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Français French
Metropolitan French, leaning on vous — the register you need with a stranger.
No card. $19.95 a month afterwards, for French alone.
Hear it
Three lines from the French set
Not samples written for this page — these are blocks from the shipped content, exactly as you would drill them.
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Je suis développeur de logiciels.I'm a software developer.
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Pardon, vous l’avez dans une autre taille ?Excuse me, do you have it in another size?
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Pourriez-vous répéter, s’il vous plaît ? La ligne est mauvaise.Could you repeat that, please? The line is bad.Blaming the line asks for a repeat without announcing that your French failed. Pourriez-vous is the conditional — softer than pouvez-vous, and worth the extra syllable.
Audio uses your browser's built-in voices. If nothing plays, no French voice is installed on this device — the app says so plainly rather than failing quietly.
What is inside
14 islands
Each is a topic you can hold up on your own for thirty seconds. Build few, drill them past the point of thinking.
- My work Mon travail The second question anyone asks. Have all of it ready cold.
- Why I study French Pourquoi j'apprends le français Fires the moment anyone compliments your French. It always comes.
- My family Ma famille Rewrite this one first. Wrong details here are worse than none.
- Ordering a meal Au restaurant Transactional, frequent, unforgiving of hesitation. Drill to reflex.
- Where I live Où j'habite Pairs with the work island — somebody always asks where you came from.
- What I do outside work Mes loisirs The island that keeps a conversation going once the basics are done.
- Getting around Se déplacer You need this while tired and carrying luggage. Overlearn it.
- Shopping Faire des courses Short, frequent exchanges where hesitating costs you the queue.
- Weather and small talk Bavardage The filler that keeps a silence from becoming awkward.
- Making plans Prendre rendez-vous The moment a conversation could become a second meeting.
- When something goes wrong Quand ça se passe mal The island you will need under stress, which is when improvising fails.
- Opinions and preferences Mon avis What turns an interview into a conversation.
- On the phone Au téléphone No face to read and no pointing. The one conversation where a rehearsed opening earns its keep immediately.
- Officialdom À l'administration Narrow vocabulary, fixed script, and a high price for getting it wrong — the definition of an island worth drilling.
Under pressure
6 staged conversations
Drills tell you which island is coming. These do not — somebody speaks first, and you work out which of your islands answers them.
- Meeting someone at a party A friend's flat in Paris. The man by the kitchen table turns and starts talking. Three of your islands answer everything he is about to ask — the only question is whether you reach the right one before the silence lands. 4 beats
- Dinner for two A packed bistro at half past eight. The waiter is moving fast and will not slow down for you. Every beat is a sentence you already have — this is a speed test, not a comprehension one. 5 beats
- Small talk on the train Two hours to Lyon and the woman opposite has decided to talk. Nothing here is transactional — she is simply curious, so no script fits perfectly and you have to reach for the closest island quickly. Note she uses vous throughout. 5 beats
- Making the connection Eleven minutes before your train and the board is showing nothing useful. The man at the window is helpful but quick, and every fumbled question costs a minute you do not have. 4 beats
- Buying something that fits A department store on a Saturday. The assistant reaches you within seconds, so the "just looking" line has to be ready before you have decided anything. 4 beats
- Something went wrong Customer service on a Monday with a queue behind you. Complaining in a second language is where politeness and clarity pull against each other — these blocks do both. 4 beats
How French is graded
Graded word by word, with a near-miss tier for accents.
A missing accent is a near miss rather than a wrong word: you had the word, you fumbled the diacritic. Word order and elision are graded strictly, since those are the parts that stop you being understood.
Every drill grades what you actually produced, word by word or character by character, and shows you the exact unit you dropped. The number is there so the scheduler knows what to bring back; the marking is there so you can see what to fix.
Seven days of French, free
No card, nothing to cancel. If the drilling works, it is $19.95 a month for French — and your islands stay yours either way.
Open French