Why English speakers learn French
French is spoken by 300+ million people on five continents — France, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland and most of francophone Africa. It's an official language of the UN, the EU and the Olympics, and a working asset in diplomacy, fashion, gastronomy and aviation.
The head start is real: English borrowed a third of its vocabulary from French — restaurant, important, machine, information. Thousands of words feel familiar on day one. The traps come later: two genders, nasal vowels, silent endings and verb conjugation.
For travel it pays off fastest: French menus, signs and small talk open up within the first A1 sets, and every francophone trip after that gets easier and cheaper.
French words and grammar through English eyes
The sets cover 4,300+ of the most useful French words — ordered by topic and CEFR level, always with English translation and transcription. Grammar runs A1 to C2: le/la/les articles, agreement, passé composé vs imparfait, the subjunctive — all explained in English.
Typical traps for English speakers who learn French: gender with no reliable rule (le soleil but la lune), silent final consonants (parlez, beaucoup), liaison between words, and the subjunctive mood that English barely keeps. Spelling looks familiar — pronunciation is the real hurdle, so transcription sits next to every word.
- Frequency bands A1–B2 — the most-used words first
- Themed sets for travel, work and everyday life
- Every word with English translation and transcription
Exam preparation
Useful for certificates too: the frequency bands overlap DELF, DALF, TCF and TEF vocabulary through B2, and the grammar covers the most tested points — articles, agreement, verb tenses and the subjunctive.
A real study day
Ten to fifteen minutes a day keeps the load light and retention high: streaks, XP and the leaderboard among friends turn study into a habit. The price is simple: AtoC is fully free — sets, grammar and drills open. The only limit is energy; a subscription raises it.
Typical rhythm: a week of A1 sets and core word order, then words and grammar in parallel — one grammar topic plus one new set a day, the rest reviews. Progress is visible inside the app: completed sets, grammar levels, day streaks.
That pace fits a commute or a lunch break: sessions are short, reviews are scheduled for you, and the next day's queue is already waiting.