FSI French Basic Course (Revised)

If you want to learn a foreign language, there are so many reasons to choose French. Other than in France itself, it is also spoken in Belgium, Switzerland, parts of Canada and throughout large swathes of Africa, making it an extremely useful language for both business and travel.

French has one of the world’s great literary traditions, with luminaries such as Voltaire, Molière, Zola and Camus to name but a few all belonging to the canon of French literature.

If this seems a bit highbrow for you, the French language has also played an important role in popular culture. French film, in particular, is highly regarded, and the Palme d’Or awarded at the annual Cannes Film Festival is among the most coveted prizes in the industry. By learning French, you will be able to watch the many classics of French cinema in the original.

French has always been considered a prestigious language to know, and for anyone hoping to learn it, the wealth of materials found in this FSI French course will help you achieve your learning goals.

Course Details

What is the FSI French Basic Course?

This FSI French course is an updated version of a course that was first used in 1960. It consists of two volumes of 12 units each that were designed to give students a good grounding in the language, allowing them to cope with a wide range of formal and informal situations in French.

Each unit features a dialog that presents the new language, usually including five new grammar points. After this comes a series of drills to aid memorization and improve fluency, followed by further speaking exercises for more practice. The lessons are also accompanied by many hours of audio, making this one of the most comprehensive resources available anywhere for learning French.

How was FSI French Basic originally used?

FSI Basic courses were originally intended for US diplomatic staff who needed to acquire a good level of language proficiency in a short time before being sent to postings abroad.

Students studying FSI French underwent an intensive course that lasted six months. Each day, they attended six hours of classes, supplemented by another two hours of personal study.

During class time, the students were supposed to speak only French, and even outside of lessons, they were encouraged to use French among themselves. In this way, at the end of the course, they would already have gained the necessary level of language to live and work in a French-speaking country.

How can you use FSI French Basic?

It’s very unlikely you will be able to recreate anything like the study environment enjoyed by US diplomats, but if you know how to adapt these course materials to your needs, you can benefit greatly from this free online French course.

If you are already studying with another coursebook, these dialogs and drills can be used to help you work on your fluency while also improving your pronunciation.

On the other hand, if you want to use this course as your primary learning material, it will also allow you to make rapid progress, especially when supplemented by any other additional resources you can find.

Taking it further

However you decide to use this free French course, it’s impossible to learn a language through books alone. The only way you’ll be able to speak French is if you take what you learn out into the real world and practice.

As soon as you can, you should look for opportunities to use your French. Try to find native speakers to talk to, and as much as you can, make speaking French a part of your daily life. This way, by combining regular study with lots of practice, you will find you start making rapid progress in French.

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Course Contents

Unit	Dialog Topic	Key Grammar
Volume 1 — Units 1–12	Student Text (PDF)	15+ hrs audio · 89 files · 476 pages
Unit 1	On the Street (Dans la rue)	Definite articles, subject pronouns, inversion questions, être
Unit 2	In a Small Hotel (Dans un petit hôtel)	Indefinite articles, cardinal numbers, ne…pas, avoir
Unit 3	At the Train Station (À la gare)	Demonstratives, contractions au/à la, yes/no questions, -ER verbs
Unit 4	Let’s Go Shopping (Faisons des courses)	Possessive adjectives, partitive articles, numbers to 100, aller
Unit 5	The Weather (Le climat)	Indefinite adjectives, negative constructions, large numbers, faire
Unit 6	Review (Révision)	Review of Units 1–5
Unit 7	Let’s Make an Appointment (Prenons rendez-vous)	Adjective forms, object pronouns, ce, pouvoir/vouloir/savoir
Unit 8	At the Hairdresser (Chez le coiffeur)	Adjective position, lui/leur, en, imperatives, verbs like finir
Unit 9	At the Restaurant (Au restaurant)	Comparative/superlative, passé composé (avoir), pronoun order
Unit 10	At the Office (Au bureau)	Irregular comparatives, passé composé (être), quantity expressions
Unit 11	House for Rent (Maison à louer)	Infinitive phrases, object pronouns in infinitives, verbs like venir
Unit 12	Review (Révision)	Review of Units 7–11
Volume 2 — Units 13–24	Student Text (PDF)	24+ hrs audio · 54 files · 577 pages
Unit 13	At the Employment Agency (Au bureau de placement)	Imparfait, stressed pronouns, ne…que, adverbs
Unit 14	Customs (La douane)	Passé composé vs. imparfait, possessive pronouns, tout/toute
Unit 15	School (L’école)	Verbs like mettre, future tense, relative pronouns qui/que
Unit 16	Let’s Talk Entertainment (Parlons spectacle)	Conditional, interrogative pronouns, relative pronoun dont
Unit 17	At the Airport (À l’aéroport)	Reflexive verbs, rien/personne, demonstrative pronouns, subjunctive
Unit 18	Review (Révision)	Review of Units 13–17
Unit 19	The Doctor’s Visit (La visite du docteur)	Subjunctive (continued), pluperfect, past conditional, participle agreement
Unit 20	Travel Plans (Projets de voyage)	Verbs like ouvrir, subjunctive (continued), more negative adverbs
Unit 21	It’s About Money (Il est question d’argent)	Aucun/aucune, subjunctive (continued), c’est vs. il est
Unit 22	A Car Accident (Un accident d’auto)	Verb review, subjunctive (continued)
Unit 23	Paris at Night (Paris de nuit)	Verb + preposition + noun/infinitive
Unit 24	Review (Révision)	Comprehensive review of Units 19–23