I read “The Little Prince” in Spanish when I was six.

Then I read it in English when I was nine, and a couple of years later, in French.

I didn’t know at that time, but this book started a revolution inside me that made me, 30 years later, have a collection of the book in 37 different languages (and counting!).

But “The Little Prince” did something else for me: it woke up a passion for reading I didn’t even know I had.

You mightn’t be so passionate about the written word as I am, but I bet you know how important reading is, especially when you’re learning a foreign language like French.

Reach French Fluency is challenging at the beginning, no doubt about it.

You might know how to pronounce the word monsieur (mister), but when you see it written for the first time, you’ll probably not recognize it.

This is when reading comes into action.

It creates a bridge between the pronunciation and the spelling of a word, allowing us to understand it and make it ours.

So if you’re ready to learn how to read in French, this post is for you.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.

Why Reach French Fluency Is Important

You may have heard many times that reading is crucial to improve your French language skills.

Indeed, reading plays an important part on the road to fluency, but how exactly, and why?

Here you have seven reasons to get you started:

• It’ll help you learn new vocabulary. You’ll find lots of new words when you’re reading. Write them down, create flashcards with them, write sample sentences. Take every word you think is useful and add it to your vocabulary bank.
• It’ll improve your spelling. French pronunciation is very different from its written form. Thanks to reading, you’ll learn how to spell words correctly. Once you master spoken and written French, you’ll be unstoppable.
• It’ll boost your grammar. Learning French reading will also help you recognize grammar patterns and see grammar rules in use. This’ll improve your understanding of French grammar, which will translate into a better command of it when writing and speaking in French.
• It’ll get you ready for proficiency exams. If you’re planning on sitting the DILF, DELF or DALF (or any other official French exam), you know you’ll have to prove your reading comprehension skills. Reading in French will be the perfect practice exercise to pass the exam with flying colors.
• It’ll improve your pronunciation. If you read out loud, you’ll gradually get your mouth, tongue and throat used to French pronunciation. Reading out loud also turns reading into an active exercise, so your brain will get more engaged and remember more new words and structures.
• It’ll allow you to get immersed in the language and culture. This may be hard when you’re a beginner, but as you get better at reading in French, you’ll notice you can “get inside” the story of a book and be surrounded by it. By getting immersed in a language and its culture, you’ll get a deeper understanding of it, which will motivate you to keep on learning it.
• It’ll take you to fluency. As you progress and read more and more challenging texts, all your French language skills will improve. Reading French books may seem an impossible task today, but keep on reading and you’ll reach fluency faster than you think.

10 Steps to Improve Your French Reading Skills

Even though virtually any kind of reading can have a positive impact on your French, knowing and applying some specific techniques can let you use your reading time more efficiently and allow you to improve your French reading skills faster.

The following list of techniques is by no means comprehensive, but it includes 11 of the most effective ways to use reading as a powerful tool to learn French.