6 books to read
Learn French by reading
Real books written in French, with the English translation beside them, matched phrase by phrase. Read a passage now; a free account opens the rest.
--Ça ne peut être que Césarin, dit Bigeard en hâtant le pas, je reconnais son flageolet...
"It can only be Césarin," said Bigeard, quickening his pace; "I recognize his flute...
Nous allons nous amuser!
We’re going to have fun!"
En effet, au bout d’une vingtaine de pas, nous vîmes devant nous le personnage en question.
Indeed, after about twenty paces, we saw the person in question ahead of us.
Ce Césarin était un gros garçon de trente ans environ, portefaix à ses heures et vagabond les trois quarts du temps.
This Césarin was a stout boy of about thirty years old, a docker by trade and a vagabond three-quarters of the time.
Il jouissait à Juvigny d’une grande popularité, due à sa bonne humeur, à son indépendance d’allures et à sa vie excentrique.
He enjoyed great popularity in Juvigny, owing to his good humour, his independent manner, and his eccentric way of life.
Bien que les bourgeois le tinssent pour un propre à rien et un gueux, on lui passait de nombreuses peccadilles à cause de son caractère inoffensif et de son entrain.
Although the bourgeois considered him good for nothing and a beggar, many minor faults were overlooked because of his harmless character and his lively spirit.
Son principal défaut était d’aimer plus que de raison le vin gris du cru.
His main fault was loving the local grey wine more than was reasonable.
Dès qu’il avait gagné une pièce de trente sous à rentrer du bois ou à porter les colis du roulage, il plantait là sa besogne pour courir les bouchons du faubourg et lézarder au soleil;
As soon as he had earned thirty sous by carrying wood or delivering parcels for the cartage, he would abandon his work to run to the taverns in the suburb and loaf in the sun; then there would be hearty carousals and endless
alors c’étaient de franches lippées et des flûteries sans fin.
flute-playing.
Il avait la langue bien pendue et disait aux gens leurs vérités avec cette franchise expansive que donne une demi-ébriété; les rues retentissaient de ses larges éclats de rire et des fioritures de son flageolet.
He had a loose tongue and told people their truths with that expansive frankness that comes from half-drunkness; the streets rang with his loud peals of laughter and the flourishes of his flute.
Puis, quand il avait dépensé son dernier sou, il devenait morose, muet comme un poisson, et s’en allait faire un somme sous un arbre ou sous un auvent.
Then, when he had spent his last sou, he would become morose, silent as a fish, and go take a nap under a tree or under an awning.
Dès le lendemain, il se remettait énergiquement au travail, besognant comme un cheval, jusqu’à ce qu’il eût ramassé de quoi recommencer à gueuser au soleil.
The next day, he would energetically return to work, toiling like a horse, until he had gathered enough to start loafing in the sun again.
A passage from Les enchantements de la forêt. Click a sentence to see how it lines up.
6 books in French
How reading teaches you French
Every title here was written in French. The English column is not a lesson: it is there so you never stop to look something up. Hover or tap a phrase and its counterpart lights up on the other side.
You read for the story. The vocabulary and the grammar arrive on their own, because a novel repeats its most common words hundreds of times in context — the repetition a flashcard app tries to simulate.
What level do I need?
From A2. A complete beginner will find a real French book heavy without a first few hundred words; after that, the translation beside the text makes any title readable, and the explanations cover what the translation cannot.
Is this machine translation?
Yes, and we say so. Every translation is produced by a model and checked before it is published: paragraph parity, length, language, and alignment coverage.