· 7 min read
Learn French for Free: Courses That Work
By Language Lab editorial team
The free French courses worth your time: TV5MONDE's 2,000 exercises, RFI's daily news in easy French, the Open University's OpenLearn and the BBC archive.
You can learn French for free from four established broadcasters and universities. TV5MONDE runs a free interactive site with more than 2,000 exercises built on videos and news reports, from beginner to advanced level. RFI publishes the Journal en français facile, a ten-minute news bulletin in easy French, with exercises from A1 to C1/C2. The Open University's OpenLearn has three free beginner courses, Getting started with French 1, 2 and 3, of 6 study hours each, with a free statement of participation. The BBC's older French courses are still online, though archived. Together they cover listening and a structured start. What they rarely give you is speaking practice with correction, so plan for that separately.
The free resources, compared
| Resource | Who makes it | Level | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apprendre le français | TV5MONDE | Beginner to advanced | More than 2,000 online exercises based on videos, programmes and news reports |
| Le français facile | RFI | A1 to C1/C2 | Podcasts and exercises, including the ten-minute Journal en français facile |
| Getting started with French 1 | The Open University (OpenLearn) | Level 1: Introductory | 6 hours: reading and listening, basic structures and key vocabulary for everyday situations |
| Getting started with French 2 | The Open University (OpenLearn) | Level 1: Introductory | 6 hours: food, likes and dislikes, shopping and ordering |
| Getting started with French 3 | The Open University (OpenLearn) | Level 1: Introductory | 6 hours: asking for directions and building vocabulary |
| Talk French, The French Experience, Ma France | BBC | Beginners, and beyond beginners for Ma France | Online video lessons; archived and no longer updated |
TV5MONDE: more than 2,000 exercises
TV5MONDE, the international French-language channel, describes its learning site as free and interactive. You learn from videos, programmes and news reports, and choose from more than 2,000 online exercises that train oral comprehension from beginner to advanced level. It suits learners who want variety and real French, with the exercise doing the checking for them.
RFI: ten minutes of easy French a day
Radio France Internationale teaches French through international news. Its Journal en français facile is a ten-minute bulletin, and the site adds podcasts and exercises sorted into A1, A2, B1, B2 and C1/C2. Because the bulletin is daily and short, it is the easiest of these resources to turn into a habit. France Éducation international, which runs France's official tests, recommends RFI for practising listening comprehension.
OpenLearn: a structured first 18 hours
If you are starting from zero, begin here. The Open University has three free courses that follow on from each other. The first develops reading and listening and teaches you to speak and write in everyday situations. The second, a two-week course, covers food, likes and dislikes, shopping and ordering. The third teaches you to ask for directions. Each is listed at 6 hours of study and gives a free statement of participation, so the set comes to 18 hours.
The BBC archive
The BBC's French pages are marked as archived and no longer updated, but the courses remain online: Talk French and The French Experience for beginners, and Ma France, an interactive video course for those beyond beginner level.
How far free courses take you
The US State Department, which trains US government employees in languages, allows 30 weeks of classes for French, within a range of 552–690 class hours, to reach a speaking and listening score of 3 on the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale. The three OpenLearn courses total 18 hours. Free courses give you a start and a routine; TV5MONDE and RFI can then supply listening practice for as long as you keep going.
Make free study work harder
A 2013 review of ten learning techniques, led by John Dunlosky, rated two as high utility: practice testing and distributed practice. Rereading and highlighting were rated low.
- Do the exercises, every time. They are the testing part, and both TV5MONDE and RFI attach them to their material.
- After a bulletin or video, say aloud what it was about before you read the transcript.
- Return to the same episode a week later instead of always moving on.
- Repeat sentences out loud. Listening alone does not train speaking.
A free weekly plan
- Every day, 10 minutes: RFI's Journal en français facile.
- Monday to Friday, 20 minutes: one section of an OpenLearn course until you finish all three, then one TV5MONDE video with its exercises.
- Every day, 10 minutes: test yourself on the week's words and phrases.
- Once a week: record yourself summarising one news story in French, and listen back.
What free courses do not give you
None of these resources holds a conversation with you or corrects your speech. That gap needs a partner, a class, a tutor or a speaking tool. Language Lab's French course is built around voiced real-life scenarios with an AI tutor, so it can supply the speaking practice that free listening material leaves out.
Frequently asked
Can I learn French for free?
You can get a strong start. TV5MONDE, RFI, the Open University's OpenLearn and the BBC archive all cost nothing. Reaching a high level takes far more hours than any free course contains, and you will need speaking practice from somewhere else.
What is the best free French course for beginners?
For a structured start, the Open University's Getting started with French 1, a 6-hour introductory course with a free statement of participation. For daily listening, RFI's ten-minute Journal en français facile.
Is TV5MONDE free for learning French?
Yes. TV5MONDE describes its learning site as free and interactive, with more than 2,000 online exercises from beginner to advanced level.
What is the Journal en français facile?
A ten-minute news bulletin in easy French from Radio France Internationale. Its learning site also has podcasts and exercises graded from A1 to C1/C2.
Do free French courses give a certificate?
The OpenLearn courses give a free statement of participation. That is not a language qualification. France's official qualifications are the DELF and DALF diplomas and the TCF test.
Are the BBC French courses still available?
The BBC's French pages are archived and no longer updated, but Talk French, The French Experience and Ma France remain online.
Sources: TV5MONDE, Apprendre le français; RFI, Le français facile; The Open University, OpenLearn, Getting started with French 1, 2 and 3; BBC Languages, Learn French; France Éducation international, TCF tout public; US Department of State, National Foreign Affairs Training Center, Foreign Language Training; Dunlosky et al., Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 2013. Checked on 13 October 2026. Photo: Place de la Bourse and the Miroir d'eau, Bordeaux, Patrick Despoix / CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons).
