Learn French by reading what you love
Otto swaps a share of the words you read into French: on any website, in books and in podcasts. You still follow everything, and the French you understand grows a little every day, without setting aside time to study.
The same sentence at all seven levels
This is the sentence Otto uses to show its levels, taken straight from the app. At A few words only the most common words are French; at Confident the sentence takes French word order too; at Native it is all French.
Le city council va repair le old bridge cet winter, et le mayor promised que pedestrians et cyclists peuvent still cross la footbridge.
Le city council va repair le old bridge cet winter, et le mayor promised que pedestrians et cyclists peuvent toujours cross la footbridge.
Le conseil municipal va repair le vieux bridge cet hiver, et le mayor promised que pedestrians et cyclists peuvent toujours cross la footbridge.
Le conseil municipal va réparer le vieux pont cet hiver, et le mayor a promis que pedestrians et cyclists peuvent toujours traverser la footbridge.
Le conseil municipal va réparer le vieux pont cet hiver, et le maire a promis que les piétons et cyclists peuvent toujours traverser la footbridge.
Le conseil municipal va réparer le vieux pont cet hiver, et le maire a promis que les piétons et les cyclistes peuvent toujours traverser la footbridge.
Le conseil municipal va réparer le vieux pont cet hiver, et le maire a promis que les piétons et les cyclistes pourront toujours traverser la passerelle.
The most common words come first
A few hundred words make up most of what anyone reads, so that is where Otto starts. In this sentence, the first French you would meet is:
How you learn French with Otto
- Pick your level. Start with a few everyday words, or most of the page.
- Read as you normally would. A book in the app, a podcast, or any website in Chrome, Safari or the app's own browser.
- Tap any word you don't know. See what it means and hear it. Save it with one tap.
- Practise and move up. Short games in Learn use the words you saved, and as you learn more, Otto shows you more French.
A French grammar course, A1 to C1
Otto teaches French grammar in 102 short topics, each with a clear explanation and exercises, practised with the words you have met yourself. A few of them:
Everything you read, in French at your level
Any website
News, blogs, Wikipedia, recipes: Otto weaves French into the page in Chrome, in Safari and in the app.
Books and podcasts
A library of classic books, and podcasts in which some of the words you hear are French, both at your level.
Your word bank
Every word you save goes to Learn, where quick games bring it back until it sticks.
Your tutor
Working with a tutor? They can set your reading and see the words you looked up.
Questions
Can you learn French just by reading?
Reading things you can mostly understand, with a few new words each time, is one of the best-supported ways to build vocabulary. Otto keeps your reading at that point, and pairs it with short practice games for the French words you save.
What level of French do I need to start?
None. At the first level Otto swaps only a handful of the most common words into French, and it adds more as you learn them, all the way to reading entirely in French.
Is Otto free?
Yes. Everything Otto does is free, with a daily limit. Otto Pro (£3.99 a month) lets you read five times more and work with a tutor; Otto Max (£9.99 a month) five times more again.
Where does Otto work?
On iPhone, iPad and Mac, and as an extension for Chrome and Safari, so it works on the websites you already read.