Listen, read and understand, all at once.
Each episode is a story told in natural French. While you listen, the text follows the voice and every tricky word is explained. Here is everything you can do.
Pick an episode at your level.
Stories follow the levels of the Common European Framework. On the Stories page, filter by level and by length: a five-minute story to get started, a longer one once you feel at ease.
- A1-A2, beginner
- Simple sentences, everyday vocabulary.
- B1-B2, intermediate
- Real stories, natural pace.
- C1-C2, advanced
- Rich language, idiomatic expressions.
The text follows the voice.
Press play: the sentence being spoken turns to full ink, and a thin green line runs under each word as it is said, fading out behind the voice. The rest of the page stays grey, so your eyes always know where to go.
The text is laid out in pages that fit your screen. No scrolling: when the voice reaches the bottom of a page, the page turns by itself. You can also leaf through freely while listening; a green mark under the page line shows where the voice is.
Replay as often as you need.
Missed a sentence? Tap it and the audio goes back to its beginning. Tap a single word and playback resumes right at that word.
- Previous, next
- The two buttons on either side of play jump one sentence.
- Repeat
- Plays the current sentence again from the start.
- Back 10 s
- Rewinds ten seconds.
- Speed
- From 0.7× to slow down to 1.3× to train for fast speech: one tap on the button shows them all.
- Pause
- Stops after each sentence so you can say it aloud, then carries on when you press play.
- Loop
- Plays the current sentence over and over until you turn it off.
Every tricky word is explained.
Words with a dotted underline are listed in the margin, under Words: the last one you heard is in green, the ones still to come are paler. Tap a word in the text to see a short definition in simple French and an English translation.
Stuck on a whole sentence? Turn on Translate: the English for the sentence being spoken appears under the text and follows the voice.
Any other word: double-click it, or on a phone press and hold it, to see its translation. On a computer, you can also drag across several words. With a free account, tap Save and it goes to My words in its dictionary form, verbs in the infinitive and adjectives in the masculine, with the sentence where you found it. Saved words are shaded light green in the text.
Focus on what matters.
Hide text blurs the transcript. All you have left is the voice: the best way to find out what you really understand. One tap brings the text back.
Focus hides the menu and both margins and makes the text bigger. Only the page and the player remain. Press Esc to come back.
The Aa button changes the text size, switches to a serif font for reading, or turns off the sentence highlighting.
The four-listen method.
By ear
Hide the text and listen to the whole episode without stopping. Try to get the gist of the story.
With the text
Show the text and listen again. Note the passages you had not understood.
Word by word
Open the words in the margin, slow down to 0.85× and repeat the difficult sentences.
By ear again
A few days later, hide the text and listen once more. You will be surprised by how much you understand.
Questions.
Do I need an account?
Not for stories 1 and 2: they are open to everyone, with every tool (transcript, translation, pause, quiz). To listen to the other stories, you need a free account. It costs nothing and takes a minute.
The account also lets you save words and review them with flashcards, pick up where you left off on any device, and keep your quiz scores. Create one in a minute.
If I stop halfway, where do I pick up?
Right where you left off. When you come back, a “Resuming at 2:45” line appears above the text, with a link to start over. In the collection, a thin green line under the cover shows your progress.
Without an account, this memory stays in your browser, on that device. With a free account, it follows you from your phone to your computer.
What happens at the end of an episode?
A short comprehension quiz checks what you understood, followed by the episode's words. The quiz unlocks once you have really listened to the story: about 85% of the sentences played, not skipped, even with the tab in the background. After that, it stays open and you can take it again whenever you like.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. The text fills the screen, you turn the pages with a swipe, and the words open in a panel that slides up from the bottom.
I understand almost nothing. What should I do?
Pick an easier level, slow the voice down to 0.85× or 0.7× and keep the text on screen. Understanding a lot, even slowly, is better than wearing yourself out on an episode that is too hard.
Prêt(e) ?
Get comfortable and put your headphones on.