Learn French
French is a reading language long before it is a speaking one, and most courses hide that from you. iLexiBox does not: the beginner path spends its whole first stage on the gap between how French is spelled and how it is said, because that gap is the subject, not an obstacle in front of it.
Start at the alphabet
The French on-ramp is written by hand, not generated, and it is 488 cards long. Every card is spoken in a recorded French voice, and what you get right is scheduled for review rather than shown again at random.
- 26letters
- 10digits
- 32pronunciation rules
- 300core words
- 60everyday phrases
- 60sentences
Three of the pronunciation cards, exactly as the on-ramp teaches them:
- ch — “ch” sounds like English SHchat — cat
- gn — “gn” sounds like NY, as in canyonmontagne — mountain
- j — “j” is a soft ZH, like the s in “measure”jour — day
Your first French phrases
The first phrase and sentence cards of the on-ramp, each spoken in a recorded voice:
- Comment allez-vous ? koh-mahn tah-lay VOO — How are you? (formal)
- Très bien, merci. treh BYAN, mehr-SEE — Very well, thank you.
- Et vous ? ay VOO — And you? (formal)
- Bonjour, comment ça va ? bohn-ZHOOR, koh-MAHN sah VAH — Hello, how are you?
- Je m'appelle Ana. zhuh mah-PEHL ah-NAH — My name is Ana.
Then material that does not run out
Above the on-ramp sit the practice path (A1 to C2), Make a text at your level and the album: more than 2,700 photographs, each captioned and spoken in French. French has practice and tools, not lessons — the only course on iLexiBox is the full English course (how each part works).
What French actually costs a beginner
French writes letters it does not pronounce and pronounces links that are not written. A final consonant is usually silent until the next word begins with a vowel, at which point it comes back; the nasal vowels have no English equivalent at all; and the same sound is spelled four or five ways. This is why the on-ramp carries more pronunciation cards for French than for any other language here, each with a real word and a recorded voice, and why the reading tool matters: French rewards volume, and the generator gives you as much of it as you want at the level you are actually at.
The full English course, A1–C1 →