How Long Does It Take To Learn French (And Why)?

How Long Does It Take To Learn French (And Why)?

Exact Answer: 23-24 weeks 

The ability to speak French is an asset in today’s world. Learning a new language is one of the most difficult tasks that people can undertake, and this is because there are so many different aspects involved in learning to speak, read, and write another language. 

One needs to be able to remember vocabulary words and their meanings and how they are spelled. One also has to learn sentence structure rules for the different tenses. 

This information is presented at once, which makes it even more challenging than it needs to be. It allows communication with millions of people and gives access to a variety of educational opportunities.

How Long Does It Take To Learn French

How Long Does It Take To Learn French?

LanguageDuration
French23-24 Weeks
English1 Year

French is one of the Romance languages, which share a common Latin ancestor. It’s split into three “layers,” with the top-level being considered standard French. This language is very different from English and other Indo-European languages, so it can take time to learn its grammar and pronunciations. 

French is the official language of many global organizations, including the United Nations. It’s also one of several languages used to communicate with Air Traffic Controllers in France and Africa, which is crucial for any pilot.

Learning a new language may be a daunting task, but it can also be rewarding. Many people that have learned a new language will agree that the experience is worth it in the end.

Learning French isn’t just useful for trips to France. If one goes to college and wants to study business or engineering, learning French can get them ahead of non-fluent peers early on. 

In the U.S, many companies have operations in Canada and Mexico, so knowing either of those two languages is invaluable if one wants an outstanding work history here at home.

In all seriousness, though conquering tricky grammar tenses takes time – many words are tenses because they describe something. On average, it takes 23 to 24 weeks for one person to learn French.

It’s not just how long it takes to learn the language itself but also the culture and customs behind it. When learning a second language, most people who dedicate themselves to becoming fluent do so within a 23-24 week time frame.

Why Would Learning French Take So Long?

Learning French takes so long because of the complicated nature of the language. Languages like English allow for compound words to be created with just two different characters, but in French, one needs three characters to create a word.

More than a million people speak fluent French living outside of France and that is just considering those who were born speaking it. There are many people in the Caribbean islands and African countries that speak French fluently. 

The quality at which they speak ranges from adequate to superior. As one may expect, this has led to an abundance of concerts and theater companies hosted by these regions so audiences can better appreciate their accents and dialects.

The number of common phonetically distinct sounds is far smaller than in English. Therefore, new learners struggle to distinguish subtle differences between otherwise phonetically identical words. 

The two languages also differ regarding article usage and gender agreement rules, which can confuse people who are fluent in both languages. Vocabulary is the most challenging aspect of language learning for adults, who have so many more years’ worth of vocabulary to learn than children do. Adults also have a much more limited capacity for comprehension without sight of written text as they do not read anymore.

Finally, there are no easy shortcuts or shortcuts at all – learning vocabulary relies heavily on reading and writing exercises that build fluency and improve understanding. More importantly, though, learning another language takes dedication and time.

Conclusion

Learning a new language takes so long because of the numerous grammar rules, exceptions, and vocabulary words.

Another hurdle to clear in the quest to master this language is conjugations. They are simpler than Semitic languages like Arabic or Hebrew because they do not change form based on gender or person, but verb endings change between each tense.

In this way, listening skills are an asset in adult learners that older learners may lack. For those reasons, it can take someone with a lot less motivation or drive months or even years before they finally manage to speak.

References

  1. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/studies-in-second-language-acquisition/article/abs/syntactic-and-prosodic-computations-in-the-resolution-of-relative-clause-attachment-ambiguity-by-englishfrench-learners/98E4969DB30797C7752EA0FB828ED8BF 
  2. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/flan.12348 
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