11 Easy French Books for Beginners to Read

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Information 11 Easy French Books for Beginners to Read

Title	:	11 Easy French Books for Beginners to Read
Lasting	:	9.22
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I have read about 3 French novels, with much difficulty with vocabulary and idioms Now I read exclusively online using he Chroma app Transover All you need to do is point to a word or phrase and Transover will give you a perfect translation Vingt Mille Lieues Sous Les Mers est disponible en ligne
Comment from : James Raymond

I’ve ordered your book Looking forward to it
Comment from : elaine porter

I am currently creating an online French literature course to be marketed and sold by my company, LinguaTute This would be an 8-week long course consisting of one live class (15hrs) every week, which will be taught by a PhD French literature student at Oxford University I'd really love to hear people's opinions on what should be included in this French literature course - in return I can offer you a 10 discount on the course (which we will begin delivering around the end of May/beginning of April - specific date is still to be decided) If you would like to have a chat with me and help to shape the future of this course, please respond to this comment Thank you!!
Comment from : Ffion Kellegher

Do you have any german books recommendation
Comment from : John Marday

Thanks for your amazing contentbrBtw I'm only studying French for about one month, but I'm sure that your pronunciation of "le petit prince" is wrong!
Comment from : arman zen

I have bought other books of French short stories, which all come with a free audio download Why do we have to buy the audio for yours?
Comment from : Em Carver

I understand a good bit of what I read in video transcripts, but I could not understand plenty of "great beginner books" like Le Petit Prince I think all this advice is lies, especially if a person is self teaching Either its lies or the advice givers don't really appreciate or remember it as a real beginner Just because a book is easy for french kids to read, that's not the same as a language learner! By the time the french child is 5 even, they have been exposed to thousands of french words in their daily lives and can actually understand a whole lot They are just putting letters to their already acquired language No, simply reading books is not a way to learn a language Unless you start at toddler level and adopt a french mama
Comment from : Marie B

Oh my goodness I have that French book of short stories! I’ve found it very helpful I had no idea you were an author of it!
Comment from : Jennalee Smith

This was really good thank you also youcool merci been for tintin reminder
Comment from : Marc Wibble

I enjoyed reading Aya de Yopougon, by Marguerite Abouet There are 6 books Comic strip style
Comment from : misabel801

Olly’s beginning French reader (“Short Stories”) isn’t beginner level The cover says “beginner”, but the Introduction admits that it’s A2-B1 level I was frustrated with it
Comment from : Slick Salmon

First French book I have read was "Mes chères études"
Comment from : Joe Jacques Schulz

I'm reading Les Enfants Verts by Olga Tokarczuk translated from Polish I think it's probably advanced beginner or intermediate level I'm really enjoying it It's not a long book The story is about a 17th century Scottish biologist traveling with the Polish King through Poland The King's soldiers find two children whose skin and hair is slightly green The mystery is to find out who they are and why they're green
Comment from : Buster

The first book in French I read all the way through without struggling (I actually forgot I was reading in French) was one especially written for students so not an actual book for French natives "Le match de Thomas" is a kids book about what happens to Thomas when a new kid joins his school and is immediately the most popular guy around Yeah, it's for kids but I have fond memories because it was the first book I read fluidly without feeling like I was constantly translating
Comment from : Mr X

Just bought some French books in czech E-shops I'm a beginner so I bought some bilingual books but Short Stories also popped up… Wasn't in stock though Now that you mentioned the quizzes, I'm prob gonna go on Amazon or something 😆
Comment from : Kačka Gálová

Are Olly Richard's books (the two mentioned here) voiced by French actors? I recently bought a couple of audiobooks (by a different author) and they were read/performed by Canadian actors I live in Spain so I would like to adapt my ears to the French tone of voice
Comment from : DA

Fantastic recommendations, Olly Thank you!
Comment from : Flush Jackson

So, I have a big project, which is reading classic works of literature in as many original languages as possible I'm a native Spanish speaker, so that's done, and of course I do read English Next came Italian, and now I'm with French I've done a few Camus, and I decide to jump in to the deep end of the pool I'm current reading Le Rouge et Le Noir (which I read in high school translated into Spanish, and honestly, pas mal, pas mal I'm taking it slow, but I'm enjoying it a lot It is really satisfying that I'm understanding the literary devices Very enjoyable!
Comment from : Randy

L'etranger, was actually my first full read, in French and I found it quite easy, stylistically speaking I find Camus in general an easy read Now, the philosophical implication behind the text is another story
Comment from : Randy

I can read french But writing and speaking, not at all This is an awesome list Thanks Ollie
Comment from : Potato Kitty

What if you're a "beginner" beginner like you don't even know HOW to read french, and you don't really have much of a vocabulary besides "Bonjour" and "J'mapelle Mary" or "Le chat"?
Comment from : Amazing Pink Ballerina Mommy

Upper beginner is C1?
Comment from : WVW

Just realized the book I bought last week here is written by you! "Short stories in French" I like it so far it's just at the right level for my learning right now! Thanks!
Comment from : cyberjynx

Le Petit Prince is a must I actually had the priviledge of having the person that inspired the book as a teacher without knowing it was the actual Petit Prince now an old man teaching philosophy in Quebec but still retaining that spark that inspired St-Exupery even as an old manbrNice that you put graphic novels in there, very nice way to learn cuz you got the images to help you understand the words (I've learned english reading Marvel comics)
Comment from : Andréa Natsumi Nadeau

I've been reading a couple of French books lately, and of all the French books I read, L'Etranger is definitely my favourite! I tried the 20000 Lieues sous les mers, but found it too technical and detailed and lost the overall plot, which is a shame, because I really like Jules Verne!brI love this list you compiled and I will definitely check some of these out! And as a fan of comic strips (BD's), I've always wanted to read the original Astérix books as well
Comment from : SuicideBunny6

THE classic bande dessinée française is without doubt Asterix Some of the subtle humor will be lost with limited knowledge of the language But it will be fun still And if it is funny, the reading will come with ease As a kid I read all issues of Asterix (The German translation of course) It will be much fun to reread them in the french original
Comment from : Jochen Kunz

"Vingt milieu sous les mers" n'est pas un livre facile à lire pour un étranger Ce n'est pas du français moderne Le premier chapitre "Un écueil fuyant" je ne sais même pas ce que cela veut dire En revanche, "l'étranger" est un chef d'oeuvre absolu Avec des phrases simples : sujet + verbes + complément A lire absolument
Comment from : Frédéric Roy

Barjavel's "la nuit des temps" is mind blowing science fiction book I highly recommend it
Comment from : Charles

There's something missing here, that's part of our french culture forever, and easy for beginners : Les Aventures de Tintin et Milou , comic books by Hergé ! ( who's actually Belgium) Our number one comic book of all time! That's very good french, talking about many different situations, not childish but yet simple, ordinary sentences we all use daily I don't know a single person in France who never reads Tintin Watching the drawings while reading the characters talking sure would help beginners a lot !
Comment from : Youcool

Bernard Werber ! :) Wonderfull
Comment from : Franko

I love how you are presenting such classic french books, it's wonderfull to see that english speaking people can have acces to this part of our literature
Comment from : Théophraste Picot

Reading is so good to extend your vocabulary in a foreign language, I love readig english books, and as a frenchman, it really helped me getting better
Comment from : Théophraste Picot

I would add La Planète des Singes, by Pierre Boulle It's the original novel on which the Planet of the Apes movies are based on
Comment from : Blue Dusk

I was going to suggest Camus' il'Étranger/i as well Excellent choice Merci!
Comment from : Patricia Everything

I was gifted a bunch of French novels from this friend who moved away from NYC, where I live, to Belgium She gave me some books by Guy Maupassant, the 19th century French short-story writer Are those easy to read in French? I remember reading an English translation of one of his stories way back in high school and found it very simple in grammar and construct, though the ending had quite a twist (I think he was famous for his crazy endings)
Comment from : Luboman411

Please do this for Italian
Comment from : Nickelini

How about A la rechercher du temps perdu?
Comment from : Wander with Jon

I keep watching your videos to find motivation within me I have found to be extremely challenging to learn a language outside of a community which speaks it daily, although that wasn’t how I learned English (I’ve never been to an English speaking country) Maybe stories should be a great way to give it a try!
Comment from : Carolina Parente

I've just read "Frère D'âme" by David Diop A story based around Senegalese fighters in the First World War Amazingly it has won both the Prix Goncourt (Francophone equivalent of the Booker prize) band/b the English translation won the Booker Prize this year (split equally between the author and the translator) I found the language itself very clear and simple I would say it's simpler than L'Étranger, for example It's also not too long at 160 pages, so a great target for a first novel in my opinion
Comment from : Joe Lemmer

I'm currently reading No et Moi by Delphine du Vigan, excellent book
Comment from : Joy RC

Hello, can anyone recommend me some books for mid-level? Merci!!
Comment from : Hector Mejia

Do these books use the literary tenses? (By the way, I've already bought your "Short Stories for Beginners" and it's a godsend)
Comment from : Salpi Vartivarian

Merci
Comment from : Mahmoud Hamdi

Already have Olly's books They are great Recommend them for everyone who is interested enough in the topic to have watched this video Have both the French and German versions Waiting for the Russian editions Make sure you get the audio tracks brbrWhere I live, there is a French language tv network produced by a French government cultural agency, available from the cable provider It has a lot of stuff, some of it pretty weird But one thing they show is the occasional classic opera While I have never watched opera I do like listening to some of the great classic arias and duets Because this is a French network they have subtitles in French for the Italian language that most of the classics are in brbrThanks to Olly's books and what I gained from them, I can now understand the French subtitles Which is to say I use my newfound limited ability to read the French subtitles to translate the Italian vocals into English so I can finally understand what is going on with the music and singing
Comment from : Ron Arnett

Great video! I'm at the stage where picking up an arbitrary book in French is still too hard, but I've already finished the standard recommendations of Le petit prince and L'etranger Bonus point for adding genres like Sci-Fi, not just providing a list of boring old classics! I'll definitely check out Barjavel, or Georges Simenon as recommended in comment here One question, though: Any reason you only recommend fiction? My impression is that non-fiction tends to be easier to read than fiction, and hence provide a smooth transition between comics and fiction
Comment from : Elias Aamot

Are you familiar with the book "Le passe-muraille"? They had us read an excerpt in my French class As I recall, it was one of the readings that the class liked the most
Comment from : Tmhc72

New sub great stuff
Comment from : Noir Samouraï

How about a series with repeating characters but in French?
Comment from : Noir Samouraï

Any book title with Le Petit Nicolas in it is at the top of my reading list
Comment from : rjlipman

One of my French teachers in school (end of 1970s) recommended the detective stories of Georges Simenon
Comment from : Steve Kaczynski

I think the 101 conversations book are great resources but that there is no audio included makes it quite difficult for me as a teacher to recommend it to my students
Comment from : Amstabomitdembabo

Hi Olly, loving short stories in Italian at the moment, and was hoping you would do a list like this for Italian please?
Comment from : tony brooks

Thanks Olly, really You’re short stories in French have really helped me and I hope that soon I will be able tonconnect with some of my family even more!
Comment from : Dry Water

Thanks for the great content Olly! Have you considered making your short stories in Finnish?
Comment from : mustaregis

Hi Olly! Wanted to ask, would yo do the short stories for Latin? It's difficult to find material for beginniers and there is not too much of it
Comment from : Third World Polyglot

Merci pour les recommandations Olly !
Comment from : Forever Learning French

I bought both "French Stories for Beginners" and "101 Conversations in Simple French" I am halfway through the stories and I have enjoyed it immensely Thank you!
Comment from : Latinocr

I'm surprised you recommended La nuit des temps It's a wonderful book (although I slightly prefer Ravage by Barjavel) but I definitely wouldn't recommend it as a first novel, unless the learner is very motivated to slog through it I find Barjavel's style great, but it can sometimes be a bit over the top in terms of his descriptive language It was a good level for me when I read it, but I was pretty experienced reading French at that pointbrbrIf anyone wants a more accessible science fiction story, I highly recommend La planète des singes (planet of the apes) It's not too long, has an accessible style and a pretty unique premise It's also different enough from the movies that it will feel fresh
Comment from : Justin Armstrong

I have 101 simple conversations already and now I'm going to buy ALL these books for my summer reading list I love BD also Thank you for the recommendations
Comment from : christine creature

Can you do a reaction video to Jose Mourinho speaking multiple languages or Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Romelu Lukaku
Comment from : vjvj85

We need an Italian 🍝 version
Comment from : Mohamed Salah

Your recommendations look very interesting, but a bit "off the beaten track" aren't they? This week I started reading my first French novel and I went for the first Arsène Lupin novel
Comment from : Udl U