French on the page and French out loud are almost two languages
Take les amis, “the friends.” On the page it's two words with a clean space between them. Say it out loud and the final s of les wakes up and attaches to amis, so it sounds like lay-zah-mee. That's liaison, and it happens constantly. A learner who reads French well can still hear a native speaker say a short sentence and catch almost none of it.
Sounds English doesn't have
French also has nasal vowels, like the sound in bon or vin, and a throaty r. You can't get them from a description. You need to hear them, make them, and be corrected when you drift. A lot of French spelling is silent, too, so what you read and what you hear can be far apart.
That's why French rewards people who speak it early. Reading and writing run well ahead of listening for most learners, and the only way to close the gap is to hear a lot of real French and answer it.
Practise by talking
In Sayelle you speak or type to a tutor that answers in French. You don't pick from multiple choice. Scenarios put you in a situation with no script, like a bakery or a train station, and lessons teach grammar through conversation. Study turns your past chats into flashcards and listening practice, so you review what you actually said.
What you'll learn
There are more than 190 lessons, starting from zero, with more on the way. The units cover:
- The sounds of French, spelling and silent letters
- Greetings and first conversations
- Nouns, gender, articles and partitives
- Numbers, time and dates
- Être, avoir and the present tense
- Food, home and city life
- Liking things with plaire, object pronouns and reflexive verbs
- The past tense, the imperfect, and hearing the past in fast speech
- Spoken versus written French, and Francophone cultures
Useful well beyond France
French is an official or widely spoken language across a large part of West and Central Africa, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland and more. The same practice carries into all of those places.
Practise on the train
The tutor, speech recognition and voice models download once over Wi-Fi (about 4 GB), then run on your phone. A full spoken conversation works with no signal, and your raw microphone audio never leaves the device. You'll need iOS 18 or later, or Android 8.0 or later. Read more about how the offline AI works and what phone you need.
Common questions
Do I need to know any French first?
No. The course starts with the sounds of French and how spelling and silent letters work, then builds from there.
Does it help with liaison and nasal vowels?
Yes. The first units cover the sounds of French, including the French r, nasal vowels like on, an and in, and the pairs that learners mix up. Because you speak out loud, you get plenty of practice saying them.
Which French does Sayelle teach?
Standard French, with notes on how it differs in Quebec, Belgium, Switzerland and Africa, plus a unit on Francophone cultures.
Does it work offline?
Yes. After a one-time download of about 4 GB, the tutor, speech recognition and voice all run on your phone. Signing in, purchases, syncing and new content downloads still need a connection.
Is it free?
Free to start. Conversations with your tutor are free and unlimited. Lessons and scenarios use practice energy that recharges over time, and Sayelle Plus is an optional subscription that removes that limit and unlocks more content.
Start with your first sounds
Sayelle is free to start. See the other eight languages it teaches, or download it now.
