Read French with live AI stories

Quick facts about French

Speakers

About 312 million speakers: roughly 74 million native and 238 million second-language speakers (2012–2024 estimates). The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie's own counts are higher, depending on how speakers are counted.¹

Did you know?

A written final consonant that is normally silent can be pronounced before a word starting with a vowel. This is liaison: les alone is /le/, but les amis is /lez‿ami/, and liaison after a determiner is obligatory.²

The main challenge

Silent letters make spelling from sound hard: parles, parle and parlent all sound the same. Reading aloud is fairly predictable; writing what you hear is much less so.³

Sources

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liaison_(French)
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_orthography

About the French language

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_orthography
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_grammar
4. https://www.un.org/en/our-work/official-languages

French reading proficiency benchmarks (CEFR & DELF/DALF)

The DELF and DALF are diplomas of the French Ministry of National Education, run by France Éducation international, which publishes one diploma per CEFR level: DELF A1 to B2 and DALF C1 and C2. A0 sits below the first diploma, so it is shown as Pre-A1. The column is a rough guide to reading level, not an official equivalence for Stichos texts.

Reference corpora

French has open lexical databases built from large corpora.¹

• Lexique: Boris New and Christophe Pallier’s open database (Lexique 3.82) lists about 140,000 French words with spelling, pronunciation, lemma, syllables, part of speech, gender and number, and frequencies from both a book corpus and a film-subtitle corpus.¹
• Vocabulary: Stichos uses words understood in both the French of France and Canadian French unless a story is set in one region, and avoids slang and verlan. From A0 to A2 it also avoids idioms and figurative phrasing, preferring plain words such as chemin over itinéraire.

1. https://openlexicon.fr/datasets-info/Lexique382/README-Lexique.html

Readability design principles

French readability formulas run from recalibrated versions of Flesch to machine-learned models.¹

• Kandel and Moles: Kandel and Moles (1958) adapted the Flesch Reading Ease formula to French in “Application de l’indice de Flesch à la langue française”.²
• French as a foreign language: François and Fairon (EMNLP-CoNLL 2012) built a readability formula for French as a foreign language from 46 lexical, syntactic and semantic features; their best model, based on support vector machines, outperformed earlier formulas for learners.¹
• Stichos: Stichos sets difficulty with level-by-level grammar rules and sentence-length limits rather than a single readability score.

1. https://aclanthology.org/D12-1043/
2. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_de_lisibilit%C3%A9

Script & grammar scaffolding

• Tenses and moods: A0 uses the present (présent) plus the polite formula je voudrais. A1 adds the passé composé and the near future with aller + infinitive. A2 adds the imparfait and reflexive verbs such as se lever. B1 adds the futur simple and the conditionnel, while the present subjunctive (subjonctif présent) and the plus-que-parfait wait until B2.
• The literary past: An automatic check flags plural endings of the passé simple, the past tense of written narrative, such as -èrent and -âmes, in A0 and A1 texts.
• Object pronouns: Unstressed object pronouns go before the verb (je le vois) except in an affirmative command (regarde-le). Chains of two pronouns, as in il me le donne (“he gives it to me”), arrive at B1.
• Subjects and address: French does not drop subject pronouns, so every verb has a stated subject. Strangers, staff and elders are addressed as vous; friends, family and peers as tu.

Related academic & framework resources

• DELF tout public (France Éducation international): The official page for the adult DELF A1 to B2 diplomas, issued by the French Ministry of National Education and run by France Éducation international.
• DALF (France Éducation international): The official page for the DALF C1 and C2 diplomas.
• Lexique 3 (OpenLexicon): Documentation for the Lexique 3.82 database of about 140,000 French words, by Boris New, Christophe Pallier and colleagues.
• An “AI readability” Formula for French as a Foreign Language: The EMNLP-CoNLL 2012 paper by Thomas François and Cédrick Fairon.
• Test de lisibilité (French Wikipedia): An overview of readability tests, including the Flesch adaptation for French.

Frequently asked questions

What writing system does French use?

Latin alphabet with five diacritics (acute, grave, circumflex, diaeresis and cedilla) and many silent letters

Is Stichos suitable for complete beginners with zero prior knowledge (A0)?

Yes. A0 is a primary focus, designed for readers with no prior knowledge. A1 then adds basic everyday vocabulary and simple connected clauses as your foundation grows.

Are Stichos levels the same as CEFR levels?

Not exactly. Stichos levels use the familiar CEFR names, from A0 to B2, and are modelled on the CEFR (the Common European Framework of Reference), so a Stichos B1 is meant to feel close to a B1 in your course book. They aren't an official CEFR rating, and different books and exams draw the lines in slightly different places. A0 is Stichos's own addition, just below the framework's first level.

Are the stories written by AI, and how accurate are they?

Yes. Stories are generated by AI and then checked by further automated steps against the grammar and vocabulary rules for your level. That catches most problems, but it isn't a human editor, so an occasional unnatural phrase or slip can get through. Treat Stichos as practice material, and check anything you're unsure of with a teacher or a reference.

Can I read stories with explanations in my native language?

Yes. Stichos allows you to pair any target language with any native support language. You can read a Croatian story with French glosses, or a German story with Spanish explanations.

How does word lookup work while reading?

Tap or click any word for its meaning in that sentence, explained in your own language. In the full version, you can save any word to your Vocab Bank for later review.

Is the preview free, and what happens to my email?

Yes. The preview is free and needs no account. If you join the Reading List, we use your email to send your 3 free sample stories (PDF, after you confirm your address) and to let you know when we fully open. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle it.

Do stories include audio or narration?

Story narration isn't part of the preview. At launch, the Premium Audio add-on reads every story aloud in a natural-sounding AI voice, in 39 of our 40 languages (Esperanto doesn't have audio support yet).