Free French stories for beginners, level by level
22 short stories written for learners, from your very first words to B1, including a mystery serial that runs across levels. Read with audio, tap any word, and answer a few questions at the end.
A0 stories (5)
- Bonjour, je m'appelle Léa: Léa introduces herself: her age, her city, her cat.
- La famille de Tom: Tom describes his family.
- Au café: Ordering at a café: a short dialogue.
- Ma ville: A short description of a small town by the sea.
- Le chat noir: A black cat visits a different house every day.
A1 stories (6)
- Une journée normale: Léa's ordinary weekday, from the alarm to bedtime.
- Le marché du samedi: Shopping for fruit, cheese and bread at the Saturday market.
- Le nouveau voisin (La valise rouge, episode 1): A new neighbour moves in. He is polite, quiet… and he goes out every night with a red suitcase.
- Au téléphone: Two friends make plans for the weekend.
- La valise rouge (La valise rouge, episode 2): Léa follows Monsieur Bernard into the night.
- Les vacances de Karim: Karim plans a summer holiday in the south of France.
A2 stories (6)
- Un week-end à Lyon: A weekend trip to Lyon: food, rain and a surprise meeting.
- Le message dans le livre (La valise rouge, episode 3): Léa visits Les Amis du Livre during the day and finds a strange note.
- Mon premier jour de travail: A nervous first day at a new job in a hotel.
- La bibliothèque secrète (La valise rouge, episode 4): Thursday, midnight. Léa and Karim follow Bernard one last time and discover what's inside the building.
- La recette de ma grand-mère: A grandmother's apple tart, and the memories that come with it.
- Perdu dans le métro: A tourist gets lost in the Paris metro, and a stranger helps.
B1 stories (5)
- La vérité sur Monsieur Bernard (La valise rouge, episode 5): Bernard explains the secret of the cellar, and asks Léa a favour.
- Lettre à moi-même, à quinze ans: A woman writes to her teenage self about fear, failure and learning languages.
- Le train de nuit: Six strangers share a sleeper compartment from Paris to Nice.
- Le dernier chapitre (La valise rouge, episode 6): The finale: twenty thousand books need a new home, and Léa has a plan.
- Faut-il travailler quatre jours par semaine ?: An opinion piece on the four-day working week, with arguments for and against.
The reader
- Unknown words are highlighted; tap one for its meaning and add it to your flashcards.
- Every story can be read aloud by a natural French voice.
- Ask the AI to explain a word in context or translate a sentence.
- At the end, confirm the words you know, so the app knows your real vocabulary.
Want a story on your own topic? The AI can write one at your level. Ready for more? Read classic French books free.
Questions
Where can I read free French stories for beginners?
SparkAI has 22 graded French stories from A0 to B1, free during the beta, each with audio, tap-to-translate and comprehension questions. Each level only uses grammar taught at or below it.
What level should I start reading at?
As soon as you know a few hundred words. Start with A0 stories, and move up when you understand most of a page without looking things up.
How do graded stories help?
They give you lots of French you can almost fully understand, which is how vocabulary and grammar settle in. Tap unknown words, save them as flashcards, and they'll come back for review.
What comes after the stories?
Classic French books, from B1 to C2: 21 complete public-domain novels and stories in the same reader.
Start free, right now
A complete French course from A0 to C2, free during the beta. No account, no payment details, no ads.
Read the first story free