🇫🇷 Learn French
Learn French by reading books
Reading is the fastest way to grow a French vocabulary, and it is also where French flatters you: the shared Latin vocabulary with English means you will recognise far more in print than you can hear. Use that. Build the vocabulary through reading first and the listening catches up faster than the reverse.
Why books works for French
Cognates do a lot of the work
A large share of formal French vocabulary is transparent to an English reader. Reading exploits that overlap immediately, where listening cannot.
Volume beats intensity
An hour of reading passes several thousand words. That is where a working vocabulary comes from, not from drilling lists.
You set the pace
A book waits while you reread the sentence. Complex tenses eventually resolve because you can look at them for as long as you need.
How it works in InputDojo
- 1
Import a PDF or text file and the whole book becomes clickable.
- 2
Read for meaning; tap only what stops you.
- 3
Keep saved words to five or ten a day so tomorrow's review stays short.
Where to start
Graded readers
Level-controlled and unglamorous. The quickest route to reading stamina.
Simenon's Maigret novels
Deliberately plain prose, short chapters, and a plot that pulls you along — a classic first native author.
Le Petit Prince
Simple language, genuinely worth reading, and short enough to finish.
A translation of a book you know
The familiar plot carries you through the unfamiliar language.
Frequently asked questions
When can I read a real French novel?
Around B1 with lookup and B2 without much of it. Before that, graded readers build the base faster — decoding every third word is not reading and does not last.
Does InputDojo support EPUB?
No. PDF, plain text and Markdown, up to 20 MB. For an EPUB, convert it or paste the text.
Is the passé simple worth learning to read?
Yes, if you read literature — it is the standard past tense in written narrative and appears constantly, even though nobody speaks it. Recognition is enough; you never need to produce it.