How to learn French as an adult: ear and mouth first, spelling second

The short version

1. Week 1: the sounds that don't exist in English — nasal vowels, the French r, u — and your first 20 words, out loud.
2. Weeks 2–4: the 200 words of everyday life, by situation, plus one spoken exchange a day.
3. Months 2–3: daily ten-minute conversations around real situations, corrected afterwards. Gender and verb endings arrive through the corrections.
4. Always: speak before you feel ready — and keep speaking French when they answer in English.

Week 1: the sounds, not the spelling

Four sounds need deliberate practice: the three nasal vowels (vin, bon, blanc — air through the nose, no 'n' at the end), the French r (in the throat, soft, not rolled), the u of tu (say 'ee' and round your lips), and the eu of peu. Ten minutes a day for a week, exaggerated, in front of a mirror if you can bear it.

Then the two rules that make spoken French possible: most final consonants are silent (petit ends in 'ti'), and liaison links a silent consonant to the next vowel (les amis → 'lez-ami'). Don't memorise the rules — hear them in every sentence your teacher says and copy.

Spelling comes later and comes easily once your ear knows the words. Don't start with it.

Weeks 2–4: the 200 words, out loud

Greetings, numbers, être / avoir / vouloir / aller / pouvoir, question words, food, directions, time, family, a few adjectives. Learn each with its article — le pain, la table — so gender comes free. Our French vocabulary by topic has 200 of them grouped by situation; ten a day.

Daily rule: one sentence to someone, today. Salut, ça va ? counts.

Months 2–3: situations, corrections, repeat

Ten minutes a day on one real situation — the boulangerie, the café, asking the way, your weekend — repeated until it's easy. Corrections after the thought: what you said, how a French person would say it, one line on why. You'll learn that it's je suis allé and not j'ai allé because you said it wrong and someone fixed it.

A French-specific tip: when a native answers you in English, smile and continue in French. It's not an insult — it's efficiency — and it stops the moment you keep going.

What to skip (for now)

• *The passé simple.* It's a literary tense. Nobody speaks it.
• Perfect gender. You'll get le/la wrong for years. Learn nouns with the article and let the ear catch up.
• The subjunctive. Later. Much later.
• Spelling drills. Spell what you can already say; don't try to say what you can only spell.

How long does it really take?

With 15–20 minutes a day, mostly speaking: simple everyday conversation in three months (A2); comfortable conversation in a year or more. Listening lags: understanding fast, informal French takes longer than speaking it, and that's expected. English speakers have a head start on vocabulary — roughly a third of English words are French in disguise.

Where to practise speaking

In order of how much they'll make you speak: a patient French-speaking friend (free, rare), a private tutor (the best feedback, €15–30 an hour), a language-exchange partner (free, hit-and-miss), and an AI conversation teacher (unlimited patience, available at 11 pm, free or cheap). Most people end up combining the last two.

If you want to try the AI route, Inès on SpeakingVibes is a French teacher you talk to out loud: she answers in French, slows down when you ask, corrects you gently afterwards and saves every new word to your flashcards. The free account covers the daily ten-minute conversation this guide is built around.