French reading · A0 to C2

French reading, level by level

22 stories written for learners, then 21 complete classic books, all in a reader that explains every word you tap and remembers which words you know.

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How the reader helps

Tap to translate Any word gets its meaning in context; any sentence can be translated.
Hear it Tap a word to hear it, and play the sentence it's in.
Words you don't know stand out New words are highlighted, and you can save any of them as a flashcard.
Check you understood Graded stories end with comprehension questions.

Graded stories (A0–B1)

Written for learners: each level uses only grammar taught at or below it. A mystery serial runs from A1 to B1.

Story	Level	Words	Questions
Bonjour, je m'appelle Léa Léa introduces herself: her age, her city, her cat.	A0	64	3
La famille de Tom Tom describes his family.	A0	78	3
Au café Ordering at a café: a short dialogue.	A0	65	2
Ma ville A short description of a small town by the sea.	A0	78	2
Le chat noir A black cat visits a different house every day.	A0	83	2
Une journée normale Léa's ordinary weekday, from the alarm to bedtime.	A1	162	3
Le marché du samedi Shopping for fruit, cheese and bread at the Saturday market.	A1	148	2
Le nouveau voisin A new neighbour moves in. He is polite, quiet… and he goes out every night with a red suitcase.	A1	163	3
Au téléphone Two friends make plans for the weekend.	A1	126	2
La valise rouge Léa follows Monsieur Bernard into the night.	A1	188	3
Les vacances de Karim Karim plans a summer holiday in the south of France.	A1	120	2
Un week-end à Lyon A weekend trip to Lyon: food, rain and a surprise meeting.	A2	180	3
Le message dans le livre Léa visits Les Amis du Livre during the day and finds a strange note.	A2	230	3
Mon premier jour de travail A nervous first day at a new job in a hotel.	A2	192	3
La bibliothèque secrète Thursday, midnight. Léa and Karim follow Bernard one last time and discover what's inside the building.	A2	205	3
La recette de ma grand-mère A grandmother's apple tart, and the memories that come with it.	A2	170	2
Perdu dans le métro A tourist gets lost in the Paris metro, and a stranger helps.	A2	221	3
La vérité sur Monsieur Bernard Bernard explains the secret of the cellar, and asks Léa a favour.	B1	304	3
Lettre à moi-même, à quinze ans A woman writes to her teenage self about fear, failure and learning languages.	B1	221	3
Le train de nuit Six strangers share a sleeper compartment from Paris to Nice.	B1	280	3
Le dernier chapitre The finale: twenty thousand books need a new home, and Léa has a plan.	B1	322	3
Faut-il travailler quatre jours par semaine ? An opinion piece on the four-day working week, with arguments for and against.	B1	229	2

Classic books (B1–C2)

Original, complete French texts in the public domain, not adaptations, sorted by how hard they are to read.

Book	Level	Words	Chapters
Contes et historiettes, Anonyme (1860) Very short moral tales for children: a few lines each, simple situations, lots of dialogue.	B1	35k	62
Les Malheurs de Sophie, Comtesse de Ségur (1858) The mischief of a little girl in a French château. Short chapters, everyday vocabulary, a classic for young readers.	B1	36k	24
François le Bossu, Comtesse de Ségur (1864) A kind boy mocked for his hunchback, and the girl who befriends him.	B1	55k	49
Poil de Carotte, Jules Renard (1894) Short, sharp scenes from the childhood of a red-haired boy and his cold family.	B1	35k	27
Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours, Jules Verne (1872) Phileas Fogg bets he can go round the world in 80 days. Fast-moving adventure.	B1	71k	37
Lettres de mon moulin, Alphonse Daudet (1869) Stories from a windmill in Provence: Monsieur Seguin's goat, the Pope's mule, the three low masses.	B2	50k	34
Voyage au centre de la Terre, Jules Verne (1864) A professor, his nephew and a guide climb down an Icelandic volcano toward the centre of the Earth.	B2	72k	48
Cinq semaines en ballon, Jules Verne (1863) Crossing Africa by hot-air balloon, Verne's first novel.	B2	84k	45
Le Petit Chose, Alphonse Daudet (1868) A semi-autobiographical novel about a poor boy who becomes a schoolteacher.	B2	87k	36
Contes de la bécasse, Guy de Maupassant (1883) Short stories told around a hunting dinner in Normandy.	B2	36k	19
Contes du jour et de la nuit, Guy de Maupassant (1885) Maupassant short stories, including La Parure (The Necklace).	B2	44k	23
Boule de suif, Guy de Maupassant (1880) A coachload of travellers flees the Prussian army. Maupassant's masterpiece of hypocrisy.	B2	39k	13
Le Horla, Guy de Maupassant (1887) The diary of a man who believes an invisible being is taking over his life.	C1	44k	13
Le Grand Meaulnes, Alain-Fournier (1913) A schoolboy stumbles into a mysterious party at a lost estate and spends years searching for it.	C1	69k	48
Trois contes, Gustave Flaubert (1877) Three tales, including Un cœur simple, the life of a devoted servant.	C1	32k	11
Quatre contes, Prosper Mérimée (1880) Four short stories, including Mateo Falcone.	C1	19k	5
Candide, Voltaire (1759) A naive young man discovers that this is not the best of all possible worlds.	C1	36k	31
Zadig, Voltaire (1747) A wise man's misadventures in ancient Babylon, a satire on fate.	C1	28k	23
Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert (1857) A doctor's wife in Normandy dreams of a life like the novels she reads.	C1	120k	36
Fables (livres I–VI), Jean de La Fontaine (1668) The fables every French person knows: the crow and the fox, the ant and the grasshopper. 17th-century verse.	C2	5k	23
Du côté de chez Swann, Marcel Proust (1913) The first volume of À la recherche du temps perdu, with its famous madeleine. Long, beautiful sentences.	C2	181k	6

More detail: French stories for beginners and free French books online. The AI can also write a story at your level on any topic.

Questions

What should I read in French as a beginner?

Graded stories written for your level, where nearly every word is one you know. Start at A0 or A1 and move up when a page feels easy.

Are the classic books adapted or simplified?

No. They're the original, complete French texts, in the public domain, sorted by how hard they are to read. The reader helps with every word you don't know.

Can I hear the text?

In the app, tap any word to hear it and see its meaning, and play the whole sentence it's in. For listening practice, the audio lessons are spoken from start to finish.

Is there an English translation?

Not side by side, by design: you read in French and look up only what you need. Any word, and any sentence, can be translated with a tap.

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