How to Learn to Read French

Nearly 75 million people speak French as their first or primary language. French is the official language of 22 countries and is an official co-language of others. French colonization spread the language to many communities around the world on almost every continent. As a Romance language, French originated from the Latin spoken during the ancient Roman Empire. French shares many cognate words with Spanish and Italian, two other Romance languages, and the French alphabet's characters are identical to those used in English. Once you have learned the rules of French pronunciation, you will be able to read the language, even though you may not understand the meaning of every new word.

Things You'll Need

  • Index cards
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Instructions

    • 1
      Listen to audio clips of French pronunciation.

      Practice French pronunciation. Pronunciation is the most challenging aspect of learning French. A website with audio clips of each vowel and consonant sound can be played repeatedly until you master them. Focus on the letters you find most challenging.

    • 2

      Memorize the sound of each letter. Make flash cards on index paper with each letter written on a separate card. Say the sound of the letter corresponding to the card. Repeat this process until you have memorized every letter of the French alphabet.

    • 3

      Do not linger on the consonants when speaking. Move directly to the vowel sound that follows in the word. Eighteen of the consonants are pronounced exactly the same as in English. Practice the 15 that differ.

    • 4
      The vowels are the letters A, E, I, O and U.

      Pronounce French vowels further forward in the mouth than you do with English vowels.

    • 5
      Every word in a sentence is one of the nine parts of speech.

      Study English grammar. It is necessary to know the nine parts of speech to facilitate learning a second language. The nine parts of speech are articles, pronouns, nouns, prepositions, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions and interjections.

    • 6
      Verbs are action words, such as "manger" (to eat).

      Learn to conjugate French verbs. Conjugation refers to the process of changing a few letters of a verb to convey information about the action.

    • 7
      Use a French dictionary to expand your vocabulary.

      Build your vocabulary. The human mind can retain no more than eight new words per day. Focus on learning only as many words as you can remember in one sitting.

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