The Best Books to Learn French in 2022
Apps are great, but so are textbooks
Are you planning to learn French in 2022? Or maybe dust off your rusty knowledge? Apps like Babbel and Duolingo are great, but for many, they’re not enough on their own. Or maybe you enjoy the analog method of textbook and pen. (And there’s evidence that writing out new knowledge by hand can help with learning.) But there are a lot of books for learning French on the market; so how do you pick one? From my years of experience as a language tutor and language learner, here are my recommendations.
Where to Get Books for Learning French
Many of the books mentioned here are available via Blackwell's, which ships worldwide. (The book covers are sometimes a little fuzzy on the site, but they are a reputable chain and very reliable for overseas delivery, so have no fear!)
Grant & Cutler is the UK’s largest foreign language bookstore, and they really know their stuff, so you can get good advice from them as well as ordering the books mentioned here.
For harder-to-find or older books, you might want to check out Thrift Books.
If you want to support independent bookshops, you can find many of the books mentioned here on these lists: Bookshop UK / Bookshop US.
Best All-Around Textbook for Learning French as a Beginner
If you’re looking for one good all-rounder of a book for self-study, I highly recommend Colloquial French. It’s user friendly, explains grammar in an accessible way, and showcases the use of language through real-world-style dialogues. There are great exercises to help you progress steadily and incrementally as well as pointers on French culture, and there’s a glossary at the back. And when you’re ready, there’s even a Book 2.
Friendliest Course for Adult Learners of French
A friendly course for adults which I’ve used a lot to tutor adults is Façon de Parler. There’s a text book (both beginner and intermediate), accompanying audio, and extra exercises in companion workbooks. If you use all the resources, it can be a great, effective tool for learning French. It errs on the side of not wanting to scare its audience with too much grammar, so I supplement this course with extra exercises, which are less overwhelming when you have a tutor there to help you figure them out.
The Best Books to Read for Learning French
Reading is also a great way to improve your language skills — and there’s a big sense of accomplishment when you do that, too. For beginners and near-beginners, I recommend Easy Readers — books that are abridged and adapted for learners and include glossaries and notes. For A2 and beyond, Short Stories in French is a good one to try, and once you’re more advanced, Parallel Texts from Penguin are a good way to go, with the French on one side and the English translation on the other, either for short stories or poetry.
The Very Best and Most Thorough Textbooks for Learning and Perfecting French
But for all the great resources that are out there, I still don’t think that you can beat the CLE series. They aren’t glamorous or trendy, and their titles aren’t subtle or fun: Grammaire Progressive Du Francais or Vocabulaire Progressive du Francais or Conjugaison Progresive Du Francais. There’s no attempt to dress it up with jazzy front covers or pretty colours: what see is what you get.
But what you get is a quality foundation.
The first book I usually get my beginner students to buy is “The Orange Book”. This is the beginner’s Grammaire Progressive. Like all CLE books, it has explanations on each left hand page — all in French, but very clearly laid out, with examples and occasional pictures — and related exercises on the facing page. If you use no other book (aside from a dictionary), this one alone will be enough to teach all the basics of grammar, including five tenses, and a fairly wide range of vocabulary.
And then — oh happy day — once you have finished that, there is a niveau intermédiaire and then a niveau avancé.
The Grammaire Progressive really does start from the very beginning, so I suggest starting with that one. The others, though they may also have labels of débutant, often assume some knowledge.
Conjugaison Progressive Du Francais is wonderful too. It takes you right from the present tense to the imperfect subjunctive, so will serve you well throughout your learning. And honestly, there’s no better way of learning verbs than methodically ploughing through these kinds of exercises, so when the occasional student of mine voluntarily purchases this book, it makes my little heart glad.
For most Brits, I tend to use Façon de Parler, then supplement it with The Orange Book. But for everyone else — and for the rare Brits who are grammar fiends — I like the combination of Grammaire en Dialogues and Grammaire Progressive. Grammaire en Dialogues does, as they all do, what it says on the tin: each unit has a couple of dialogues that focus on a specific area of grammar but also on a specific area of vocabulary. Once my students are further on, I prefer Communication Progressive du Francais, which is similar but a little less dry, and I use it in combination with Vocabulaire Progressif and Grammaire Progressive.
So, according to your level, here are some suggestions of books you might want to try. There are separate ones for grammar, vocab building, pronunication, spelling (though I haven’t included those), and reading/comprehension. It’s important to note that for the most part you’ll need to buy the answer book separately, which is a bit of a pain but vital if you are going down the path of self-study.
Absolute beginners:
Grammaire Progressive Du Francais: Niveau Debutant (French Edition)
Conjugaison Progressive Du Francais
Tutored absolute beginners or self-taught post-beginners (A1):
Grammaire Progressive du Francais, niveau débutant
Grammaire en Dialogues, niveau grand débutant
Conjugaison Progressive Du Francais — 2eme Edition: Livre Intermediaire
Phonétique progressive du français — Niveau débutant
(Disclaimer: I haven’t used that one, but am going on the assumption that it is of as high a quality as the other books in the series. It’s particularly useful if you are self-taught — hence my not having used it, as a tutor — and don’t have anyone to show you how to make the different sounds of French.)
Post-beginners (A2)
Grammaire Progressive du Francais, niveau débutant
Grammaire en Dialogues, niveau débutant
Vocabulaire du Francais, niveau débutant
Communication Progressive du Francais, niveau débutant
Lower intermediate (B1)
Grammaire Progressive du Francais, niveau intermédiaire
Grammaire en Dialogues, niveau débutant/niveau intermédiaire
At this level, you could be covering the second half of the beginner level and the first half of the intermediate level.
Vocabulaire du Francais, niveau débutant
Communication Progressive du Francais, niveau débutant
(This book is the least “progressif” of them all, with sometimes big jumps in level. I’m not sure it’s great as a self-learning tool, for that reason, but it works well as a resource for tutors.)
Intermediate (B2)
Grammaire Progressive du Francais, niveau intermédiaire
Grammaire en Dialogues, niveau intermédiaire
Vocabulaire Progressif du Francais, niveau intermédiaire
Vocabulaire Progressif du Francais des Affaires, niveau débutant
Phonétique Progressive du Francais, niveau intermédiaire
Communication Progressive du Francais, niveau intermédiaire
Civilisation Progressive du Francais, niveau débutant
Civilisation Progressive de la Francophonie, niveau débutant
(Both of the Civilsation books provide longer texts about various aspects of France or the French-speaking world, then comprehension and discussion questions. A great resource, though they do feel a little out of date now — they’ve aged much faster than the others in the series, since grammar doesn’t really change, especially the grammar in a country whose language is protected by such a stern body as the Académie Francaise.)
Littérature Progressive du Francais, niveau débutant
There’s nothing beginner-ish about this, unless they mean beginner in terms of it being your first foray into real Francophone litterature. You get extracts from a broad range of literature down the ages and across the French-speaking world, alongside comprehension and discussion questions. Recommended in particular if you want to get a flavour of what French authors would work for you: once you get to this kind of level, you might want to think about reading whole books.
Upper intermediate (B2+/C1)
Grammaire Progressive du Francais, niveau intermédiaire/avancé
My advice would be to finish the book and know it thoroughly before you move onto the green book!
Vocabulaire Progressif du Francais, niveau avancé
Phonétique Progressive du Francais, niveau avancé
Civilisation Progressive du Francais, niveau intermédiaire
Civilisation Progressive de la Francophonie, niveau intermédiaire
For more information and tips on language learning, including how to stay motivated through the dreary winter, check out my book, Conquering Babel: A Practical Guide to Learning a Language, available on all major online platforms. And if you’re looking for a French or Spanish tutor, feel free to contact me!
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