Start learning French, online or on-site

Bienvenue beginners! So, you've decided to learn French. You're a complete beginner, and are full of enthusiasm for taking your first steps into a new language and culture. We will help you master the basics and build a strong foundation from day one!

In this course, you’ll learn the basics including:

• Greetings and introductions (Bonjour, je m'appelle Jean)
• How to interact with others in the classroom (Pouvez-vous répéter s'il vous plait? Merci!)
• A digestible intro to the fundamentals of French grammar, including verbs (action words) and nouns (people, places and things)
• Communicating using numbers  (Une baguette, deux croissants et trois chouquettes s’il vous plait.)

With the basics under your belt, you're ready to delve deeper into the wide world of French. With a focus on travel, this course will have you navigating your way around the city in French in no time, as you learn to:

• Expand your vocabulary to describe yourself and your family in greater detail (Mes parents sont attentionnés.)
• Ask questions
• Communicate your likes and dislikes (J’aime le champagne mais pas les escargots.)
• Indicate your destination (Je veux aller au musée.)
• Ask for directions (C’est dans quelle direction, la gare ?)
• Describe your mode of transport (Je prends le train.)

With the basics under your belt, you're ready to delve deeper into the wide world of French. With a focus on travel, this course will have you navigating your way around the city in French in no time, as you learn to:

• Expand your vocabulary to describe yourself and your family in greater detail (Mes parents sont attentionnés.)
• Ask questions
• Communicate your likes and dislikes (J’aime le champagne mais pas les escargots.)
• Indicate your destination (Je veux aller au musée.)
• Ask for directions (C’est dans quelle direction, la gare ?)
• Describe your mode of transport (Je prends le train.)

A1 Essentials will help you revise the key grammar points of the A1 level course, practice your speaking skills with A1-level material, and refine your accent with focussed attention to the basic sounds and phonemes in French.

Whether you are at the beginning or the end of A1 Beginners level, you can attend this workshop as a means of revision and consolidation or as preparation ahead of your usual class.

Pack your bags and dust off that passport! As the world once again opens up to international travel, get holiday-ready with this focussed course designed to prepare you to travel around the Francophone world with confidence. In this course, you will learn to:

• Make a hotel booking (Je voudrais réserver une chambre pour deux personnes, s’il vous plait.)
• Order in a restaurant (J’aimerais un verre de Côte du Rhône et un plat du jour, s’il vous plait.)
• Ask for information about public transport (A quelle heure passe le bus 23?)
• Ask for directions (Excusez-moi, comment faire pour rejoindre la gare ?)
• Ask for information from tourism offices (Quelle visite me conseillez-vous en premier ?)
• Greet someone and introduce yourself (Bonjour! Je m’appelle John. Comment ça va?)

In this course, improve and enhance your speaking and listening skills through lively discussions and meaningful conversations covering a wide array of topical issues, stimulated and supported by articles and videos from the French press.

You've been building a solid foundation in French, and now it's time to get conversational. With a focus on daily life, this course will teach you to:

• Communicate about your routine (Je me réveille à 8h00.)
• Chat about your work and its requirements (Je travaille de la maison, c'est pratique.)
• Organise outings in French, suggesting various activities and negotiating meeting times (Retrouvons-nous à 16h pour faire du sport?)
• Accepting or refusing someone else's invitation (Merci mais je suis trop occupé pour participer.)

Buckle up - we're going back to the future and around the Francophone world! In this course, you will learn to:

• Talk about memories from the past (Je suis allée en France en 2016.)
• Plan for the near and distant future (Je vais bientôt déménager. Nous saurons bientôt qui a gagné.)
• Plan for travel in a French-speaking country (Nous allons à Nouméa. Quel est le meilleur hôtel ?)
• Appreciate French literature and media
• Give general advice to others (Tu dois porter un chapeau pour te protéger du soleil.)
•  Express your feelings and opinions (Je suis heureuse.)

Continue to progress in leaps and bounds as you discover the richness of French food, fashion and cinema. In this course, you will:

• Practice ordering your favourite French dishes (J'aimerais le coq au vin, s'il vous plait)
• Rehearse typical shopping scenarios (Combien coûte cette jupe?)
• Become confident leaving positive and negative feedback (Je n'ai pas du tout aimé cette expérience.)
• Come to grips with key grammatical structures designed to make your French more sophisticated, including two different past tenses (Quand j'étais jeune, je suis allé en France) and pronouns to help avoid repetition in your speech (J'aime les croissants, j'en mange tous les matins.)

You're almost finished the Elementary program! This course wraps up the last of the A2 level, and prepares you to follow the Intermediate level courses. You will broaden your language skills with topics including travel and sports while:

• Revising past tenses, ‘passé composé’ and ‘imparfait’ (Nous sommes allés à Bathurst. Il faisait très beau.)
• Encountering two new pronouns, "qui" and "que"
• Learning how to describe similarities and differences between a selection of things (La chemise rose est plus jolie que la jaune.)
• Complexifying your speech with the formidable subjunctive mood (Il faut que j'y aille.)
• Solidifying your bases with new tricks to recognise grammatical gender

A2 Essentials will help you revise the key grammar points of the A2 level course, practice your speaking skills with A2-level material, and refine your accent with focussed attention to the basic sounds and phonemes in French.

Whether you are at the beginning or the end of A2 Elementary level, you can attend this workshop as a means of revision and consolidation or as preparation ahead of your usual class.

In this course, improve and enhance your speaking and listening skills through lively discussions and meaningful conversations covering a wide array of topical issues, stimulated and supported by articles and videos from the French press.

B1 Essentials will help you revise the key grammar points of the B1 level course, practice and perfect your speaking skills with B1-level material, and hone your accent with focussed attention to the basic sounds and phonemes in French.

Whether you are at the beginning or the end of B1 Intermediate level, you can attend this workshop as a means of revision and consolidation or as preparation ahead of your usual class.

You've done it - you are no longer a beginner learner of French and you're charging your way into the Intermediate courses. Intermediate 1 tackles :

• ‘Plus-que-parfait’ tense (J'avais eu un premier rendez-vous avec lui.)
• Conditional tense (Je serais ravi de vous accueillir.)
• Hypothetical constructions (Si vous rêvez de parler français, rejoignez l’Alliance Française.)
• Asking questions using lequel/laquelle/lesquels/lesquelles
• How to communicate in French in a professional setting, including talking about your work experience, identifying your skills and writing a CV

With Intermediate 1 now behind you, you're ready to further your progress. Relish in the topics of cooking, cosmetics, vintage culture and "made in France", while exploring French stereotypes and the French education system. In this course, you will:

• Become well acquainted with two new pronouns, "où" and "dont" and posessive pronouns (le mien, le tien)
• Learn to talk about something that is ongoing (Je suis en train de faire….)
• Polish your ability to talk about the recent past and close future (Je viens de boire un café et je vais acheter une baguette.)
• Clarify any confusion you may have around more advanced uses of avoir in the past tense (Ces photos? Le client les a adorées. Ce voyage? Les clients l’ont adoré.)

Never has the past been clearer. In this course, you will:

• Revise the construction and use of all the past tenses in French
• Discover topics including literature, ecology, news and media, and professional and volunteer work
• Be introduced to the passive voice (Les livres ont été vendus.)
• Deepen your knowledge of the conditional and the subjunctive

The puzzle pieces are really starting to fall into place as you progress through the intermediate level. In this course, you will:

• Explore immigration and how to navigate your way through the (in)famous French administration (Vous devez compléter ce formulaire et le remettre à la réception.)
• Dive more deeply into the uses of the conditional and subjunctive
• Learn to use the pronouns "où" and "dont" with confidence (C’est la fille dont je t’ai parlée.)
• Reference what another person has said, without quoting them directly (Il m’a dit qu’il allait s’en occuper tout de suite.)

Your progress remains steady as you now near the end of the Intermediate level. This course is designed to help you refine your communicative skills in order to:

• Suggest advice (Je vous recommande…)
• Become emphatic and persuasive in your speech (Il faut absolument que tu ailles voir cette personne.)
• Appear convincing in your arguments
• Negotiate with poise, and make concessions and compromises

In this course, improve and enhance your speaking and listening skills through lively discussions and meaningful conversations covering a wide array of topical issues, stimulated and supported by articles and videos from the French press.

You’re now an “Upper-Intermediate” user of French, and are becoming more and more independent with each passing day. In this course, you will:

• Complexify your speech with lequel and auxquels (Ce sont les professionnels auxquels j’ai confié mon apprentissage.)
• Be inspired by French innovation and technology
• Cultivate an appreciation of art, music, ballet, musicals, literature and more

Learn to be more nuanced in your speech as you learn to:

• Master the passive voice (Le professeur a été impressionné par ses élèves.)
• Speculate about what could or might happen (Il pourrait avoir quitté le pays.)
• Express uncertainty in the subjunctive mood (Je ne suis pas certain qu’il puisse quitter le pays.)
• Skillfully agree your past participles with avoir (Ce sont les expressions que les étudiants ont préférées.)
• Explore stimulating topics as ecology, politics, economics, health sport and volunteering

Bravo! You’ve earnt yourself a verre de vin for reaching this penultimate level of French. Before you embark on the Advanced courses, this level will help you:

• Complexify your speech with the structures to quote and paraphrase in the past and present tenses
• Express your opinion with the subjunctive (Il est possible que je choisisse de m’installer en France.)
• Use figures of speech to etch your way closer appearing like a native-speaker of French
• Nominalisation (J’aime apprendre le français/ J’aime l’apprentissage du français)

​Félicitations ! Your dedication and hard work have led you to speak French as if it were your mother tongue. At this level, you can expect to:

• Sharpen your grammatical knowledge
• Fluidify your speech
• Broaden your vocabulary over a vast range of topics
• Engage with your peers in lively debates and conversations, using newspaper articles, videos and radio program extracts as stimulus

In this course, improve and enhance your speaking and listening skills through lively discussions and meaningful conversations covering a wide array of topical issues, stimulated and supported by articles and videos from the French press.

Spanning across Africa, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada and the Pacific… French is spoken across the whole world by over 300 million people. Jet set around the Francophone word on an entertaining and surprising journey, (re)discovering the dialects, cultural diversities and wondrously fun facts that highlight the richness of the French language and culture, and examine the role of the organisation tasked with its protection and promotion.

Chew over ideas of togetherness, mealtime ritual and identity as you discuss French gastronomy and its place on UNESCO’s list of  intangible cultural treasures. Savour conversations about the cooking styles and culinary rivalries of particular regions across France, and engage in debates about the place of “haute cuisine” that will feed your intellectual appetite.

In this course, proudly supported by NAFT, DoE and AIS, the Alliance Française de Sydney invites you to learn to incorporate effective strategies and technologies, overcome challenges facing languages teachers, source authentic resources and engage with colleagues to enrich your practice.

Spanning across Africa, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada and the Pacific… French is spoken across the whole world by over 300 million people. Jet set around the Francophone word on an entertaining and surprising journey, (re)discovering the dialects, cultural diversities and wondrously fun facts that highlight the richness of the French language and culture, and examine the role of the organisation tasked with its protection and promotion.

Chew over ideas of togetherness, mealtime ritual and identity as you discuss French gastronomy and its place on UNESCO’s list of  intangible cultural treasures. Savour conversations about the cooking styles and culinary rivalries of particular regions across France, and engage in debates about the place of “haute cuisine” that will feed your intellectual appetite.

Learn about the ways that French history shape contemporary France. In this fascinating workshop, retrace key moments and events that led to the French Revolution, deepen your understanding of the French national identity and discover how the French celebrate their national holiday.

This is a bilingual workshop, run in both French and English.