Have you ever thought: “J’aimerais bien parler français, mais j’ai personne avec qui m’entraîner !” (= “I’d like to start speaking French, but I have nobody to practice with!”) ?
Then I have something for you! You can dramatically improve your French speaking skills without anyone else. You can practice on your own – and in fact, that might be exactly what you need right now.
Let’s see four powerful techniques you can use today to start practicing French even when you’re on your own.
Wait, am I going to talk to myself?
First of all: yeah, it’s going to look like you’re talking to yourself. It’s going to feel weird at first – but don’t give up. These are effective techniques, and the weirdness is why you didn’t try them yet. But once you get over this mental block, you’re going to progress fast with French fluency and confidence.
Speaking French in real situations can feel brutal. You might freeze when someone asks you a simple question. You might suddenly forget the one word you need. You might realize you’ve been using a word the wrong way for years…
It’s OK to make mistakes, it’s good to make mistakes – but it’s hard not to lose some confidence over them.
And that’s why solo practice matters. It allows you to:
– fix your own problems with pronunciation
– repeat the same sentence until it sticks, even if it takes twenty times
– make mistakes without getting embarrassed in front of an audience
– and build confidence before the real conversations hit
1) Technique: Shadow Reading
The first technique is called shadow reading. It’s one of the fastest ways to train your mouth to make French sounds naturally.
Here’s how it works: you listen to real French, and you repeat it instantly. Your job is to copy the melody, the rhythm, the pronunciation, like an echo.
For instance, repeat from the video: Je vais au marché tous les samedis matin.
You can try it at home, on your own:
- Pick a video in French, like on YouTube or Netflix. You can turn on the subtitles first.
- Play one sentence, hit pause
- Repeat the sentence yourself.
- Turn off the subtitle, play it again, speak at the same time as the character
If you’re ambitious, you can try with longer sentences. For this, you might set your video at lower speed first.
The key is to play pretend. Don’t get in your head and overthink it, just try to mimic the way they say the words.
2) Technique: Self-Conversation
The second technique is: talking to yourself. Yes, out loud. No, you’re not crazy. It’s strategic training, it’s self-conversation to improve your French fluency.
Most French learners can understand French much better than they can speak it. Self-conversation helps you bridge that gap by forcing you to retrieve words from your passive vocabulary and actually use them.
The key is to start with topics you know well and care about.
For instance: describe your morning routine in French. Start simple:
- Je me lève à… (I wake up at…)
- Je prends mon petit-déjeuner… (I have breakfast…)
- Ensuite, je… (Then, I…)
Now, using these phrases, tell me about your morning. Speak out loud, behind your screen, even if it’s messy, even if you only use simple words, and even if it feels silly.
Don’t worry if you have to pause or think. That pause is your brain working! The more you practice, the shorter those pauses become.
Then you can use your own sentences too.
At home, try this: set a timer for 2 minutes and describe your day, your plans, or your opinions about something you watched on TV.
For example: “Hier soir, j’ai regardé “Anatomie d’une chute,” le film de Justine Triet. C’était très fort, très puissant. J’ai beaucoup aimé les acteurs et l’histoire.”
Keep talking for the full 2 minutes – even if you have to repeat yourself.
Then, click here to claim your personalized Weekly Practice Plan !
A big challenge when learning French: knowing your exact level and what you should be practicing next. Without a clear structure, you might end up stuck translating in your head instead of thinking directly in French.
That’s why I created the Weekly Practice Plan. With this free resource, you’ll get a clear assessment of your current level and specific exercises tailored to your needs. You’ll find exactly what to practice each day of the week, how to overcome common obstacles, and a simple method to track your improvement.
Join over 30,000 French learners who’ve already downloaded this free resource. Click here to start your structured French practice today.
3) Technique : Commentary Practice
Technique number three: commentary practice. In short, you become the narrator of your own life. All in French!
As you go about your day, describe what you’re doing in French. Like:
- Je fais du café (= I’m making coffee)
- Je promène le chien. (= I’m walking the dog)
- J’ouvre un livre. (= I’m opening a book)
- Je bois de l’eau. (= I’m drinking water)
- Je regarde mon téléphone. (= I’m looking at my phone)
- Je ferme la porte. (= I’m closing the door)
- Je mets mes chaussures. (= I’m putting on my shoes)
Now, for homework, I want you to narrate a moment of your day today in French. At any point, take five minutes, and start describing what you’re doing or feeling. Whatever it is – describe it out loud in French.
In short:
– Self-conversation is about your upcoming plans or your recent past or your opinions in general.
– Commentary practice is about what’s happening right now. You’re actively doing something and describing it in real-time using simple present tense.
Both are powerful, but they train different parts of your French brain. Self-conversation builds your ability to express thoughts and ideas. Commentary practice builds your automatic reaction speed with basic French.
4) Technique: Question-Answer Method
Finally, technique four: questions and answers. That’s right, you ask yourself questions, stuff that people might ask you, and you answer them yourself. Out loud, in French.
This prepares you for real conversations where people will ask you about yourself. And you can practice the specific topics and vocabulary that matter to you.
For example:
- Vous avez passé une bonne journée ? (= Did you have a good day?) → Oui, je suis allée… and quickly describe your day. Or Non, il m’est arrivé quelque chose… and try to say what happened today.
- Qu’est-ce que vous aimez faire le week-end ? (= What do you like to do in the week end?) → J’aime… and something you like to do.
Vous faites quoi dans la vie ? (= what do you do for a living?) - C’est quoi votre plat préféré ? (= what’s your favorite dish?)
At home, write down 10 questions that people might ask you in French conversations. Then practice answering them every day, until you’re fluent and confident. Then you can add more!
What if I keep repeating mistakes?
A quick note here. When practicing on your own, you will face your own limits. And you can’t ask someone to correct your mistakes. How can you be sure you won’t be repeating your own mistakes over and over?
Well, there are several answers here.
The first one is to record yourself. This way, you can listen back, and you’ll often hear your own mistakes. You might also find some apps (like HelloTalk, or Tandem) where you can send these recordings to native speakers who can give you feedback.
But the second answer is that you don’t need it right now. You’re rehearsing in a safe space, like a musician before a concert. You’ll hit wrong notes sometimes, but you’ll know it. You’ll feel it when you’re missing vocabulary or when you’re guessing about grammar. You can look it up later, but you need to make these mistakes in the first place.
Finally, my third answer is that it doesn’t even matter. What matters is that you’re building French into your life, even when you don’t have an audience. Your brain and your mouth are building muscle memory into the habit of speaking French. Later, when someone is in front of you, you won’t be starting from zero – it’ll feel normal to speak French.
You’re building confidence, with solo practice.
And that’s what matters.
5) Bonus: Finding Practice Partners
These solo techniques are flexible and effective. But you’re still allowed to practice with conversation partners!
You can find native speakers or fellow French learners. Take your time to find someone who can help you with your learning goals, at your own level.
If you want to meet other French learners, search Facebook for “[Your city] French language exchange” or “[Your city] French conversation group.” You’ll be surprised how many people in your area are learning French too.
You can speak with an AI too, of course. It’s a powerful technology – but it doesn’t feel the same.
Better yet, you can follow supportive programs like my French Conversation Club, here on Comme une Française. In our online community, you can practice spoken French alongside other learners and qualified teachers that I hand-picked for you, in a chill, real-life setting. You can get fun weekly one-hour sessions. It’s like a gym membership, but for your spoken French muscles! You will love my Conversation Club if you want live practice without the pressure of native-speaker judgment.
Click here to take a look at the French Conversation Club right now!
6) Your French Solo Practice Challenge at Home
Here’s my challenge for you this week: choose one of these four techniques and practice it for just 10 minutes every day. That’s it – just 10 minutes.
Maybe Monday you do shadow reading, Tuesday you try self-conversation, Wednesday is commentary practice, and Thursday you work on question-answer. By Friday, you’ll have tried all four techniques and discovered which one works best for you.
And click here to claim your Weekly Personalized Action Plan – a step-by-step roadmap with daily activities tailored for your level, to help you start learning French the way that you need.
À très vite !
Cette technique permet moi aussi d’avoir des idées importantes en français ! Merci beaucoup !
j’aime beaucoup Votre techinques des lecons tres practique, j’adore ca.
merci
C’est génial ! J’adore m’entraîner comme ça.