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Thursday, February 13th
Memrise is a relatively new addition to French lesson options, and we love it. Their flashcard concept is unique, the short dialogs are also pretty novel, and the combination will keep you coming back for more.
Look forward to the next lesson
That's what you want, right? You want to look forward to the next lesson, the next level, and keep improving your French. You'll have confidence in understanding people in the real world because you're already understanding several people in the videos. It's great for beginners and intermediate-level learners. Just keep in mind that once you become advanced in French, you'll want to look at our other highly-recommended French online lessons to keep progressing.
They get you from hello
Rather than working through a boring, old textbook or following a set curriculum that may or may not interest you, try Memrise. You'll learn French based on your interests. Take the intro lesson of greetings. There's a quick video of a native French speaker saying hello, and you see the French spelling as well as the English. Not understanding the French word? Choose the speaker icon and hear at least two other people saying it. Then, mark the vocabulary word as "known” or "unknown” to indicate if you need more practice on it or leave it alone. When you need that additional practice, it's not the same person's video that presents the word "bonjour,” for example - they choose different people each time so that your brain doesn't associate a certain person or accent with the word "hello”.
It's interesting and organic
Memrise wants your lessons to be interesting to you, so you will choose your own lessons based on categories such as activities, health, relationships, shopping, social life, work, education, health, and more. When you learn a new vocabulary word or phrase, you'll hear a native French speaker in an authentic setting. Although it's just for a second or so, you get a taste of talking to a real French person. There are longer video clips of native French speaking people in natural settings. It's much better than looking at a photo of something or even a drawing or cartoon. And the videoed people talk to you at conversational speed. Want to break it down? Click on the speaker to hear a slower version with different speakers.
If you like flashcards, you'll get plenty
Memrise is exactly that - memorize. You'll memorize flashcards and vocabulary words and phrases. When you click to tell them you're done with the lesson, you'll practice with flashcards. Much of what Memrise has to offer is flashcards.
Fun video clips
When you've mastered all the words, watch short videos that have almost a TikTok flair. They're entertaining, sometimes cheesy, but they hold your attention. You may hear quite a few words that are new to you, but that's okay. Pause the video, slow it down, or choose English subtitles. Want a challenge? Speed it up to twice the speed or choose no subtitles. Play around with it and have fun while you build your French skills.
There's even interactive writing practice
You and the bot will have a conversation. They say something and you respond either in French or English. If you reply in English, they put your French translation near what you said. You can even ask for hints when you're writing your answer. It's pretty interactive and gives a decent amount of feedback.
What they have is phenomenal, we just want more
The flashcard concept Memrise uses is phenomenal. The videos put the vocab into context and make it interesting. If that's enough for you, that's great. If you want to talk and have feedback with speech-recognition technology, it's not here. If you want writing practice, there's not much here, either.
Costs
The cost for Memrise is very affordable:
30-day money-back guarantee
You may be inclined to stick with the free plan, because who doesn't like free? There are plenty of lessons and practice for free but there's so much more with Memrise Pro. If you select the monthly option, though, you don't have the money-back guarantee; just be sure to not let it auto-renew. When you choose the annual or lifetime Pro options, you have 30 days to cancel.
This is not your mother's French class
It may seem like it when you hear that it's flashcard-based, but oh, there's so much more, and even in how they present their flashcards. Their flashcards are real people speaking your vocabulary word or phrase. Want to hear it again? Choose at least two more speakers to hear how they would say it. To hear the words in context, watch their TikTok-like short videos. Some may be silly, but at least they are entertaining. Practice your writing and even get some feedback. It's fun, easy, and reasonably priced. We do love Memrise; we would suggest, however, that they add actual speech-recognition and more writing practice to jump into a five-star rating.
When we think of someone speaking French, we think soothing and seductive, as it's simply dreamy to hear. We think of the romance of Paris with the Eiffel Tower, of Southern France with the rolling lavender fields, of the Alps with the snow-capped mountains, of the coast with the warm sandy beaches. And of course there's the decadent French food and wine.
Learning French allows you to more fully enjoy French culture. When you learn French, it opens the door to learning phrases that the French speakers use in conversation, manners and mannerisms, how the French live and interact in everyday situations, and perhaps gaining an appreciation and insight into their art and history. There are so many doors to be unlocked once you take the first step.
Naturally, when we think French we think of France. Yet French is actually a global language and the official language of 29 countries, so you can practice your French language skills in more than one place. French is also a heritage language in all or part of Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, and even the US - like Louisiana.
Picking up the French language may be easier than you might think. Some of us are intimidated by the unusual sounds and the silent letters, but did you know that there are many words that look like English? We'll bet you know these French words: table, responsable, ambiance, brilliance. There are about 1,700 words in French that look like the English word, so there's a good start.
When choosing among the several options for online French lessons, here are some things to consider:
Top Consumer Reviews has researched and ranked the most popular French courses available today, to make it easy for you to choose how you'll want to learn French. Whether you're thinking of learning French for the first time or brushing up on what you may have taken in high school, now is a great time to learn French online as there are such a variety of French lesson programs out there. We're sure you'll find at least one that you'd like to try.
Select any 2 French Lessons to compare them head to head