9 Powerful Sites for the Best Advanced French Lessons Online:
The secret to learning any language is getting yourself into shape.
Every day, you exercise your French language muscles, training yourself to flex them at will.
As you grow stronger and more agile, you’re better able to follow the language’s various twists and turns and to avoid its common pitfalls.
When you were a beginning or intermediate learner, it was easy to imagine that learning French was simply about getting from point A to point B.
Now that you’ve mastered the basics, you understand that it’s not that simple. Fluency comes from within, and you have to find your inner French speaker.
At an advanced level, you probably still need some guidance, but you also need to make your own way. This balance can be difficult to achieve, especially when you’re at a loss for where to find appropriately challenging learning material.
There are some great resources out there to learn advanced French online, though, and many of them can be found simply by typing in a web address.
9 Powerful Sites for the Best Advanced French Lessons Online
French Reference and Quick Refreshers
These first three sites make up the ultimate online French reference trifecta! You can use them to find answers to questions about vocabulary, word usage, pronunciation and grammar. While reading or listening to native French content, it’s always best to figure out meaning and usage from existing context, but if you’re confused, it’s good to have backup. So keep these sites bookmarked to consult whenever the need arises!
1. WordReference
WordReference is an online dictionary that provides examples of word usage, as well as forums in which people can discuss usage in specific contexts. The forums require users to follow strict rules in order to keep the topics helpful and easily searchable.
Each word or phrase you type into the dictionary automatically draws up a list of forum discussions pertaining to that word or phrase. Besides being a reference tool, WordReference has the added bonus of creating a whole community of French learners like yourself. Even if you go there for help, you might end up helping someone yourself, and making some new friends while you’re at it!
2. Forvo
Forvo is a site that lets people all over the world provide native pronunciations in their own languages, along with information about precisely what region they’re from. This means not only can you check the pronunciation of a French word, but you can also hear how that word is said in different parts of France or in other countries.
3. Bon Patron
Bon Patron is a French spelling and grammar checker that allows you to paste in a paragraph of French text and see if it contains any obvious mistakes. It highlights the incorrect parts of the text, and you can hover above each part for a quick explanation or suggestions for changes.
Like any automated tool, it has its limits, but it’s a good resource for advanced learners who will quickly be able to recognize their errors without a lengthy explanation.
Advanced French Lessons and Support
As an advanced learner, you’ll be much more independent, but you’ll need some help and structure, too. The following two sites for advanced French lessons online provide just that. They also allow you the freedom and flexibility of making decisions about your learning process, and to experience how French is used by native speakers firsthand.
4. Lang-8
Lang-8 takes over where Bon Patron leaves off. On Lang-8, you can have your writing corrected by native speakers who will catch not just outright errors, but other potential problems with your French—even if it’s just awkward phrasing. This retains some of the comfort factor of knowing you’re not entirely on your own, but it’s still you who decides what to write and how often. You’ll also get varying perspectives on French from those who speak it every day.
Pure Native French Content, Piping Hot
As an advanced French learner, you need fresh, reliable content daily. Here are five of the best sites for finding that content out in the world.
5. France24
When it comes to watching French TV online, you have a lot of options, but none as consistently reliable as France 24. True to its name, France 24 broadcasts French (and international) news 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can tune in at any time for the full experience of watching French TV, commercials included.
6. French BuzzFeed
Okay, so this is actually a good resource for all levels, but an advanced learner will be able to make especially good use of it by getting through a lot of material in a short period of time. Like its English counterpart, French BuzzFeed taps into specific facets of modern culture and reveals examples of current, real-world language in easily-digestible lists and news bites.
While you may be under the impression that reading BuzzFeed in English is junk food for your brain, reading it in French may just be the spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down.
7. FranceCulture.fr
You may be familiar with France Culture primarily as a radio station, but there’s also ton of content to be found on their website, both in audio and text formats. You can search their page by category (literature, art, history, science, etc.), read articles and listen to clips or full episodes of previously broadcast programs.
If you’ve been learning French with audiobooks (and if you haven’t been, you really should start!), make sure to check out “Les bonnes feuilles” in the “Littérature” section, a series that features recently published authors reading their books out loud.
8. Popular on YouTube – France
Another resource for narrowing down the vast ocean of French content created by native speakers, this YouTube channel will help you keep up with the biggest, freshest videos from France. The channel only displays a few of the most popular videos at a time, so you won’t get overwhelmed. On the flip side, if you’re hungry for more, YouTube will recommend related French videos after you start watching this channel regularly.
You may have already heard about some popular French YouTubers like Cyprien and Norman. Another fun one is Studio Bagel, a channel that releases funny material on a regular basis, including parodies of movies and pop culture.
9. lemonde.fr
Le Monde is one of the leading newspapers in France, and one of the leading providers of news content online. Their site doesn’t just feature articles, but also captioned slideshows and videos. It’s updated frequently, and on every visit you’ll be presented with fresh material.
The key to getting from an advanced level to fully fluent is immersing yourself in native French content every day. No matter how you choose to do this, it’s important to do it regularly.
See how simple it really is to learn advanced French online? By exposing yourself to new lessons and material all the time, you’ll be staying engaged and training yourself to interact with the world from a French point of view. Check the above resources frequently, and you can rest assured that your well of advanced French language content will never run dry!
