By Patrick Berryer Last updated: November 2, 2023

Top 5 Online French Speaking Courses to Help You Talk Like a Native Speaker

I know it feels like it sometimes, but you can’t do everything online.

You still need to cook food, work out and pet your dog in real life. French can still remain on the online list, though.

There are plenty of courses out there that will help you improve your French ability, including plenty that will help you boost your speaking skills and overall confidence.

Read on to find out about some of the best French speaking lessons you can find online!

Top 6 Online French Speaking Courses
And one more thing...

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Top 6 Online French Speaking Courses

1. Best For Learning from Native Speaker Professors: Lingoda

With classes tailored to all needs and types of students, Lingoda is a great resource for learning to actually speak French.

You’ll interact with native French teachers:

Lingoda only employs native French speaking teachers, which means you’ll receive some of the best speaking practice possible. Although non-natives can be great French teachers, only natives can train your ears with an authentic accent.

Often students have trouble understanding native speakers if their teacher speaks in a familiar accent, similar to their own. By starting out with native speakers, you’ll understand spoken French much faster.

You’ll practice in real-time with one-on-one classes:

One of the advantages that sets Lingoda apart from the rest is the one-on-one interaction students receive with their teacher or tutor.

Face-to-face instruction means you have 100% of your teacher’s attention, letting you progress through the skill levels offered by Lingoda with ease.

Speaking of…

Courses are available for all skill levels:

If you stick with Lingoda, you can graduate from A1 (absolute beginner) to C2 (most advanced) speaking.

Not sure what level your French speaking skills are at? With personal advisers who can professionally assess your strengths and weaknesses, Lingoda has removed the guesswork from knowing which class to start with.

You can find speaking lessons focused on what you want:

Although speaking involves skills applicable to all subjects, Lingoda still lets you customize your courses based on your priorities. There are specific courses for business French, French for beginners and more.

Plus, the one-on-one lessons ensure that you get totally personalized instruction that’s relevant to you.

FluentU takes real-world videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

Other sites use scripted content. FluentU uses a natural approach that helps you ease into the French language and culture over time. You’ll learn French as it’s actually spoken by real people.

FluentU has a wide variety of great content, like interviews and web series, as you can see here:

FluentU brings native videos within reach with interactive subtitles.

You can tap on any word to look it up instantly. Every definition has examples that have been written to help you understand how the word is used.

For example, if you tap on the word "crois," you'll see this:

Practice and reinforce all the vocabulary you've learned in a given video with FluentU's adaptive quizzes. Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning and play the mini-games found in the dynamic flashcards, like "fill in the blank."

As you study, FluentU tracks the vocabulary that you’re learning and uses this information to give you a 100% personalized experience.

It gives you extra practice with difficult words—and reminds you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned.

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)

2. Best For Fine-tuning Your Pronunciation: Rocket French

If your concern is understanding spoken French and making sure people understand you, Rocket French is the place to be. With classes focused on the oh-so intimidating French pronunciation, you’ll never have to worry about misunderstandings.

You can take your studies with you thanks to downloadable lessons:

Rocket French starts you out with 25-minute interactive audio lessons that let you get used to spoken French and French pronunciation. Unlike many other apps, Rocket French actually lets you download the audio lessons so you can complete them even if you don’t have internet access.

The voice recognition system will fine-tune your pronunciation:

Online speaking classes with real professors are great, but obviously they come at a price. Rocket French gets around this with their state-of-the-art voice recognition system that can hear and correct your pronunciation.

How does it work? Think of Alexa or Cortana. These systems recognize your voice and understand you. Rocket French just takes it further with feedback on your pronunciation.

With this system, you can also practice matching your pronunciation to native speaker recordings of thousands of words.

3. Best For Getting a Classroom Experience at Home: Michel Thomas French

Michel Thomas was a famed language instructor from Beverly Hills. His program, Michel Thomas French, will give you access to a classroom-like French experience—without the exam stress or uncomfortable chairs.

Join a simulated French class with expert instruction:

The Michel Thomas method starts with an audio lesson between two students, Michel Thomas—and you, listening in and speaking along. It’s designed to be a productive but low-stress way for you to learn French and pick up on common mistakes that students make.

Choose the course best suited for your skill level:

If you’re a beginner, start with Michel’s first eight-hour “Foundation French” course. You can then progress to “Intermediate French” and then “Insider’s French,” which is specifically designed to improve your French conversation skills.

Remember vocabulary through active use, not rote memorization:

One of the most difficult parts of speaking in French is coming up with the words you need, right when you need them.

The Michel Thomas course helps you learn vocabulary in an active, natural way—not just memorizing word lists. From the very beginning you’ll be taught how to put sentences together with essential vocabulary.

Rarely can a class teach conversation from day one, but that’s one benefit of this class!

4. Best For Mastering Everyday Spoken French: Alison’s Basic French Language Skills Course

Learning the basics for the first time? Need to brush up on your beginner French? Traveling to a French-speaking region soon? This roughly 10-hour course has got your back.

Learn speaking skills for specific situations:

The lessons in this course are broken into specific, essential topics such as greetings, telling time, colors and numbers.

Thousands of students have enjoyed this course:

One advantage of this course is that it’s offered on Alison, an educational platform that makes it easy to see what previous students thought of the course. Over 400,000 students have enrolled and it’s rated 5/5, so you can rest assured you’re getting quality instruction.

Earn a certificate:

After you complete this course, you can get an official certificate from Alison to prove your skills to future employers, academic institutions or just for bragging rights.

5. Best For Fun French Lessons: FrenchPod101

FrenchPod101 is a great audio and video course that teaches French conversation and pronunciation skills.

Learn culturally-relevant French:

FrenchPod101’s lessons are designed to be the opposite of a dusty old school textbook. You’ll learn culturally-relevant French speaking and comprehension skills that you can actually use in real life.

Never run out of lessons:

There are more than 1,300 FrenchPod101 audio and video lessons–and more are being added all the time. You’ll also have something to practice with. Plus, you can take the lessons anywhere with the FrenchPod101 mobile apps.

Get more (free!) lessons on YouTube:

You’ve heard it before, but Youtube is one of the best free sources for French language learning. The FrenchPod101 YouTube channel gives you hundreds of speaking-focused videos.

Luckily FrenchPod101 has organized their channel well with playlists of complete, topic-specific lessons. For example, check out the playlist on learning French pronunciation:

Plus, we all know how active comment sections are on Youtube. The FrenchPod101 comments are like a forum related to the video. Use that to your advantage to ask questions and mention doubts you have about the videos. You’ll quickly receive responses!

Learning to speak French is possible from the comfort of your home.

These online French speaking courses allow you to hone your pronunciation and conversational skills—ultimately giving you the confidence you need to go out there and start speaking French in the real world.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

And one more thing...

If you like learning French on your own time and from the comfort of your smart device, then I'd be remiss to not tell you about FluentU.

FluentU has a wide variety of great content, like interviews, documentary excerpts and web series, as you can see here:

FluentU brings native French videos with reach. With interactive captions, you can tap on any word to see an image, definition and useful examples.

For example, if you tap on the word "crois," you'll see this:

Practice and reinforce all the vocabulary you've learned in a given video with learn mode. Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning, and play the mini-games found in our dynamic flashcards, like "fill in the blank."

All throughout, FluentU tracks the vocabulary that you’re learning and uses this information to give you a totally personalized experience. It gives you extra practice with difficult words—and reminds you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned.