So, here you are, enthusiastic, super motivated, you just decided to start learning French. It's always difficult to understand where to begin when learning a new language. So before starting your journey with French, I would like to give you some basic tips to help you learn easier, faster, and better. Additionally, I will share the basic grammatical rules with you and give you some useful sentences to start a conversation. After reading this article, I want you to feel more confident and ready to learn French. Come on, let’s start!
Goods habits to develop immediately
Manage your time!
Take your time to learn, don’t try to burden yourself with too much information in a short time.
It's better to study regularly and practice for ten minutes each day, rather than for two hours every once in a while.
Prioritise pronunciation!
Pronunciation is really important and you will notice that although you might know a lot of vocabulary and sentences, if you’re not pronouncing it correctly, people won’t understand you. So before learning new words, make sure you know how to pronounce perfectly the ones that you already know.
As French pronunciation might be difficult for you to master at the beginning, when you learn a new word and you’ve never heard it before or you just don't remember how to pronounce it, I suggest you look at websites like Forvo, which is really helpful because the words are recorded by native speakers.
Put it in Context!
When you want to learn new vocabulary, it’s better to learn it in context: it will stay in your long-term memory more easily. Memorizing the meaning a word has in a specific context will help you differentiate the uses of the same word in different sentences, in order to express yourself better.
Immerse yourself!
Immerse yourself in the language as much as you can, that’s how you’ll improve faster: change your phone's setting to your target language, listen to songs, watch movies and videos, read books, articles, and newspapers.
Don’t think too much in your native language
Each language has its own expressions and ways of speaking. So when you want to express something, don’t try too hard to translate word for word, because people probably say it differently and they may not understand you. You’d better search and learn some fixed expressions.
Write your new vocabulary!
When you hear a new word and don’t know the meaning, write it somewhere and search its definition when you have time.
Then, if this new word seems useful and you think you might use it again, just write it in a notebook where you just list all the useful vocabulary that you study regularly.
Practice!
Practice with native people as much as you can and on a regular basis. If you can’t travel, try to meet natives in your own country or just find ones on italki.
