Why is learning French so hard?

I’ve heard many students say that French is a hard language to learn. To me, that means they aren’t learning as fast or as easily as they would like. The US Department of State ranks French among the easiest languages to learn, however, so I decided to investigate.

The #1 reason why French seems so hard to learn is the linear way in which students try to learn it. Instead, we should learn French like we learned English as infants: in a circular, immersive way. But there are a number of structural parts of the language that trouble learners as well. Let’s look at all of these reasons more closely.

Linear Learning: a Poor Understanding of What, When, and How to Learn French

Like students of many disciplines, French students are often confined to the learning framework provided by schools, classes, and universities. This system works in a very linear way, meaning it:

1. issues curriculum,
2. builds upon that curriculum over a period of time,
3. tests on a block of curriculum,
4. assumes the student has permanently encoded that knowledge,
5. and moves on.

This is understandable — how could a school teach new students each year without pushing the old ones forward?

The challenge is that this is not the way we learn a language. A child hears words and receives some indication of what those words imply. That child repeats the same words and sounds 100s of times. More importantly, the child hears and says those words repeatedly over multiple days. As an infant does with his/her first language, we should learn in a circular manner. Trying to learn linearly will only lead to frustration and slow us down.

In addition, it’s no secret that we need sleep to truly encode knowledge. This is doubly true for languages, as shown by Fenn, Nusbaum, and Margoliash in 2003. Sleep is a major part of why repeating information over multiple days is so critical.

We’ve discussed the how and when, but there’s also the what. I support the idea that there are 11 pieces of grammar, what we call Fundamental French at The French Objective, that you need to learn from the beginning. These principles will be the foundation for all that follows. After you know these principles, you should be focusing on what interests you, and using a learning schedule that reinforces what interests you.

The beauty of learning a language is that you can relearn topics that already interest you. For example, I love philosophy, so I read many books and wrote several essays in French as one of my learning projects.

In short, the linear approach that most students go through is the main reason why French seems so hard to learn. With the approach we advocate at The French Objective, you won’t struggle.

Pronunciation

In addition to knowing how to learn, there exist several technical points that are unique to French and make it difficult to learn. The first of these is pronunciation.

Pronunciation in French is special. More so than any other European language, the presence of silent letters, strings of vowels, and the absence of syllable stressing make speaking French difficult to break in to.

Silent letters

You’re probably familiar with the silent “e” that comes up often in English. Look at the following words:

• Cake
• Debate
• Time
• Hope
• Note

As a little English grammar reminder, these silent e’s serve as a way to elongate the preceding vowel’s sound. “Note” uses a hard “oh” sound, whereas “not” uses a soft “ah.”

“H” and “E” are Silent in French

In French, the two most common silent letters are “h” and “e.” For example, the h’s in “habiter” and “hiver” go silent. You’ll also note that the -e’s in singe and malade are silent. Listen to them below:

Conjugation endings that are silent in French

But h and e aren’t the only two letters. Another common example are verb conjugations. Take a look at the pronunciation for the verb “regarder,” which means “to look.” The underlined letters are silent below, and you can use the audio bits to hear what this sounds like below.

je regarde	nous regardons
tu regardes	vous regardez
il/elle regarde	ils regardent

Without going too deep into the different types of silent letters (there are four categories in total), suffice it to say that this can prove difficult for language learners. I recommend not putting too much stress on yourself to memorize all different categories.

I talk a lot about knowing what to learn. This is an example of something that will come with normal, immersive practice. You don’t need to cram it to learn it.

Strings of Vowels

In addition to silent letters, something characteristically French is the stringing together of vowels. In some ways, vowel strings have the same impact as silent letters because they don’t make sense intuitively they strongly influence they way you speak and understand the language. Here are a few examples:

As you can hear, some of these vowel strings will remain constant across words. The “eau” string, for example, is probably the most common. It always sounds like a capital “O.”

On the other hand, some strings will change sounds depending on the word. Listen again to “lanceur” and “joyeuse.” Technically it’s the same sound, but the presence of different consonants modifies their pronunciation.

No syllable stressing

Like other romance languages such as Spanish and Italian, French is songful. In other words, it tends to be monotone and flow from one word to the next. This is why many people find it so pretty. On the other hand, it’s melodic nature makes French sentences harder to understand, especially for English natives who are used to stresses in their sentences.

Remember iambic pentameter from Shakespeare?

“A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!”

The underlined words all have a stress, which provides rhythm and emphasis to spoken English.

This does not exist in French. Instead, sentences and words flow together. This can be very challenging for English speakers who attempt to cut up sentences intuitively. Listen to this example and you’ll understand what I mean:

Oral comprehension

In this article, I argue that oral comprehension in the hardest thing about learning French. This is largely because of the reasons listed above. I believe that students studying the language go through several steps before considering themselves “fluent.” Among these steps are confidence speaking and confidence understanding.

Due to silent letters, vowel strings, and no stressing, oral comprehension remains a tough part of the language learning process. In addition, you face an endless variety of regional accents, there’s an urgency to understanding the spoken word, and the brain simply needs more time to pick up on understanding the language.

These are all reasons why learning French is hard when you don’t go about it the right way.

Fewer words with multiple meanings

French words are notorious for meaning different things in different contexts. For example, the word “ancien” means “old” by direct translation, but it can also mean longstanding, longtime in current position, previous, and it has a noun form that defies all of these definitions. What’s more, it does not mean old age! Old age is “vieux.” Let’s look at a few examples:

“Ancien” is not the only word to have multiple meanings. There’s also simple words such as good, which is “bon” in French, that carry multiple meanings. This word can be used to say something is good, that all is well, that something will do, that something tastes good, that you should let something go, that someone is good at what they do, and much more.

But be careful because “bien” is a close friend that means “well.” It’s used in many cases where intuitively you might prefer “bon,” and then it has its own uses! For example, you don’t say “very good,” you say “très bien,” or “very well.”

This article is not made to layout the different meanings behind multi-meaning words, but it’s important to recognize how depending on context to understand a word could be tough for non-natives. They have to feel their way through this when the rules themselves do not apply.

Conjugations

Conjugations also make French tough. A conjugation is simply the splitting of an infinitive “to” verb into its form for each subject. For example, in English, it looks like this for the verb “to be”:

Subject	Conjugation of “to be”
I	am
You	are
He/She	is
They	are

In French, you have to learn the conjugation for six different subjects:

je	I
tu	you
il/elle	he/she
nous	we
vous	you all/formal you
ils/elles	they

There are patterns for 3 different types of verbs, which simplifies the process enormously. There are 3 main types: verbs ending in -er, -ir, and -re. In a sentence, these types all have standard endings. For example, -er verb endings are -e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent. Let’s look at them in a table for the infinitive verb “regarder,” which means “to look;”

je	-e	regarde
tu	-es	regardes
il/elle	-e	il regarde
nous	-ons	regardons
vous	-ez	regardez
ils	-ent	regardent

Other patterns exist for -ir and -re verbs as well, but that’s outside the scope of this article. The point is that conjugations are tough for new learners. Patterns will help them learn, but it’s ultimately a game of time. I believe you can learn all you need to know in 1 year with the right study strategy.

Gendered nouns

In English, nouns are gender neutral. In French, nouns all have genders. And when you want to use an adjective to describe a noun, you have to make it agree in number and in gender. This means that you have to know the gender of every noun to speak properly.

For example, the adjective “fort” means strong. As an adjective, it follows a simple pattern to become plural, feminine, or feminine plural:

plural	add “-s”
feminine	add “-e”
feminine plural	add “-e” then “-s”

For example, let’s look at the noun “fenêtre” meaning window. It is feminine in French. If you wanted to say “strong window,” thus, you would need to say “une fenêtre forte.”

The real challenge here is not making agreements, but remembering the gender of every noun you learn. This is something that native speakers will understand intuitively, but non-natives have to learn with time.

The good news is that most of this will happen naturally if you follow the balanced strategy and an immersive study plan like the one we advocate at The French Objective.

Expansive, not brief

Another reason why French feels difficult is its tendency to expand rather than simplify. One of the most common examples of this is saying how one will move from place to place. Let me explain.

To say that you are going from New York to Boston, you my simply say “I’m flying to Boston.” The type of transport is included in the verb. In French, you would say “I’m going to Boston by plane.”

The expansive nature of the French language can be difficult to adapt to for English speakers. But this is far from being a critical point, so don’t let it discourage you.

Lack of native teachers

One of the major arguments we make at The French Objective is that you need to have an equal balance of listening, speaking, reading, and writing in your learning strategy, even when it feels highly uncomfortable, in order to become fluent.

You truly don’t need a teacher to learn French in our digital world. There are so many online resources, The French Objective included, to propel you through the process. The one exception to this is having a native French teacher. The value of spontaneous conversation with a native speaker cannot be overstated.

At the same time, it’s nearly impossible to find a native speaker in the United States. There are many French people around, but it’s notoriously difficult to find a good, native French teacher. I was lucky enough to have two during my studies, and it made all the difference for me.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the biggest reason why French is so hard to learn is the linear way in which most students approach it. In addition, reasons include:

1. Pronunciation
2. Silent letters
3. Vowel Strings
4. No stressing on syllables
5. Few words with multiple meanings
6. Conjugations
7. Gendered nouns
8. Expansive tendency
9. Lack of native teachers

Don’t let these things discourage you. If anything, now that you know them, you should feel encouraged because you can overcome them. You can use the strategies we’ve discussed in this article or take a look at The French Objective homepage for more resources.