to record your own audio to accompany each French word and phrase.
This is great for comparing your recordings to native French speech and practicing the accurate pronunciation of French words and phrases.
Mango Languages French has great grammar and cultural explanations, and it uses Spaced Repetition System (SRS) technology to help you review words at regular intervals.
Pros:
Emphasizes conversational skills
Integrates cultural insights into its lessons
Speech recognition technology
Offline access available
Track your learning progress and proficiency levels through the tracking tools
Cons:
Limited free content
Sometimes lacks depth in grammar explanations
The pacing of lessons may feel slow for some learners
Summary: LingQ provides audio and written content on many subjects, as well as helpful learning features if you get stuck.
Best for: Vocabulary building, listening, reading, flashcards
Price: Limited features with a free account; full features for a monthly or yearly subscription plan
LingQ is based on learning French through content that you are interested in.
You are able to find written and audio content on almost any topic you want and then choose what you’d like to learn about in French.
The reading interface that LingQ provides is fully interactive—each word is clickable and will give you an instant translation.
You can also turn any word you want into a flashcard and review it with SRS later. The technique of instant translations and flashcard creation makes learning smooth and effective.
The endless supply of French content will keep you engaged at each stage of learning.
Pros:
Extensive content library
Heavy focus on immersion
Tracks vocabulary acquisition, allowing you to monitor progress and focus on areas where you need improvement
Choose content based on your interests and level
There’s an active community
Supports learning multiple languages simultaneously
Cons:
Lacks structured courses or lesson plans
Might not be ideal for people who learn best with in-depth language explanations
Summary: Mondly’s attractive app interface makes practicing French an enjoyable yet effective experience.
Best for: Vocabulary building, listening, conversation practice (with a chatbot)
Price: Free; premium features for a price
Mondly is a pretty well-rounded app for learners who want to get a broad introduction to the French language.
While Mondly is a little lacking on the grammar end of things, it’s definitely good at effectively teaching new and useful vocabulary for French learners.
Mondly claims to have thousands of lessons to help you learn all the French you need for conversations with French native speakers.
It hosts lessons based on topics such as food and drink, school and travel. Within each lesson, learners do a variety of activities to learn the words and phrases that go with each topic.
Such activities include matching, fill-in-the-blanks and sentence building. Repetition really is key here, and you get loads of it with Mondly!
Summary: Pro Language’s French English Translator gives you high-quality auto-translations with features that will help you learn French like a pro.
Best for: Speech-input and written translation, copy and paste functionality, French audio
Price: Free
Pro Language’s French English Translator is a translation app that supports both French and English input.
Whether you want to translate a single word or you want to copy and paste a full text from your device’s clipboard, the app offers an accurate translation between French and English.
In addition to its written-input functionality, the app also supports speech input. Simply speak in one language and get an instant translation into the other language.
Do you want to actually hear how French sounds? Well, lucky for you, Pro Language’s French English Translator also includes text-to-speech technology.
Pros:
Easily switch between French and English
Practice speaking with the speech input feature
Improve pronunciation with text-to-speech technology
User-friendly interface and easy to use
Cons:
Since it’s just a translator, it won’t teach you French grammar or provide structured lessons
Summary: Drops makes vocabulary acquisition fun and efficient.
Best for: Vocabulary building, repetition, spelling, listening
Price: Limited free content; monthly or yearly subscription fee
The idea behind this app is actually in its name! Learners quite literally master the French language one drop at a time.
Assuming you don’t have a subscription—you can only use the app for five minutes a day.
Each drop is a word or a short phrase, and learners drag it around the screen in various activities. These activities can be picture matching, true or false or word and sentence building.
Drops focuses on practical vocabulary and doesn’t weigh the learner down with tedious grammar rules and explanations.
The vocabulary revolves around words and phrases that are most useful to the learner at the beginner and intermediate stages of learning.
Best of all, Drops keeps track of your progress by linking it to a traveler’s proficiency level.
Pros:
Short, focused lessons fit into busy schedules
Incorporates gamification elements such as challenges, rewards and streaks
Offline access available
Audio pronunciation available
Easily track your progress
Cons:
Doesn’t provide in-depth explanations of grammar rules or cultural context
Lack of speaking practice
You can’t access certain lessons until you’ve completed the ones before them
Free members only get five minutes of learning time
Summary: Tandem French matches you up with French language exchange partners.
Best for: Speaking and listening, language exchange with native speakers
Price: Basic functionality is free. Full features unlocked with in-app purchases
Tandem is a conversation exchange app that allows you to practice French with native speakers and build meaningful, long-term language-learning partnerships with people all over the world.
The premise is simple: Tandem acts as a matchmaker service for finding language partners.
Simply fill out your profile and scroll through the scores of other profiles of people with similar language aspirations as you!
Ideally, you’ll find a native French speaker to practice French with in exchange for practicing their target language with them, whether it’s English or another language you know.
Learners can chat in-app or take their exchange off-app and use an audio or video calling service such as Skype or Hangouts.
Tandem also has an in-app translation feature, voice messages and personalized tutors that can be purchased at a per-lesson price.
Pros:
Connecting with native speakers lets you learn a lot about the French culture
Real-time messaging and video calls let you practice French throughout the day and whenever you have free time
Choose language partners based on interests, proficiency level and learning goals
Cons:
Language partners can be flaky, making it hard to find someone for consistent practice
Does not offer structured lessons or curriculum
Some features—like unlimited translations—require a subscription
Summary: Busuu provides French lessons with intermittent corrections from native speakers.
Best for: Listening, reading, writing, speaking, vocabulary building, practice with other learners and native speakers
Price: Free download with in-app purchases
Busuu French really focuses on fostering an active community of users that help each other practice their language.
In each lesson, you’re given key vocabulary, the dialogue, a writing exercise, a practice speaking session with native speakers, a dialogue recording and a lesson review to close things up.
Busuu is very comprehensive in the topics it covers, and the exercises are designed around speaking, writing and listening. The app is based on the CEFR, so its material is highly certifiable.
Besides Busuu’s lessons, it also provides lots of ways to connect with other language learners or natives and communicate with them about your journey.
Pros:
Structured lessons and learning paths place equal focus on vocabulary, grammar, speaking and writing
Offers personalized study plans
Interactive exercises and quizzes reinforce what you’ve learned
Speech recognition technology gives feedback on pronunciation
Get community feedback within minutes
Cons:
Limited free content
Learn more about Busuu with our in-depth review here.
Summary: MindSnacks lets you learn French while playing fun games.
Best for: Vocabulary building, listening, reading
Price: Free with in-app purchases
MindSnacks is a beautifully designed iOS app for French learners that takes a game-oriented approach to learning and revising words.
MindSnacks helps you learn new words through nine games that cover different vocabulary units like food, jobs and transport.
In one game, a word flashes on the screen and you have to match it to the correct drawing. Get as many correct answers as you can in each round for high scores.
In another game, a bunch of French and English words appear as balloons. Your challenge is to match as many pairs as possible.
With over 50 vocabulary sets, you’ll find that these games will help you learn vocabulary quickly, while having fun.
Pros:
Tons of interactive activities, like games, quizzes and challenges
Summary: Frantastique dishes out daily French lessons about amusing fictional stories.
Best for: In-depth French lessons, French-only learning, vocabulary building, grammar practice, listening
Price: Monthly subscription fee with various levels of access
Frantastique is a fully functional platform for well-rounded French lessons delivered daily to your phone.
Each day, a new Frantastique French lesson arrives on your device that provides a story about aliens.
These cute aliens take us through various aspects of French culture from Edith Piaf to Victor Hugo, and they teach us loads of French along the way.
After listening to and reading a short scene about the aliens’ adventures in French, learners study various aspects of the French language presented in the aliens’ scene.
Oftentimes, learners practice newly introduced vocabulary and grammar structures, and there are plenty of practice exercises for reinforcement.
Best of all, after the learner completes their daily Frantastique lesson, it’s sent off to be marked by a native speaker. When it returns, all the errors are identified with accompanying explanations.
Pros:
Adaptive learning technology tailors lessons to your needs
Contains tons of diverse content
Easily track your progress
Focuses on building real-life conversation skills
Grammar and vocabulary are covered extensively
Cons:
Limited content for advanced learners
You can check out our full review of Frantastique here.
Summary: Duolingo gamifies learning new vocabulary and sentence structures.
Best for: Listening, reading, speaking, writing, vocabulary building, grammar tips
Price: Free; paid monthly premium subscription available
Among all the apps here, Duolingo probably strikes the best balance between learning French, being well-designed and being fun.
Duolingo breaks down everything and chunks it all together into about 60 neat units.
One of the best things about using Duolingo is that it’s really quick to use. Lessons only take about five minutes and include fun exercises such as rearranging sentences, matching and pronunciation practice.
Duolingo has other great features including the ability to follow friends, XP to track your progress, a virtual currency store, a word meter that designs review lessons based on your familiarity with words and more.
Pros:
Completely free—there’s no need to upgrade to the paid version
Gamifies learning French with rewards, achievements and progress tracking
Structured curriculum
Engages your speaking, listening, reading and writing skills
Diverse exercises for using all four skills
Duolingo frequently updates its courses
Cons:
Limited depth when it comes to grammar topics
Quality and usefulness of some sentences are poor
Learn much more about using Duolingo in our in-depth review here.
Summary: Memrise teaches useful words and phrases based on your learner level.
Best for: Flashcards, listening, reading, speaking, vocabulary building
Price: Basic app is free; premium subscription is available for additional features
One of the most innovative free apps for learning French words I’ve seen in a long time, Memrise is an excellent choice if you’re struggling to remember French words after a while.
Their staple French courses have been created by professionals, but you can also find courses created by everyday learners or amateur French teachers.
The professional flashcard decks focus on the most useful French words for all levels and include video and audio clips of native French speech.
Words are presented in batches of 15 centered around themes like verbs, thoughts, feelings and colors.
User-made decks may be missing video and audio (or both), but they’re fantastic for picking up where the professionally-made courses leave off.
Further, because they’re created by the community, they are constantly evolving with new content being added daily.
Pros:
Tons of French courses available
Completely free—there’s no need to upgrade to the paid version
Uses spaced-repetition software to put words in your long-term memory
Ability to create your own courses and take courses made by users
Summary: SpeakEasy is an e-phrasebook that comes in handy for travel.
Best for: Vocabulary and phrases building, native speaker audio, flashcards, listening, reading
Price: Low one-time price to download
SpeakEasy is loaded with tons of words and phrases that you would need to travel to a French-speaking country.
Words come with translations and a recording of a native speaker saying the word so you can be sure to understand the pronunciation.
Some cool features of SpeakEasy are the slow playback feature and flashcards. These features will really make sure that you understand the words you want to work on.
Since SpeakEasy is so straightforward and available offline, it’s a fantastic option for travelers.
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.
