Learning to speak French fluently involves having a good command of French grammar (though it does not have to flawless or complex), good pronunciation, and a broad vocabulary (working knowledge of about 5,000 French words) will get you started in becoming a fluent French speaker.
Of course, if you want to be able to understand any responses, you need good oral comprehension as well. That means you must have a strong enough knowledge of grammar to at least recognize the most used verb tenses and grammatical structures, as well as common French phrases, and to be able to use contextual clues to figure out the rest.
How to Speak French Fluently
- Improve the quality and flow of your speaking. In particular, you need to practice speaking at a normal pace for a native French speaker (which may seem quite rapid to you), make your pronunciation as good as you can – in particular working on the “r” and vowel combinations.
- Additionally, it will help to learn the little phrases that French speakers throw into their conversations naturally – for example, they do not say “um” or “er” when they are trying to think of a word, they say “euh.” Learn the simple idiomatic phrases that French speakers use to express more complex ideas.
- Expand your French vocabulary. Learning a few dozen new words everyday is pretty easy if you continually expose yourself to the words. Keep an ever-growing list that you review weekly or at least monthly. Flashcards or a two-column format on sheets of paper are the easiest methods.
- Practice speaking French whenever possible – there are several foreign exchange video chat websites where you can speak with native French speakers who want to practice their English with you. LiveMocha.com is one example, and Interpals.net is another.
Above all else, speak confidently. You will probably never be 100% flawless in speaking French, but you can make yourself perfectly well understood if you follow these tips. The worst thing you can do when trying to communicate verbally with someone in French is to spend too much time hesitating, pausing, and trying to find the best word when another one will work fine. Stick with simple sentence structures until you can fluidly use more complicated ones, and maintain your best pronunciation at all times.