· 7 min read
Is French Hard to Learn? An Honest Answer
By Language Lab editorial team
Is French hard to learn? The US State Department puts it in its easiest group at 30 weeks. See how it compares and which parts need the most work.
For an English speaker, French is one of the easier languages to learn. The US State Department places it in Category I, languages close to English, and allows 30 weeks of classes, within a range of 552–690 class hours, to reach a speaking and listening score of 3 on the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale. That is the same as Spanish, less than German at about 828 hours, and far less than Japanese or Arabic at 2,200. The work is concentrated in a few places. The Open University's beginner courses spend time on the u and ou sounds, the letters h and r, un and une, and telling masculine from feminine forms. French is also widely used: the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie counts 396 million French speakers and 170 million learners.
How French compares
The State Department's timelines show the time an English-speaking student is usually expected to need to reach an ILR score of 3 in speaking and listening, which makes them a practical measure of difficulty. The Department previously published this list under the name Foreign Service Institute (FSI); an archived version of the page gives identical class-hour totals to the current one.
| Language | State Department category | Class time |
|---|---|---|
| Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish | Category I | 24 weeks |
| French, Spanish | Category I | 30 weeks |
| German | Category II | About 36 weeks (828 class hours) |
| Russian, Polish, Greek, Turkish, Hindi | Category III | About 44 weeks (1,012 class hours) |
| Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean | Category IV | 88 weeks (2,200 class hours) |
Category I covers 24–30 weeks, or 552–690 class hours, and the State Department describes it as languages close to English. French is at the upper end of the group, level with Spanish and six weeks longer than Italian or Portuguese.
What that means in real time
The State Department's figures are class hours: it describes a typical week as 23 hours in class and 17 hours of self-study. It says the actual time varies with a learner's natural ability, prior language-learning experience and time spent in the classroom. Here is the same range at a part-time pace.
| Hours per week | Weeks to cover 552 hours | Weeks to cover 690 hours |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | About 110 | 138 |
| 10 | About 55 | 69 |
| 20 | About 28 | About 35 |
The parts that need the most work
A good guide to what is hard is what beginner courses choose to teach explicitly. The Open University's three free Getting started with French courses list these among their learning outcomes.
- The u and ou sounds, and the basic rules of French pronunciation. This is an outcome of the first course.
- Masculine and feminine forms. Learners are expected to distinguish them, spot the differences when reading and listening, and pronounce each form correctly.
- Articles. The second course teaches expressing likes with j'aime, j'adore and je préfère together with the articles le, la, l' and les.
- Un and une, and the letters h and r. Their pronunciation is an outcome of the third course.
- Devoir and il faut. Giving directions with these two ways of saying what must be done is also in the third course.
- Prepositions of location, which come with asking for and giving directions.
Two things stand out. Pronunciation appears in the outcomes of both the first and the third course, so it is not something you finish in week one. And gender is taught through listening and speaking as well as reading: the outcome is to spot the difference by ear and pronounce each form correctly.
What makes French worth the effort
The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie gives these key figures: 396 million French speakers in the world, 170 million people learning French or learning in French, and French as the fourth language worldwide and the fourth on the internet. There is also a clear ladder of official qualifications, which makes progress easy to measure.
| Level | Diploma | What the level means in the Council of Europe's scale |
|---|---|---|
| A1 | DELF A1 | Understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases |
| A2 | DELF A2 | Communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information |
| B1 | DELF B1 | Deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken |
| B2 | DELF B2 | Interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible |
| C1 and C2 | DALF C1 and DALF C2 | Advanced levels: at C1, use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes |
France Éducation international says the DELF and DALF are recognised worldwide and valid for life, and that the DELF B2, and increasingly the DALF C1, allow entry into French, European or Francophone universities.
How to make French easier
- Train your ear first. Free material exists for exactly this: TV5MONDE offers more than 2000 online exercises built on videos and news reports, from beginner to advanced level.
- Say everything aloud. The sounds are the part beginner courses return to most.
- Learn each noun with its article, since gender has to be heard and spoken.
- Test yourself instead of rereading. A 2013 review of learning research rated practice testing and distributed practice as high utility, and rereading and highlighting as low.
- Listen to the news in easy French. RFI's Le français facile offers the Journal en français facile, with podcasts and exercises from A1 to C1/C2.
Language Lab's French course is built around voiced real-life scenarios with an AI tutor, so you practise hearing and saying French in everyday situations.
Frequently asked
Is French hard to learn for English speakers?
Not compared with most languages. The US State Department places French in Category I, languages close to English, at 30 weeks of classes within a 552–690 class hour range.
Is French harder than Spanish?
The State Department rates them the same. Both are Category I languages listed at 30 weeks.
Is French harder than German?
By the State Department's figures, German takes longer: it is a Category II language at about 36 weeks, or 828 class hours, against 30 weeks for French.
What is the hardest part of French?
Beginner courses point to pronunciation and gender. The Open University's free courses teach the u and ou sounds, the letters h and r, un and une, and telling masculine from feminine forms when listening and speaking.
How long does it take to learn French?
The State Department's range for a speaking and listening score of 3 on the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale is 552–690 class hours. At ten hours a week that is about 55 to 69 weeks.
How many people speak French?
The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie counts 396 million French speakers in the world and 170 million learners.
Which French exam shows my level?
The DELF covers A1 to B2 and the DALF covers C1 and C2. Both are issued by the French Ministry of National Education and are valid for life.
Sources: US Department of State, National Foreign Affairs Training Center, Foreign Language Training; The Open University, OpenLearn, Getting started with French 1, 2 and 3; Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, La langue française dans le monde; France Éducation international, DELF tout public and DALF; Council of Europe, CEFR Global scale; TV5MONDE, Apprendre le français; RFI, Le français facile; Dunlosky et al., Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 2013. Checked on 13 October 2026. Photo: Mont Saint-Michel abbey, Normandy, W. Bulach / CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons).
