Learning to read in French

"Apprendre à lire en français"
French B1 writing exercise

David talks about how he learned to read fluently in French.

Pay attention to the hints!

Some vocabulary you may want to look up before or during this exercise: "to manage to [do]", "the result of", "practice/to practise", "still", "trusty", "a dictionary", "the first time that...", "a novel", "to have [something] at hand", "to check", "annoying (=unnerving)", "to help [doing]", "to enrich one's vocabulary", "to read out loud", "much more [adj.]", "to struggle with", "to make a liaison (reading/speaking)", "maybe we...".

Written by Qualified French Expert Aurélie Drouard HKH, Licence d'anglais LLCE
Last updated: 2023-02-16

I’ll give you some sentences to translate into French

  • I’ll show you where you make mistakes
  • I’ll keep track of what you need to practise
  • Change my choices if you want
Start the exercise
How the test works
You’ll practise: Le Présent (Indicatif), Le Passé Composé (Indicatif), Pronom d'objet direct

Here's a preview of the text for the writing challenge, when you're ready click the start button above:

- How are you managing to read "Les Misérables" in French ? - Believe me, this is the result of many years of practice and I still need help from my trusty dictionary! The first time that I read a book in French, I chose a short novel and I had my dictionary at hand to be able to quickly check words. It was pretty annoying, but it really helped enrich my vocabulary. Reading out loud is much more complicated for me. I still struggle with liaisons. I never know when to make them! - Maybe (that) we can practise together ?

Let me take a look at that...