The French Room Blog

Learn French. Feel Brilliant!

You have studied French for years. You read it well, you understand more than you can say, and the words still go missing the moment someone speaks to you. These articles are about closing that gap. Speaking, listening, the grammar when you need it, and the confidence to use what you already know.

Written by Ellie Louis, who has taught over 10,000 live hours of French to adults.

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One French word at a time

One high-frequency word, taken seriously, for a month

Prendre: Stop learning French one situation at a time!
"The problems come when every situation becomes a sealed compartment requiring its own vocabulary.PRENDRE offers a different route...."

Pouvoir and why "passez-moi le sel"
 is not rude
"Except that real conversation does not arrange itself quite so neatly."

Il Faut: The French expression you've heard a 1000 times! But rarely use.

"Every month I choose one French word or phrase and invite everyone in The French Room to spend a whole month exploring it."

More words >

Making French stick

Turning words you have met into words you own

907 French Words: The experiment that changed how I teach
"How I developed The French Room 907 Method to turn familiar vocabulary into French you can actually use."

One simple phrase that explains 3 big grammar points for real life
"We talked about indirect objects.
Then pronouns.
Then why à Sophie suddenly becomes lui.
Then where that little pronoun sits in the sentence."

Rita reminded me why we created Cahier words

"Just share what you're noticing. A question. A connection. A thought or something interesting from your Cahier. You never know where it might lead or who it might help."

Finding your French voice

Speaking out loud, and the nerve it takes

How to improve your conversational French
"The more aware you are of the words, the less natural the flow becomes. Speaking out loud doesn't sound the same as it does in my head!"

How do I get people to reply to me in French?
"So, if you are in a boulangerie and the person in front of you says "il me faut une baquette" and you actually want a baguette. Use this phrase instead of the stock "je voudrais" and see what happens. Chances are you will be replied to in French."

How to "IN" and "EN" the French way
"Or easier than that just take the word "HANG" as your base word and use that sound whenever you see these letter combinations!"

Living in French

France, its culture, and the language as it is really used

Le Pain, l'Égalité, et la Révolution Française
"La baguette que nous aimons tant aujourd'hui est un symbole de cette égalité retrouvée, devenant le pain de choix pour tous les Français."

Qui dit Lyon, dit bonne bouffe.
"We talked about indirect objects.
Then pronouns.
Then why à Sophie suddenly becomes lui.
Then where that little pronoun sits in the sentence."

Jane Birkin: Symbole de la libération féminine
"Une chanteuse et icône de style britannique qui est devenue une figure incroyablement importante dans la culture française."

Real learner journeys

Adults who started where you are now

How Jane started to speak French fluently after 25 years of trying
“I’d learned the grammar. I’d taken the lessons. But when it came to speaking, I froze.”

Nicky starts afresh in France
"I missed the Moulin Rouge - because I was stuck trying to be perfect."

David's return on fluency
"His wife spoke fluent French. He... managed. But managing wasn’t enough."

The long game

Plateaus, motivation, and learning French later in life

The Valley of Disillusionment in Learning French
"Work on “desirable difficulties” suggests that this kind of effort is often a feature of deeper learning rather than a sign of failure (Bjork & Bjork)."

Why Attention Spans Aren’t Shrinking – They’re Polarising
"While everyone insists that attention is collapsing, the evidence suggests otherwise."

The Joy of Being a Beginner: Why Starting Out In French Isn’t Starting Over
"At 56, I still feel like a teenager inside. Starting this course almost felt like older me taking teenage me to the gym to show her how it’s done now."

The French Room Story

What it takes to keep 250 people learning French, together

"It started with croissants and coffee!"
How a breakfast meetup became a global French Learning Community
"I organised a French soirée and it sold out. That was the moment I realised I was doing something I really enjoyed. Some local au pairs joined in, and Justine, who cooked with me that night, still runs the cook-alongs now, ten years later."

Why a Mosters Inc moment led me to underground Paris and what it means for what you learn with me
"The cold cut straight through. The rain didn’t negotiate. By the time I reached the doors, it felt less like arrival and more like completion of an endurance test!"

How teaching French has taught me more about confidence than any self-help book

"Apparently, we’re more afraid of public speaking than we are of death. It’s absurd when you think about it but fear has never been rational. It slips under the door, whispering warnings that keep us small."
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