How Hard Is Learning French

Today I'm delighted to characteristic a guest post that answers the mutual question: "Is French hard to learn?"

Hither'south what yous'll acquire:

The difficulty of learning French compared to other languages
Some of the nigh common problems learners face with French
How y'all can learn French quickly and effectively

I hope you enjoy the post!

P.S. Want to larn French chop-chop and speak information technology with confidence? I recommend enrolling in my beginner programme, French Uncovered, which teaches y'all through StoryLearning®. Click here to detect out more than and endeavor out the method for gratuitous.

Anyway, over to Jan…

So you want to acquire French?

French is spoken past more 220 million people on v continents.

It'south the international language of cooking, film, fashion, theatre, the visual arts and dance.

But it's also a language that inspires fear in learners considering of its notoriously tricky pronunciation.

But only howdifficult is it to larn French?

Two years ago I wanted to accept on a new language challenge and I decided to learn French in … Morocco!

In this article, I'thousand going to show you lot what it takes to learn French, and you'll see that learning this beautiful language doesn't take to take a lifetime.

If you'd prefer to spotter this post in video format, just hit play on the video below. Otherwise, continue scrolling to read information technology as a web log post.

Why French Is Easier Than You Think

To meet if French is difficult, I decided to acquire it forane month and find out.

My goal was simple, I wanted to hold a 10-infinitesimal conversation with a native speaker, entirely in French, afterward only ane calendar month.

Y'all might think:"In just one calendar month? Is French that like shooting fish in a barrel?"

Well, this answer depends on a few factors, for case, what your native language is and what your definition of a 'hard' language is.

Allow's assume that you're a native speaker of English language or that yous speak English very well. What does information technology actually take to become fluent in French?

Let'south take a expect at the facts.

The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) has created a listing to bear witness the estimate time y'all need to learn a specific linguistic communication as an English speaker:

As yous can see in the image above they've categorised French every bit a language that is closely related to English and therefore easy to larn.

Co-ordinate to different sources, 45% of all English language words take a French origin. And that is a lot!

Accept a look at these examples of mutual vocabulary in English language and French:

la boutique
l'empire
la muzzle
la date
le fruit
le garage
fifty'image
le carte
la nature
la photo
le sandwich
la radio
le train
le yoga
l'alphabet

Did y'all recognise all of the words? Pretty easy I approximate, but keep in mind that the pronunciation in French is quite different.

So, if French is supposed to be an easy linguistic communication to acquire then why are at that place then many people who say that French is hard?

There are a few things that French learners complain about which might exist tricky to learn for beginners. Permit's take a wait at some of them.

French Pronunciation Is Tricky

French has a huge number of vowels (whereas Spanish and Italian rarely use more than than five). Many of these vowels are new for an English speaker and mastering thepronunciation may have some time. Spanish and Italian are easier than French in this regard.

And and so, there is, of course, the famous French 'r'. In the south of the Netherlands (where I come from) we've got a very similar 'r', so for me, it wasn't much of a struggle, but I know that it can exist a tricky 1 for native English speakers.

Also, in everyday spoken French, particularly when yous're speaking quickly, words can sound quite dissimilar from the standard pronunciation:

Qu'est-ce qu'il fait? ('qu'il' is pronounced as "kee")
Elle connaît la réponse ('elle' is pronounced as "0eh")
Tu sais qu'il veut ça ('qu'il' is pronounced as "kee")
Je veux qu'elle m'appelle ('qu'elle' is pronounced as "keh")

Why French Verb Conjugations Aren't Then Hard

In English, our verb conjugations are very limited;

I consume
you eat
he/she eats
we eat
yous (pl.) eat
they consume

It'south only the verb for the third person singular that changes.

Of course, we too have irregular verbs with more variation;

I am
yous are
he/she is, etc.

In French, on the other hand, there are more conjugations:

Je mange
tu manges
il mange
nous mangeons
vous mangez
ils mangent

Now this might seem catchy simply the practiced news is that the departure between written and spoken French is so big that

the first person atypical (I)
second person singular (y'all)
third person singular (he/she/it)
and third person plural forms (they)

of the verb ''manger'' are pronounced exactly the same despite having written forms that vary substantially.

So, the verbs hither –je mange / tu manges / il mange– are all pronounced the aforementioned style!

This works similarly for many other verbs. Perhaps, we could say that the conjugation of verbs is easier than you might think at first, at least in spoken French, as the conjugated verb is often pronounced the aforementioned.

How Autocorrection Tin can Help Y'all With Conjugations

I plant that writing French is a picayune harder than speaking for this reason. If you lot focus on speaking and you don't practice your writing, you lot will find that it tin be pretty catchy to write a text message to someone in French, even once you speak the language well.

A trick you can use here is that you make certain yous use the automobile correction on your smartphone. When you want to write 'yous eat' and you're not sure if it should be 'tu manges' or 'tu mange', you just write 'tu mang..' and virtually of the time it volition show you the verb conjugation which is most probable to be correct.

In this case, the suggestions for the word are "manger" and "manges". As "manger" is pronounced differently I'm pretty sure the right conjugation for "tu" hither should exist "manges".

You could say that I'grand cheating here, but why non use technology when information technology's available? Texting in French (with machine correction) is also a fun and useful mode to do your writing skills.

Does Irregular Spelling Make French Difficult?

French is non a phonetic language which means that yous can't actually tell the mode a word is pronounced by the way information technology'south written.

The matter is that English isn't a phonetic language either. And yet people from all over the world manage to learn to speak it.

In French, many letters are silent, when they appear at the stop of words. Usually, the lettersb,c,f,k,l,q andr are pronounced when they appear at the end of words (althoughb,k, andq are rarely last consonants).

And then, for example, the discussion "parler" (to speak) has a silentr at the end.

IPA: paʁle (you lot don't pronounce the 'r' at the cease of the word)

Now, of course, when you've been learning French for a while you start seeing the similarities in the written forms and you get a feeling for how certain words are pronounced.

Still, you need to exist careful. Always mind advisedly to a native'southward pronunciation.

Recently, a friend told me over the phone that she had to go to Braine-l'Alleud, a place in Belgium. I thought that I had a pretty good idea almost how French spelling works, merely it took me a long time to find out how the proper noun of this city was really written.

Yeah, languages with non-phonetic alphabets can be tricky sometimes…

How To Wrap Your Caput Around French Word Gender

All nouns in the French language accept a gender, either masculine or feminine. Gender is adamant past the definite or indefinite article ('a/an' or 'the' in English).

When learning the linguistic communication, yous demand to learn the gender of each word with the discussion itself. When you lot learn the word ''business firm'' yous should know that is it 'la maison'. If y'all get the gender of a discussion wrong it can be confusing. In French, the adjectives refer to the gender of the substantive they describe.

Let'southward take a look at a few examples:

The beautiful business firm – La belle maison

If you're not sure near the gender of the word 'maison' and you assume it's masculine, you might say: "Le beau maison"(incorrect)

From the perspective of a French speaker, the terminal pick sounds very strange.

In French, they use 'belle' to describe feminine nouns and 'young man' for masculine.

Each adjective has a masculine/feminine and a single/plural version.

The describing word "belle/young man" in French is irregular but nigh adjectives add an 'e' to the masculine singular form to get the feminine singular.

Américain – Américaine (American)
Blond – blonde (blond)
Fort – forte (strong)
Joli – Jolie (pretty)
Petit – petite (minor)

If you get the gender wrong, you'll probably besides write/pronounce the adjective of that noun incorrectly.

The practiced thing?

People will probably still understand what you're trying to say!

How You lot Can Learn French In A Matter of Months

I'm fluent in Mandarin but I remember that I managed to larn more French in three months than Mandarin in a yr.

So is French easy to learn? Well. information technology'south certainly not every bit hard as you think!

In the end, the answer depends on a few factors:

Yourmotivation
The materials yous use
The languages you lot speak
How many hours each week you devote to learning the language

Let's accept a await at the level I reached in French after only i month:

As y'all can see I'm not very fluent and of course I made mistakes but I managed to concur a conversation in French with polyglot Felix Wang who is a native French speaker.

So, how can you practise the same?

1. Make Sure Y'all Take the Motivation

Make sure that you've got the correct motivation. Learning whatever language takes a serious amount of effort.

List a number of reasons why you desire to learn French. Imagine yourself speaking French and go obsessed with your new challenge.

Without enough motivation, you lot will eventually give upwards and that would be a pity.

2. Make a Serious Game Plan

Learning French becomes more fun when youset goals for yourself and create a program how you can achieve those goals.

Don't be too ambitious; 'speaking fluent French by the stop of this year' sounds cool simply it's not very specific.

Better, work with so‐called 'mini‐goals'; goals that are relatively like shooting fish in a barrel to accomplish within a few months or weeks.

Hither are some examples of mini goals that you tin set for yourself for the showtime month:

Learn the 100-200 most important words and phrases
Learn how to make basic sentences
Concur a bones 10-minute chat by the finish of the calendar month

How practise you lot utilize these goals??

Study 30-hr per day with a resources that fits you.
Schedule 3 online lessons per week with a French tutor on Italki.com

3. It's time for action!

Now it's time to become started for real.

If you want to become conversational quickly, yous need to find expert learning materials that teach you the near important words and phrases first.

Learning from books that teach you lot difficult words and catchy grammar can be overwhelming, frustrating and time-consuming, so don't do that!

Instead: Acquire the beginning things first!

Learning outset things first is the key to quick progress in your new linguistic communication.

ThePareto principle (also known as the eighty–20 rule) basically states that you lot get eighty% of the results from 20% of the work. This principle tin can be applicable in language learning as well.

Languages contain hundreds of thousands of words. But only a fraction of them are used on a daily ground past native speakers and only a fraction of those are words that you need for your first conversations.

Your commencement conversations in a new linguistic communication will ever be the aforementioned:

"What'due south your name?"
"Where are you from?"
"What do you do here?"
" Exercise yous live here?"
"How long take y'all studied….. for?"

To create your start sentences you need words like; I, yous, to like, tin, to do, today, to want, to exist, expensive, big etc.

Y'all will be surprised past how many things you volition be able to say by knowing only 200 words and knowing how to utilize them. Of course, your speech will exist limited, but information technology's a great way to start!

Bruce Lee once said;"I fear not the human being who has practised 10,000 kicks in one case, but I fear the man who has practised i kick x,000 times."

Sentinel the video below to meet how we can utilise this strategy in language learning.

4. Speak French, fifty-fifty if you retrieve yous tin't!

In that location are a number of reasons yous shouldn't wait likewise long to speak:

Using the new words you accept just learned in your speech communication volition help yous to memorise them better.
By speaking you too find out what important words you are missing and what basic grammar features yous need to know.
Speaking a new language is exciting, adds the human being aspect, makes information technology something 'existent' and is skilful for your momentum.

Now you might remember to yourself"how can I speak a linguistic communication if I just know 100 words (or less)?"

Two things are important here:

Y'all demand to exist artistic.
You demand a good teacher or chat partner who tin can make you speak with a express vocabulary.

In the beginning, the master goal of your speaking sessions is to only interact in your target linguistic communication with the basic words you know.

At this stage it's non important what you say, it's more about trying to say something and keep the conversation alive.

Making mistakes is 100% allowed!

5. Practice, Exercise And Practice…

Many language learning products merits that learning can be almost effortless.

Unfortunately, it'due south not.

The real reason why some people succeed in linguistic communication learning and others don't is that some don't have enough motivation and willingness to practice the language over a longer menstruation of time. Sometimes it might just all seem to be as well hard, but in fact, it's only a matter of more practise and exposure to the language.

So follow your game plan and put in the hours. Y'all will be able to make fast progress, specially in the start.

At present that y'all're set up to start to learning French you need to first past focusing on what matters the nearly at the beginning stage; learning the most of import vocabulary.

VocaBooster Frenchis ideal for this because it contains hundreds of words and example sentences which will allow you to hold basic conversations from the beginning!

And so Is French Difficult to Acquire?

In conclusion – no. French is relatively easy to learn but it does accept some time and try.

Every bit French is closely related to English language, I have to agree with the Foreign Language Plant that says that French belongs to the easiest group of languages to acquire for English language speakers.

Having so much common vocabulary helps a lot!

And aye, French pronunciation and grammar can be a petty catchy sometimes. But I actually only plant out about most of the difficulties when I was doing research for this article. And so, don't worry about them.

When yous're driving a car and you desire to get to a destination you've never been to earlier, you don't worry about potential obstacles.

But set your destination in your GPS, anticipate the obstacles and go on driving 'till you go there. In other words, prepare a learning goal, proceed correcting yourself and continue practising until you reach your goals.

Brand sure that you set a challenging learning goal for yourself, find proficient materials and a tutor that suits you, relish the learning process and put in the time!

It will be worth it!

Want Fast French Without The Grammer Headaches?

If learning French is on your to do list, but you're fed up of traditional textbook and grammar-based learning methods, then y'all're going to love my latest French course.

It's called French Uncovered and information technology helps you to get from beginner to intermediate level in French fast, without pouring over endless pages of grammer books and verb charts.

Instead, you'll learn French through StoryLearning®, in a natural way, and then that you intuitively know how to utilize the primal grammar and vocab when you speak, a chip similar a native speaker.

If that sounds like something you'd beloved to achieve for yourself in French, then click here to find out more.

Jan van der Aa is polyglot from the Netherlands and founder ofLanguage Boost, a site defended to helping learners take the fast path to fluency in their chosen language.

What's your experience of learning French? Do you think it's a difficult language to acquire? Allow united states know in the comments!