How to read French fluently?

Question

How to

Answer 1

Well, that really depends on a few things, the first of which is your level of French and what you are reading. I am assuming if you're trying to read in French, you already know the basics (think in terms of French classes, French 1-2) and you have a basic vocabulary and understanding of French grammar. I am also going to assume the thing that you want to read is a book, but this does apply to articles or shorter pieces of writing as well but it differs.

I recommend starting simple, reading something that you maybe read in elementary school or a picture book. This way, you will be able to visualize what you are reading so the image can fill in the blanks. This also works well because well, it's how most of us learned to read English in elementary school.

The second thing is this: as you start increasing the complexity of the text, you are going to encounter words, grammar structures and conjugations that are unfamiliar to you. Don't try to translate every single word, but choose a chunk of text (a paragraph, half a page, a page again depending on your level and the complexity of the text) and just read that. If you can get the main idea and write it down on a sticky note or in a notebook in English or French after, then you have the main ideas and can move on. If you would like to go through then and define all the words you don't know, you can, but that will greatly slow down the reading process.

Something else I recommend is after you finish a chapter or section to try to answer questions on it, again either in French or English depending on your level. If you can answer all of the comprehension questions correctly, congrats- you have the information you need to continue. If not, go back and re-read and take more notes.

Also, another tip is if you can choose what you are reading choose books you are familiar with. I gained a lot of French and Spanish fluency through re-reading the Harry Potter books, books I am very familiar with and have read multiple times in English. Because you already are familiar with the plot and characters, it makes it easier to read in a foreign language because it's not brand new information.