English → French · A1 to B1, starting at B1
Speak French faster.
Fifteen minutes a day, out loud, nobody listening. For learners who understand French but freeze when they speak.
The 90-second drill · Laboratoire 1, Modèle 1
Modèle 1 :
Tu as acheté les billets ?
Répondez oui :Oui, je les ai achetés hier.
Listen to the model, then answer each variation out loud during the pause.
The problem
The sentence arrives four seconds late.
You have done the lessons. You can read a menu, follow a film with subtitles, write a decent email. Then someone at the boulangerie asks a question and the sentence you know perfectly well arrives four seconds late. Parlessa drills the sentence until it arrives on time.
Drilled first
Three structures every English speaker stumbles on in French.
- 01 Direct-object pronouns with the passé composé
Tu as fait la valise ? — Oui, je l'ai faite hier.
The past participle agrees with a direct object that comes before it: je l'ai faite, je les ai achetés. Say the agreement out loud; in the feminine it changes the sound (fait / faite, pris / prise).
- 02 The pronoun y
Tu vas chez le médecin ? — Oui, j'y vais.
Y replaces à + a place (or à + a thing). It sits before the verb: j'y vais, on y va, nous y allons. Never use it for people; that is lui / leur.
- 03 Pas encore with a pronoun
Vous avez trouvé votre place ? — Non, je ne l'ai pas encore trouvée.
Pas encore sits between the auxiliary and the participle: je ne l'ai pas encore composté. The pronoun still goes before ai, and the participle still agrees: je ne l'ai pas encore trouvée.
The method
Four phases, out loud, nobody listening.
- 01
Écoutez
Hear the question
Tu as fait la valise ?
- 02
À vous
Answer out loud in the pause
(you) Oui, je l’ai faite hier.
- 03
Écoutez la réponse
Hear the correct answer
Oui, je l’ai faite hier.
- 04
Répétez
Say it again, matching the voice
(you) Oui, je l’ai faite hier.
- Every answer in the free lab was checked by a French speaker before it was recorded.
- The lab format is the one French departments used from the 1960s: model, respond, hear the answer, repeat.
- No microphone and no speech recognition, so it works on a walk, in a car, or in a shared flat.
Two native French voices, recorded once, checked by a native reviewer before publication.
Questions
About French on Parlessa
Save your progress after the first lab.
Email only. The next four labs of the unit are free with an address.