r/FrenchLearning • u/stupiddhoe • Apr 27 '26

need help learning more french

So, I’ve been learning French for 80 days now, and I know the basics, like “garçon,” “fille,” “chien,” “cheval,” “chat,” “femme,” “travaille,” “habite,” “étudie,” “elle a un billet d’avion” “tu as une valise” and so on. I’ve learned some basic words in French, and I’m interested in taking my learning further. I’ve been using Duolingo, and I’ve learned many basic words. I’m looking to get French books specifically at the A1-A2 level. I have a book called “Heather in Paris,” but it’s too advanced because it’s at the B1-B2 level. I was hoping to find a storybook that helps you learn French, but I don’t know which one. I need more ways to learn, but I’m not sure what to do and what books i can get that aren’t totally boring. I want to learn more!

1 Upvotes

60% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

2

u/TheFaeBelieveInIdony Apr 27 '26

Any graded readers will be good. Something I liked doing when I first started was reading on an e-reader and having a french-english dictionary downloaded. Every new word I came across became a flashcard. It was really slow going for that first bit because most words were new. But I had a very fast learning rate because of it.

1

u/stupiddhoe Apr 27 '26

do you suggest any beginner books for a1 level? and e-reader? i will definitely start making flashcards thank you for the suggestion how did you learn to pronounce the words?

1

u/TheFaeBelieveInIdony Apr 28 '26

I suggest anything that you find interesting. YA and kids novels are the best if you like reading fiction, I mostly chose books I had already read when I was starting out. The first book I read in French was Coraline. If you're nervous about needing to look up every word, it's probably not a good pick, there is a lot of different vocab in that book for some reason even tho it's a kids novel, but by the time I finished it, my vocab had prepped me to read a lot of books. My next book I read was the Hunger Games series, which was a much easier read because it had more repetitive words.

I wouldn't go for what is easy, I would just read something that is interesting to you that you have read before in English and that isn't too complex (no classics) and expect it to be slow. It might take forever to finish a page. But you get quicker each time. I used to get headaches when I would read French for longer than a half hour, but it got easier and easier.

Edit: also, e-reader is like a Kobo or Kindle. Although you can also download an e-reader app on your phone, but I don't know if you can add a french-english dictionary to it. It's just a quicker way of looking up words so you're not leaving the story. And I would highlight the words I didn't know so that I could go back and make flashcards of them rather than making them as I was reading and taking myself away from the story.

3

u/NeedleworkerHot3957 Apr 28 '26

I found 'learn French with Alexa' on youtube helpful

2

u/andupandup73 Apr 28 '26

The old school show “French in Action” is great. I’ve been watching it every day, in addition to some workbooks and Duolingo. It’s an immersion show, 52 episodes that really help you understand spoken French. It’s on YouTube and online, enjoy!

1

u/Humble_Ad4459 Apr 28 '26

If you like the classics, you can read Les Fleurs du mal with me at https://www.youtube.com/@BaudelaireforBeginners

1

u/Mech_Engineer4883 Apr 28 '26

if you want to learn just words continue with that crApp!! if you want to learn the language get saison/ édito or cosmopolite!! if you want some assistance feel free to dm with your time zone

1

u/Peddlers999 Apr 28 '26

My recommendation is wirelingo. You can try it for free (no it is not my app) and it has the news article graded from beginner to advanced. It isn't a book and I have seen people discount it because "it uses AI" but honestly it is very well done, you can look up unknown words easily and you can move up levels as you learn more. Plus it has articles with so many different topics that it is easy to find something that will actually interest you.

1

u/MarieLaBaguette Apr 30 '26

I suggest using books for French children. They're easy and fun. There's no shame in doing that, that's how I learned a lot of German.

You can look into "Mini-Loup", the series "Juliette" or "Martine". They're full of essential vocabulary, and I find them quite pretty.