Podcasts for learning French are an excellent tool for polishing your pronunciation and immersing yourself in the language and culture of France. So, grab a brew, slip on your headphones, and dive into our pick of the best podcasts for sharpening your listening skills.
What are the best podcasts to learn French?
- French Today’s Monthly Audio Mazazine
- FrenchPod101
- Radio Lingua – Coffee Break French
- Learn French By Podcast
- Little Talk In Slow French
- French Blabla
- French Made Easy
- Real Life French
- French Your Way / French Voices
- Vive L’apprentissage du Français
- Easy French
French Today’s Monthly Audio Mazazine
French Today, a leading website for learning French, recently launched a new monthly French magzine subscription. Narrated by online teacher Camille, each month offers four new articles recorded twice in slow enunciated French and faster French as you’d hear it on the street.
The articles cover a wide range of areas of interest including French culture, stories, traditions and places in France. In addition to being recorded at two different speeds, each article comes with a PDF including English translation and lots of pictures so you can feel like you’re there!
By signing up for a monthly subscription at just US$11.99/month, you’ll get instant access to all of Camille’s library of 36 articles. In addition, there’s no long-term committment – you can cancel at anytime.
FrenchPod101
A long-time contender for the best podcast to learn French is the wonderful FrenchPod101.
FrenchPod101 offers broad learning resources for beginners through to advanced learners, encompassing video tutorials, flashcards, and even personal tuition.
Signing up is free and gets you access to a vast library of podcasts for learning French, from 3-minute bite-sized lessons to complete pathways that walk through topics like handling emergencies or expressing yourself socially.
Frenchpod101 has been in the language learning game for years, and their French podcast library remains among the most comprehensive available.
Radio Lingua – Coffee Break French
The extensive catalog of Coffee Break French podcasts offers structured lessons peppered with humorous chat shows and travel diaries.
Created by the Radio Lingua Network, a multimedia language learning company, their podcasts for learning French are broken into four learning levels, from beginner to advanced.
Lessons lasting 15-25 minutes capture teachers and students bouncing off each other. Smartly produced, they feel interactive and do a standup job of building confidence by mixing English speakers and native French voices.
Advanced speakers will appreciate their “Il était une fois” (Once upon a time) and “La Vérité éclate toujours” (The truth always comes out) podcasts, which ups the French-speaking elements.
All the Coffee Break French podcasts are free; a premium service opens access to teaching notes, bonus videos, and other audio. However, you don’t need to upgrade to benefit from a diverse and engaging set of podcasts that can boost listening and vocabulary at every stage of the learning journey.
Learn French By Podcast
Spotify and iTunes users may already be familiar with Learn French By Podcast, a learning resource around (almost) as long as the idea of listening to broadcasts on iPods.
LFBP promotes the basics with a straightforward teacher-student exchange to keep the dialogue fresh and realistic. Like a traditional online lesson, you can be the student and hear the teacher clarify translations and pronunciations.
Beginner and intermediate levels mix English and French, while advanced levels go up a gear with 100% French audio. Download transcripts directly from their website with paid credits.
The 200+ podcasts for learning French are free, concise, and regularly expanded. Covering current topics like AI and COVID and attention-grabbing topics dating back over a decade, Learn French by Podcast is rightly regarded as a pioneer of the craft.
Little Talk In Slow French
Little Talk In Slow French presents 20-35 relaxing minutes per episode with Nagisa Morimoto, a native French speaker who talks about topics she cares about.
Dropping English explanations along the way, Morimoto has won fans with a calming voice that speaks clearly and slowly.
Last we looked, she had 73 French language podcasts posted, with transcripts and supporting tests free on Patreon. If you want to dodge the advert-plagued podcast hosting site, you can also listen on Spotify.
Français Authentique
If you’ve hit advanced learning stages and are ready to finetune your French, the free podcasts on Français Authentique are a treasure trove.
The online teaching method of Johan Tekfak, founder of Français Authentique, is all about developing your listening skills by immersing listeners in French. You won’t even find any English on their website to sell their product, which is an admirable commitment to the method.
Alongside other learning resources, podcasts have been posted on the site and popular streaming platforms since 2012. Happily, these French podcasts with transcripts are freely published – no need to sign up. Yet another principle we can all applaud.
French Blabla
Take a break from essential grammar and vocabulary lessons with the laidback French Blabla podcasts that emphasize speaking like a “true native.”
Caroline, the personable language teacher behind French Blabla, had posted 143 episodes at the time of the writing. It is an eye-catching medley of conversational French podcasts for beginners like “The Weird Sounds French People Make” and more immersive podcasts, including her hugely enjoyable “A Day in French” series.
Many of the site’s podcasts for learning French are under 5 minutes, making them ideal to fill a few spare minutes with French voices.
A mix of free and paid-for companion guides, including transcripts, accompany the podcasts. But even without the transcripts, Caroline makes things easy for beginners with the kind of empathy that reluctant learners will welcome.
French Made Easy
The French Made Easy podcasts are free, quick-listen recordings from native French speaker and teacher Mathilde Kien. If you’re looking for an uncomplicated French podcast with transcript (and free cheat sheets if you sign up), this is a good place to start.
Published weekly and lasting around 10 minutes, the podcasts offer a compelling way to hear the language in action and broaden vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar for beginners.
Bouncing between English and French, Mathilde has an engaging style as she introduces assorted themes from a French Halloween to verb conjugation.
In short, they’re a light and bright set of podcasts for beginners, as the name suggests.
Real Life French
The bite-sized podcasts from Real Life French are fantastic for sharpening listening comprehension.
Loaded with the idioms and slang that textbooks ignore, you can hear native French speakers talk naturally at their own pace. Ensuring less-accomplished speakers are not left behind, they then repeat themselves slowly.
Taking the form of a short conversation on everyday topics, these totally free podcasts for learning French are made for idle moments. If you have more time, there are 350+ recordings to fill your coffee breaks for the foreseeable future!
French Your Way / French Voices
On the French Your Way website are hundreds of podcasts for every level created by Jessica, a native French speaker and teacher.
As with many other French podcasts, there is a focus on learning the language you’ll hear on the streets of Marseille and Nantes, not just the formal language of textbooks.
Lessons are structured to peel back the intricacies of the French language. In the “French Your Way” podcasts, explanations are provided in English. The interview-style “French Voices” podcasts are for intermediate and advanced learners with an emphasis on airing native speakers.
A balanced mix to help build confidence and maintain it with ongoing listening practice.
Vive L’apprentissage du Français
We’ve got tons of resources to help start your French language-learning journey. But if you want to get to grips with indefinite articles or adverbs quickly, you might benefit from popping on a podcast or two from Vive L’apprentissage du Français (Long Live French Learning).
The free podcasts, all produced by Elodie, a qualified language teacher, are available on their website and nearly every streaming platform.
A broad library includes concise grammar lessons and cultural insights delivered with clarity and a slow pace adapted to learners. However, as they are exclusively in French and sans transcripts, these are aimed squarely at intermediate-advanced learners.
Easy French
Created by a trio of native French speakers, the conversational podcasts from Easy French are a snapshot of how people engage with each other in France.
A French-language podcast (no English is spoken) blending humor, cultural commentaries, and local insights is released weekly.
At around 20-30 minutes per episode, there is plenty to engage language learners. Listen to the podcasts for free or splash for membership to access transcripts, vocabulary tools, and video files.
Conclusion – A French Podcast For Every Learner
Like watching French TV online, podcasts are a fun and engaging way to connect with the language without leaving home.
Whether you want to explore Gallic culture with local voices or perfect the nuances of French verb tenses, we’ve tried to include a podcast for you on this list.
However, if you’ve reached fluency, you should consider diving deeper into French podcasts on every topic under the sun from standout sites like Podcasts Français, Radio France, and RFI (Radio France Internationale).
