Is French hard to learn, or is it one of the easiest languages? For starters, French is one of the major languages spoken worldwide, with an average of 275 million people speaking it. Think about Africa, Canada, and of course, France.
The good news is that learning French doesn’t have many challenging aspects.
Is French Hard To Learn For English Speakers?
English speakers might be at an advantage while learning French due to the many French words part of the English language. Around 45% of the English words are derived from French.
In addition, English speakers might recognize some terms used in everyday life that are, in fact, French, but most people do not realize it.
Here are some examples:
- Boutique
- Cage
- Date
- Garage
- Image
- Menu
- Nature
- Photo
- Sandwich
- Radio
- Train
English is a Germanic language. However, it was influenced a lot by the Latin and French languages. As a result, the French lexicon has become part of English, and many words are similar in the two languages.
But it is true the opposite; English has influenced a lot of French too through the centuries, making the town languages even more similar.
A native English speaker has many chances to contact French speakers since the French language is the only language spoken on all five continents (apart from English). Because of these reasons, it is relatively easy to learn French; it is only necessary to invest a little time and work.
How Long To Learn French?
It takes between 500 – 600 hours on average to learn French. Or up to 24 weeks, which signifies that it is relatively easy and fast to understand for native English speakers.
The average estimated time to learn French will depend on your original language, time, and effort. You can begin speaking French faster by following some of these tips:
1. Watch French Films
One good way to improve your French vocabulary and understand better the French accent marks is to watch movies in French with subtitles in your language. Watching movies in the original language is the reason so many people in Scandinavia speak good English.
They do not have a voice-over at the cinema, but only the original language with the subtitles in Danish, Swedish, etc. You could do the same and get to French fluency faster.
2. Listen To Other People Speaking French
Listening to many others speaking can help you learn the correct French pronunciation. You can do this through a recorded learning program, radio, and other means.
3. Practice A Lot
Practicing with another person or with French people can help you speak French in a shorter time. Repetition is key to memorizing the basic words and the French grammar. Even if you know the theory, you can “lose” your knowledge without practicing.
Start speaking the language as soon as possible with a French tutor, family, friends, or a native speaker.
4. Read French Books
Reading easy French books can help you master other aspects of the language. For example, you can get better writing skills if you see how writers use the language. You can better understand how basic sentences are written, learn irregular verbs, and more.
5. Travel Abroad
If you can visit France or another French-speaking country, you can accelerate your French studies. Moreover, there is nothing better than living for a while with French-speaking people and having to speak French in everyday life.
What Can Make French Hard To Learn?
Like any other language, there are always challenging aspects to consider. If French has challenging aspects, those can be the following:
- French pronunciation
- Accent marks
- French spelling
- French gendered nouns and grammatical gender rules
- French grammar exceptions
- Verb conjugation
- French conjugation
- Silent letters
Although French is one of the easiest European languages, grammatical rules can make learning French complex for beginners. In addition, there are many grammar rules and exceptions to remember.
The French counting system is quite different from the English one. It is not very straightforward, and it gets complex once you have to say numbers over 60.
In addition, the French language has gendered nouns; you will have to remember how to make masculine and feminine nouns. Furthermore, French has a lot of accent marks that a beginner has to learn and know how to pronounce.
For example:
- Ç – Cédille
- é – Accent aigu
- â – Accent circumflex
- à – Accent grave
- ë – Accent Tréma
Are you willing to learn the grammar rules and memorize them? Then you should know that French will not be a complicated language.
If you want to know more about French words and phrases, read Cheers In French: The 11+ Best Ways.
Learn French With Ling App
Now you have an effective list of five awesome hacks to learn French. If you follow this guide, you will see how easy it gets to learn this language.
French is a beautiful language and one of the most famous romance languages. However, if you want to learn about it and become fluent quickly, you can use the Ling App. It is a language learning tool that offers lessons in more than 60 languages!
Ling contains a lot of lessons and exercises to help you learn French and any other Romance Language you like. You can use it from a desktop computer or mobile device from any place you want.
If you want to learn more about French, check out some of our other blog posts, including How To Say Happy New Year and Introduce Yourself In French.
