Best free online way to learn french

[malcolmk14]

Yeah I've been slowly progressing but spending a lot of time going back and doing the basics as well. I really love the program and could honestly see myself being half decent at French if I keep at it.

My career is such that speaking French opens a TON of doors for me, so this is a pretty sweet way to at least start to get into it.

[bluejays]

I torrented the Pimsleur method after seeing an online ad for it and I was hooked based on their approach and reasoning behind doing it that way. Basically, they say that a child learns to speak a language from learning the bigger words, then gradually filling in the smaller words over time. Their method didn't use paper whatsoever, nor did it use grammar rules or anything. Just straight up conversation and sentence repetition. I did a couple of the lessons, while listening on CD to work and it was alright, but I dropped off soon after. I'm going to try this Duolingo thing. Looks promising.

[cral12]

Like the Duolingo as well after first session tried.

Not online (that I'm aware of), but I have listened to CDs by Michel Thomas for French & Spanish. I like his approach - from the start he builds upon similarities between the languages and goes from there.

[cheevers]

Another free app to try is memrise. I use it for learning German and have really enjoyed it so far. As someone who is also trying to learn a language I would advise using a few different things (memrise, duolingo, Michael Thomas, Rosetta Stone). I find it helps to go about it from different angles and it keeps things fresh.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by DownInFlames

http://www.duolingo.com/

I haven't tried it with French, but it's helped with my Spanish. There are free iOS and Android apps too.

How far have you gone into the Spanish tree? I just hit my second checkpoint (after finishing the 7 lessons on 'time') I'm still liking it and it feels like it's starting to gel, but I'm a little worried about really understanding why verbs are conjugated certain ways ... I sorta get it but it's not as solid as I'd like. Just wondering how that and the vocabulary comes along as you progress.

I have the feeling I'm never going to have to tell someone in Spain that the cat sleeps on the monkey, so I'm hoping it gets a little more practical.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by nik-

How far have you gone into the Spanish tree? I just hit my second checkpoint (after finishing the 7 lessons on 'time') I'm still liking it and it feels like it's starting to gel, but I'm a little worried about really understanding why verbs are conjugated certain ways ... I sorta get it but it's not as solid as I'd like. Just wondering how that and the vocabulary comes along as you progress.

I have the feeling I'm never going to have to tell someone in Spain that the cat sleeps on the monkey, so I'm hoping it gets a little more practical.

I'm about halfway through the Spanish tree and the verb conjugations start to come second nature after awhile. Just wait until you get to the clitic pronouns though, that was my biggest stumbling block with Spanish and it's still hard to figure out when they should come into play

[nik-]

For Spanish students, I found a nice simple verb conjugation practice site.

http://www.spaleon.com/index.php