Learn French from what you love
French looks friendly on paper (thousands of words you half-know from English) and then someone speaks it, and the letters you can see stop matching the sounds you hear. Je ne sais pas becomes chépa, words run into each other, and half the endings are silent. Zollang starts with something you want to understand, such as an article, a YouTube video, a topic or song lyrics, and turns it into a lesson at your level that you say out loud from day one. Your words come back just before you'd forget them, and when you want to talk, an AI voice coach that knows your lessons is ready in French.
Hear a real sentence
One sentence from a pre-made lesson, with its translation and key words.
Je marche dans une rue animée.
I am walking on a busy street.
Key words
- marche, walk
- rue, street
- animée, busy/lively
What changes from your first lesson
French the way it's really spoken.
Textbook French isn't what people say. Natives at full speed plays each sentence the way French speakers say it (j'sais pas, t'as vu ?, the ne that disappears), then shows you exactly what changed from the written line, at slow and native pace. Few apps train this at all, and almost none for languages other than English.
Say every sentence from day one.
Each speaking lesson builds a sentence with you chunk by chunk, with a coach in your ear: the step-by-step method of the classic audio courses, applied to whatever you choose to learn from. Nasal vowels and the French r are learned by saying them, not by reading about them.
A slow podcast from any article.
Turn an article or a topic into a two-host French podcast at your level, at a pace you can follow, with every word ready to review. Making one by hand takes hours; here it's ready in a few minutes. Something few language apps can do.
Grammar explained the moment you need it.
When a sentence in your lesson uses something that trips English speakers up, like the ne… pas sandwich, the coach explains it in one plain sentence. Explain answers why any phrase is built the way it is, and Sentence anatomy takes any sentence apart and builds it back.
Start free, no card, in your browser or the app.
The five pillars of learning a language
Learning a language rests on five pillars: words, plenty of listening and reading, speaking, chunks, and the patterns of grammar. Zollang works on all five, starting from what you love.
Vocabulary
Thousands of French words are already half-familiar: important, possible, information. The traps are the ones that look familiar and aren't: actuellement means "currently", librairie is a bookshop, la monnaie is change, not money. And every noun has a gender you have to learn with it. Zollang helps you pick words up through reading and listening, and lock them in.
One vocabulary, yours. Every lesson, podcast, video and page you read feeds the same list.
Every word comes back just before you'd forget it. Spaced repetition plans it all: flashcards, multiple choice, listening or typing (accents included), in short sessions. Vocabulary review is always free.
Your words, in brand-new stories. Contextual review writes a fresh scene from the words you're learning, and you reveal them one by one (paid plans).
Tricky words get their own review after three misses in a row.
Exercises that feel like games: dictation (a real test in French, where half the letters are silent), fill-in-the-blank, audio flashcards and a quiz whose wrong answers are almost right, with stars and personal bests.
Collect sentences with audio and an explanation one tap away, and turn a word list into a story you can say out loud (in the app, just photograph the list).
Listen as much as you like. Only the words you choose go into your reviews, and deleting a lesson keeps your words.
Progress you can see: every word from new to mastered, and the share of the most common French words you already know.
Input: listening and reading
You learn a language by understanding messages that matter to you. With French, reading usually races ahead of listening, because spoken French blends and drops sounds that writing keeps. Zollang gives you plenty of both, at your level.
Slow podcasts on anything, at a slow, moderate or normal pace. The hosts genuinely speak slowly; it isn't sped-down audio.
Real French on YouTube. A YouTube lesson keeps the video's original audio, from Paris to Montreal. Learn its words in the order you'll hear them, loop any line until you catch it, and hide the text to test your ear.
Whole books, no dictionary tab. Easy Reader opens any text up to a whole novel, page by page, with word help on tap, page audio (Quality voice or Basic voice), and a sentence's translation only when you want it.
Every word colour-matched to its translation, so you see that je ne le sais pas wraps "not" around the verb. Few apps show a sentence this way.
Slow it down, sentence by sentence, then switch to native pace.
Pre-made lessons in one tap, with no credits.
Speaking
Most courses have you listen for months before you speak. In Zollang you speak from your first lesson, with no audience and no judgment.
The speaking lesson. The coach plays each sentence, breaks it into chunks with their meaning, then you say it. From the third sentence on, it asks for an earlier chunk from memory, and the Recap at the end has you rebuild every sentence. Can't speak right now? Tap practice.
Conversation with an AI voice coach that knows your lessons and your vocabulary, works your words in and shows you which ones came up.
Practise your lesson: five minutes using that lesson's own sentences, with hints.
Role play: pick a scene or describe your own (ordering at a boulangerie, a job interview in Lyon, calling a landlord), get a goal and a few phrases, and end on "a better way to say it", never a red mark.
Pronunciation coach (paid plans): it says a word or short phrase from your vocabulary and coaches you by voice until it sounds right. Are vous and vu still sounding the same? Put them on your list.
Shadowing in the app, and your speaking measured: minutes spoken, words said aloud, and an honest estimate of your level.
Chunks
French speakers don't build sentences word by word. They reach for ready-made chunks: il y a ("there is"), ça dépend ("it depends"), je n'en sais rien ("I've no idea"), ça me fait plaisir ("I'm happy to"). These are the phrases natives actually say, not word lists. Linguists have pointed this out for decades: natives speak without searching for words largely because they lean on chunks like these.
Every sentence cut into natural chunks of two words or more (short for beginners), each translated by what it means on its own. In French the pronoun stays with its verb, so je me suis levé is one block, never three loose words.
Hear it, understand it, say it, chunk by chunk, until the whole sentence is yours.
Mix & match: combine a lesson's chunks into new sentences and Zollang tells you whether they're right.
Stop translating from English. Learn j'ai faim ("I'm hungry", literally "I have hunger") as one block and you'll never say je suis faim.
Grammar
Not a thousand-page textbook: the patterns of the language, which you watch take shape, then meet again the moment your sentence needs them. Adults learn well when they can see how a language is built.
Understand: see it, don't memorise it. Short animated explainers teach grammar one idea at a time: a narrator talks you through while words slide into place on the board, the common mistake gets crossed out kindly, and the rule fits in one plain sentence. Then you build the sentence yourself.
Notes in plain English, at the right moment. When a sentence in your lesson uses something that typically trips English speakers up, the coach explains it in a sentence: the ne… pas sandwich, l' and j' fusing with the next word, au and du, on meaning "we", the two-part past (j'ai mangé, je suis allé), en and y, and depuis with the present (j'habite ici depuis deux ans).
Sentence anatomy takes a sentence apart and builds it back step by step, and Explain answers why any phrase is built the way it is. In the app, every form of a verb is one tap away.
From what you love, the way you want: your level, your pace, speaking or tapping, slow or native, a topic or none. On the web and in the app, with one account.
No idea what to learn from? The prompt library has ideas by level (a work email, an interview answer, the rules of your favourite board game).
A long text becomes a lesson series, part by part.
A streak that plays fair: any real practice counts, and your day ends at 4 a.m.
Your data is yours: private, and downloadable any time.
By level
Beginner 1
a pre-made lesson or a few lines about your day; hear every new word first; say your first sentences chunk by chunk. The colours show where ne… pas goes.
Beginner 2
short texts of your own, a two-voice dialogue, and Natives at full speed to decode everyday French. Conversation is marked "For Beginner 2+".
Intermediate
YouTube lessons, slow podcasts from articles, Easy Reader, Role play; this is where the passé composé vs imparfait and the subjunctive start to matter.
Advanced
novels, podcasts at normal pace, French from your work or hobbies; Contextual review and the Pronunciation coach polish the rest.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to learn French?
The US Foreign Service Institute puts French in its easiest group for English speakers, at roughly 600 to 750 classroom hours for professional working proficiency. Most learners study part time and don't need that level to hold a conversation, so treat it as an upper benchmark. What changes your timeline most is regular contact, a little every day, and lots of listening, because French ears take longer than French eyes.
Is French hard for English speakers?
Some parts are easy: a huge shared vocabulary and a familiar alphabet. The hard parts are well known: spelling that doesn't match sound (silent endings, liaison where a silent letter suddenly gets pronounced, as in les amis), nasal vowels (vin, vent, vont), a gender for every noun, and many verb forms. The way through is lots of listening before you worry about spelling, saying whole sentences out loud, and learning each noun with its article.
Why can't I understand spoken French when I can read it?
Because spoken French drops and blends sounds that writing keeps. Je ne sais pas is often chépa, the ne of negation usually disappears in speech, and words link across their edges (vous_avez). The fix is training your ear on real speech: listen first, then compare with the text. That's exactly what Natives at full speed does, sentence by sentence.
How do I pronounce the French r and nasal vowels?
The French r is made at the back of the throat, close to a gentle gargle, not with the tip of the tongue. Nasal vowels let air through the nose: vin, vent and vont are three different words. Listen, repeat words that differ by one sound, and practise in whole sentences. Zollang plays every sentence before you say it, slow and then native, and the Pronunciation coach (paid plans) coaches your own words by voice.
Should I learn tu or vous first?
Both, early. Vous is polite (and plural), tu is informal. You'll hear tu among friends and vous with strangers, at work and in shops. Zollang's in-lesson notes explain the choice the moment a sentence uses it, and Role play lets you practise both registers.
France French or Canadian French?
They share grammar and most vocabulary, and speakers understand each other; the differences are mostly accent, some vocabulary and informal expressions. Learn the one you'll use most. In Zollang, a YouTube lesson keeps the video's original audio, so a Quebec channel sounds like Quebec.
Can I learn French from songs, films and YouTube?
Yes, if you make it active: pick things you mostly understand, use French subtitles, replay short scenes and repeat lines out loud. Paste song lyrics as a text lesson, or turn a captioned YouTube video into a lesson inside Zollang.
Can I learn French for free?
Largely, yes. Public broadcasters offer free learner material, such as RFI's Journal en français facile and TV5MONDE's learning site, and there are podcasts, YouTube, public-domain books and language exchanges too. Zollang starts free with no card: pre-made lessons and vocabulary review are always free, plus a speaking lesson, a YouTube lesson and a slow podcast to try, and a short Conversation.