How to Use This Course
Greg Shone, a certified French teacher and coauthor of French Essentials, brings more than two years of French lessons to SchoolhouseTeachers.com for your student. Beginning with Book 1, your student will learn the pronunciation of the letters and will quickly advance to simple French phrases. The course is taught with weekly downloadable PDF worksheets and audio to teach correct pronunciation. The French course is targeted to middle school and high school students, but elementary students can learn French also, if they are ready to add it to their schedule. This course should be taken by starting with Book 1 and following the lessons in consecutive order as they build on each other throughout the course. This course counts as a foreign language credit. There are more than two full years of French lessons provided here. Students who complete all of the lessons for one full year may earn 1 academic credit, and students who complete two full years can earn 2 academic credits. As always, please check your own state’s academic requirements.
Are you ready to journey into the French language? Let’s start with Francophone and the Francophony.
What is a Francophone?
Onésime Reclus, a French geographer who wanted to classify people according to language, coined the word Francophone in the nineteenth century. A Francophone is a person whose first language or mother tongue is French. The term Francophone is used also to describe people who use French in their daily lives in one or more of the following situations, as:
- a daily means of public communication
- the official language used in government and business
- the principal language of education
Where is French spoken around the world?
The Francophone world is comprised of more than forty countries on five continents with French being spoken by about 120 million people as their mother tongue or fluently, and by another 150 million in their daily lives. These countries are referred to as the Francophony or in French La Francophonie.
French is an official language in twenty-nine countries, and is also an official or administrative language in several communities and international organizations such as the European Union, International Olympic Committee, The World Trade Organization, and NATO, to mention only a few.
Major countries in La Francophonie include France, Belgium, Canada, Switzerland, Haiti, the French West Indies, the Ivory Coast, and several other countries in Africa (former colonies of France).
In the case of many Francophone countries, French is an official language along with other languages. In Switzerland, for example, French, German, and Italian are the official languages. In the United States, French is an official language in the state of Louisiana. And, in many areas, such as New England, French is an important minority language.
The largest French-speaking country in the world is France. With a population of approximately 60,656,178, France is home to over one-third of the world’s Francophones.
Now, let’s learn more of this beautiful language!
Weekly downloadable PDF worksheets that include audio (accessible on or offline) to teach correct pronunciation.
French Year One
- Lesson 1: The French Alphabet
- Lesson 2: The French Accents
- Lesson 3: Greetings in French (Formal and Informal)
- Lesson 4: Addressing People With the Basic Titles (Mr., Mrs., and Miss)
- Lesson 5: The Numbers 0-10
- Lesson 6: Asking the Question “What is your name?” and Responding
- Lesson 7: Asking the Question “How are you?” (formal and informal) and Responding
- Lesson 8: Asking the Question “How old are you?” and Responding
- Lesson 9: Asking Someone if he/she is From a Certain Town or City and Responding/Introducing Negation in French
- Lesson 10: The Numbers 11-20
- Lesson 11: Asking the Questions “What is that?/Is that…?” and Responding/Introducing Gender of Nouns
- Lesson 12: My Vocabulary (Vocabulary Building)
- Lesson 13: Asking About and Pointing Out People and Responding
- Lesson 14: Asking Someone if he/she Knows Certain People and Responding/Introducing Question Formation and Inversion
- Lesson 15: The Numbers 20-29
- Lesson 16: My Vocabulary (Vocabulary Building)/Introducing the Plural of Nouns
- Lesson 17: Asking the Question “Do you have…?” and Responding/Indefinite Articles Un, Une, and Des + Negation
- Lesson 18: My Vocabulary (Vocabulary Building)
- Lesson 19: Asking Someone if he/she Knows Certain People (in sight) and Responding/Introducing the definite articles le, la, l’, and les
- Lesson 20: Expressing Basic Possession of Objects and Things and Relationships Between People
French Year Two
- Lesson 21: Asking the Question “Do you like…?” and Responding/Vocabulary (at school)/Introducing Subject Pronouns and Verb Conjugation
- Lesson 22: Asking the Question “Does he/she like…?” and Responding/Vocabulary (sports and hobbies/interests)/ The Third Person Singular of Regular Verbs Ending in er
- Lesson 23: Asking the Question “Where do you live?” and Responding/The Conjugations of the Regular Verb “habiter”
- Lesson 24: The Numbers 30-39
- Lesson 25: The Days of the Week and Asking the Question “What day is it today?”
- Lesson 26: Vocabulary (the family)/Introducing Possessive Adjectives mon and ma (my)
- Lesson 27: Asking the Questions “What is his/her name?/How old is he/she?” and Responding/The Third Person Singular of the Irregular Verb “avoir”
- Lesson 28: Vocabulary (family members)/Expressing the Relationship between Family Members
- Lesson 29: Vocabulary (my relatives)/Expressing the Relationship between Extended Family Members
- Lesson 30: The Months of the Year and Asking the Question “What month is it?”
- Lesson 31: Asking People About their Family and Responding (Part 1)/The First and Second Person Plural of the Irregular Verb “avoir”
- Lesson 32: Asking People About their Family and Responding (Part 2)/The First and Second Person Plural of the Irregular Verb “être”
- Lesson 33: Asking People About their Family and Responding (Part 3)/Introducing the adverb “Combien?”
- Lesson 34: Forming Tag Questions with n’est-ce pas? and Responding/Review Sentence Structures
- Lesson 35: The Date and Asking the Question “What is the date today?”
French Year Three
- Lesson 36: Asking Someone About the Type of Home he/she Lives in and Responding/Asking About the Type of Home a Person Lives in and Responding/Review Verb Conjugation and Regular Verbs Ending in “er”/Review The Third Person Singular of the Regular Verb “habiter”
- Lesson 37: Pointing Out the Different Areas of a House/Vocabulary “Here is my house”/Introducing the Impersonal Expression “Il y a…”
- Lesson 38: Asking Someone About What is in his/her House and Responding/Vocabulary (in my house)
- Lesson 39: The Numbers 40-49
- Lesson 40: The Time and Asking the Question “What time is it?” and Responding (the hours 1-6)
- Lesson 41: Asking About Where Someone is and Responding/Prepositions of Place/Position and Describing Where People Are
- Lesson 42: Asking About Where Something is and Responding/Introducing the possessive adjectives ton and ta
- Lesson 43: Asking Someone About his/her House and Responding/Vocabulary (Here is my room)
- Lesson 44: The Time and Asking the Question “What time is it?” and Responding (the hours 7-12/noon and midnight)
- Lesson 45: Expressing the different periods of the day (morning, afternoon, and evening)
- Lesson 46: Asking People About Where They Live and Responding/The First and Second Person Plural of the Regular Verb “habiter”
- Lesson 47: Asking Someone the Question “What is your address?” and Responding
- Lesson 48: Asking People About Their Neighborhood/The Possessive Adjectives votre and notre/The First and Second Person Plural of the Regular Verb “aimer”
- Lesson 49: The Numbers 50-59
- Lesson 50: Asking the Question “What time is it?” and Responding (the minutes after the hour)
This course counts as a foreign language credit. There are more than two full years of French lessons provided here. Students who complete all of the lessons for one full year may earn 1 academic credit, and students who complete two full years can earn 2 academic credits.