Learning French is no easy task, but with the right tools, it can be a fun and challenging one! Books are a great learning tool for several reasons. They can help offer structure to your learning, strengthen your reading skills, teach you new vocabulary, and immerse you in French culture. We’ve gathered ten of the best books to learn French, so crack one of them open and get reading!
Best Books to Learn French
This collection includes both workbooks and grammar guides geared towards beginners and fiction works appropriate for different levels. To make it easy, we’ve organized our top picks to learn French into the best books for beginner, intermediate, and advanced learners. Whatever stage of your French learning journey you’re on, we have a recommendation for you!
French Books for Beginners
Practice Makes Perfect: Complete French All-in-One
If you’re looking for a workbook that lays out every aspect of French grammar in a logical way, this is it. The first lesson covers articles in French, and the lessons progress and build on one another, so this book is great for self-study. (There are more than 500 exercises!) What’s great is that this complete French learning program is actually seven books in one, making it a great value.
Grammaire en dialogues: A1-A2
Learn French grammar through accessible and realistic dialogues in this beginner’s workbook. Each of the thirty-two chapters covers one specific point of French grammar. Here’s how each chapter is structured: first, there’s a dialogue, and then there’s an explanation of a specific grammar point, and then there are exercises so you can practice the new concept you’ve learned. Learning grammar this way helps put it in context and makes it easier to understand.
Exercises in French Phonics
Don’t let this little green book fool you with its simple cover. It’s actually packed with helpful explanations and drills to help you master what might be the most challenging part of learning French – the pronunciation! You might be thinking, how can a book help me learn how to speak? The exercises in this book really do help you recognize and understand the nuances of French phonetics. We’d recommend using this book alongside a tutor or language teacher, but it would also be a valuable part of anyone’s French self-study toolbox.
French Books for Intermediate Learners
Read & Think French
Learn about the culture of French-speaking places all over the world while you enhance your French reading skills and boost your vocabulary! This textbook compiles 115 short articles about the French-speaking world, all written by native speakers. Each article includes a bilingual glossary right on the page, so you don’t need to stop and look up unfamiliar words. As a bonus, this book includes access to an app with streaming audio of 45 of the articles, which means you can read the article as you follow along with its audio, which is excellent listening practice.
501 French Verbs
Once you can communicate comfortably in French, acquiring as much vocabulary as possible is a good idea. This classic collection includes thousands of French verbs and their conjugations so you won’t be at a loss for words! It also includes a list of 55 essential French verbs, plus example sentences and even idioms and proverbs that use these common verbs. 501 French Verbs is more than just a long list of verbs; it’s a thorough learning resource that can help you understand French verb conjugation.
Le Petit Prince
This children’s classic by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry has many beautiful life lessons for people of all ages. It’s a fantastical story that follows a young prince who visits various planets and learns about love, life, loneliness, and human nature. Although it’s a relatively short novel that’s technically for children, we don’t actually recommend this one to beginner French learners. Why? It’s a highly philosophical book, with jumps in narration and specialized vocabulary, so it’s not suited to true beginners. That being said, if your French reading level is intermediate or higher, pick up this classic to learn not just French, but a little bit about the meaning of life, too.
Short Stories in French: New Penguin Parallel Text
We don’t always recommend using bilingual language resources unless you’re a complete beginner since studying solely in your target language is more effective. However, bilingual resources can be a useful addition to your language-learning toolbox if used correctly! This text includes twelve contemporary short stories by Francophone authors, presented side-by-side with an English translation. Intermediate readers will be satisfied by the richness of this native-level text, and the accessible English translation makes it easy to keep up with the stories.
French Books for Advanced Learners
Collins Easy Learning French Idioms
So you’re finally feeling pretty fluent in French… Then you try to translate an idiom literally and have no idea what’s going on. Been there! Idioms can trip up even fluent language learners, but luckily, this guide to French idioms is here to help. Over 250 French idioms are arranged into themes, with an explanation and example sentences for each. There are even handy notes to explain any cultural differences so you truly understand the magic of French idioms, making this guide one of the best books to learn advanced French.
Dictionary of French Slang and Colloquial Expressions
Slang is an essential part of a language because it’s what speakers actually use in everyday conversation. So, when you’re ready to level up your conversation skills, grab this collection of French slang and colloquial expressions. It presents more than four thousand examples of colloquial French speech alongside examples so you can learn them in context. This book is excellent for advanced learners who want to avoid speaking like a textbook and instead want to speak real French.
Madame Bovary
Madame Bovary is an absolute classic of French literature, and once your French is closer to advanced, don’t miss the opportunity to read this masterpiece in its original language. It tells the story of a disillusioned woman who tries to escape the boredom of life in a loveless marriage by living beyond her means and having several affairs. The author, Gustave Flaubert, was even put on trial for obscenity after the book’s publication! It’s an important novel that’s well worth a read.
Do you have any other recommendations for books to learn French? Let us know in the comments!
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