Learning French from nothing takes a teacher and thirty minutes at a time. These are one-to-one online lessons for absolute beginners — A1, no French at all, not a word of it. Thirty minutes twice a week rather than an hour once, because an hour of a brand-new language is more than any head can hold. A first lesson is thirty minutes for €20; after that a half-hour is €30 and an hour €60, VAT included.
Sounds first, then about six sentences you will use in the first week. Not the alphabet, and not grammar — the handful of French sounds English does not have, and enough to order, greet and ask someone to repeat themselves. Everything else is built on those two things.
You start at a counter, not in a grammar table. The first thing a beginner needs is not je m'appelle — it is ordering something, understanding the answer, and carrying on when you don't. That is the actual skill, and it is the one no app can teach, because no app can make you slightly uncomfortable in a queue.
So the first lessons are built out of situations rather than chapters: a bakery, a ticket office, someone speaking too fast and being asked to repeat. The grammar arrives underneath them, in the order the situations need it, which is not the order a textbook uses.
Four thirty-minute lessons over two weeks, each with one job. Sounds, then the six sentences, then a real exchange at a counter, then the past tense — because by lesson four most people want to say what they did yesterday and cannot.
Four lessons of thirty minutes, over two weeks. In short: sounds, then ordering, then numbers, then yesterday.
By the fourth lesson most of my beginners order without rehearsing it first. In my experience that is the moment people decide they can actually do this.
Thirty minutes twice a week beats sixty minutes once, at exactly the same hourly rate. Three reasons. An hour of a language you have no foothold in is exhausting, and the last twenty minutes of it are wasted. Twice the contact means half the forgetting in between. And €30 is a much easier place to start than €60.
This is why the beginner course is sold in thirty-minute lessons and the intermediate one in full hours. Same price per hour either way — the format is a teaching decision, not a pricing one.
Thirty minutes twice a week, A1 to A2, taught in English at first and less of it every month. The aim is everyday exchanges, the past tense, and being understood by a stranger who is not making allowances for you.
A1 and A2 are not labels I invented. They come from the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, published by the Council of Europe, which is the scale every French certificate is measured against. A1 is handling simple, concrete exchanges — introducing yourself, asking for something, understanding the answer when the other person is willing to slow down. A2 is doing that in the ordinary situations of a day without rehearsing them first. That second one is a realistic first destination and it is closer than it sounds.
You are also not doing anything unusual. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie counted 396 million French speakers worldwide in its March 2026 report — the fourth most spoken language, behind English, Mandarin and Spanish — and close to 170 million people either learning French or being taught in it. Starting at zero puts you at the beginning of a very well-worn path.
You have never said a word of French, or you did five years of it at school and kept bonjour. We start from where you actually are, which is usually further back than people like to admit. It is my favourite place to begin: nothing has gone wrong yet, and everything you learn gets used the same week.
One rate whatever the level and whatever the subject. Thirty minutes is the beginner's format; the hour is there when you're ready for it.
| Package | 30 min | 45 min | 60 min |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single lesson | €30 | €45 | €60 |
| Five lessons−10% | €135€27 each | €202€40.40 each | €270€54 each |
| Ten lessons−15% | €255€25.50 each | €382€38.20 each | €510€51 each |
Prices are final — VAT included, nothing added at checkout, no platform commission.
Three steps and about two minutes. Pick an hour from the calendar in your own time zone, pay €20 for the first thirty minutes by card, and a Google Meet link arrives by email. Nothing to install and no account to create.
The six below are the ones that come up before a first lesson, almost every time. The short version: knowing no French is the easiest place to start, English is used as much as you need at the beginning, and nobody can honestly tell you how long it takes.
“It feels like I have only just started learning French, but I can already have simple conversations and ask questions in different situations… ask a waiter in a Parisian bistro about Beef Bourguignon, or ask someone on the street how to get to the Louvre.”
“Everything is going well, and I really like the tutor. I'm happy with the results.”
“Very patient, and takes time to explain minor grammar details, which I truly appreciate.”
If an app got you started · See also: a day in Paris, hour by hour — the same lessons, told as a story · when you understand but cannot speak, which is where most beginners end up next · why it matters that I am in France · the mistakes English speakers make · lessons for teenagers · French before a trip · the blog.