Course description

You can get by in French. You can talk about yourself, tell someone what you did at the weekend and order in a restaurant. But in a longer conversation you hit walls: you can't say "the friend whose son lives in Paris", "if I'd known, I'd have come", or "she told me the plumber would come on Wednesday". You avoid the subjunctive, your stories all sound the same, and when someone disagrees with you, you run out of words. This course takes you through those walls to a solid B1, so you can speak at length and with confidence about everyday life.

It's a full course, not a quick tour. There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons, and every lesson ends with a practical task you do out loud or in writing. You follow Marsaili, a box office manager from Stirling whose son lives in Lyon, through a year of French: from a first self-review in January to four weeks in the Croix-Rousse, where she joins a choir, sorts out a leaking shower, returns a faulty kettle, speaks at a neighbourhood debate and holds a three-hour lunch with her son's partner's parents. She makes mistakes along the way, and each one teaches something. Every section has a worksheet with an answer for every exercise, a cheat sheet, a glossary file and practice tools, including a self-review spreadsheet, a relative pronouns decision guide, a tenses timeline, phrase banks, a formal email template and a plan for your French after the course.

What you'll learn

• Getting started at B1: what B1 means in everyday terms, a twelve-skill self-review, a quick toolkit check, speaking around the gaps when a word is missing, and how to practise without audio.
• Describing everyday life: your home and area and how they've changed, having things done with faire and se faire, celui and le mien, indefinite words and the gérondif.
• Relative pronouns: dont in depth, lequel after a preposition, auquel and duquel, ce à quoi and où for time, and clear, rich descriptions.
• The past and the future: the plus-que-parfait in longer stories, the passé simple for reading, the futur antérieur, talking about change and telling your life story.
• Hypotheses and regrets: the conditionnel passé, j'aurais dû and tu aurais pu, si j'avais su, the conditional for unconfirmed news, and planning for what might happen.
• The subjunctive: subjunctive or infinitive, the past subjunctive, certainty and doubt, more linking words and the subjunctive after superlatives.
• Reported speech: reporting statements, questions, requests and advice, changing time and place words, and passing on messages with precise reporting verbs.
• Opinions and arguments: reasons and examples, building an argument, conceding and contrasting, the passive and on, and writing an opinion piece.
• Real situations in France: repairs and the letting agency, the pharmacy, returning a faulty item and complaining, joining in locally and talking about your work.
• Final project: a plan for your French, an opinion piece, a spoken account, a 30-minute conversation and a second self-review.

Who it's for

Anyone who has finished an improvers course or reached a similar level another way: you know the passé composé and imparfait, y and en, the simple future and a few subjunctive phrases, and you want to use them all with confidence. The lessons are written, with dialogues to read aloud and clear explanations in English, so you can study at your own pace without audio. It teaches standard French as spoken in France, with informal and formal French side by side. It isn't an exam course, but it covers much of the grammar and everyday language expected at B1, and the last lesson explains the official DELF diplomas.

What will I learn?

• Describe your home, area, family and daily life in detail, including having things done with faire and se faire
• Use dont, lequel, auquel, duquel and ce à quoi to build clear, rich descriptions
• Tell longer stories with the passé composé, imparfait and plus-que-parfait, recognise the passé simple and use the futur antérieur
• Talk about regrets and what might have happened with the conditionnel passé and si j'avais su
• Use the present and past subjunctive naturally, and know when an infinitive or the indicative is right instead
• Report what people said, asked and asked you to do, with the right tenses, time words and reporting verbs
• Give and defend opinions with reasons, examples and concessions, and write a structured opinion piece
• Cope with real situations in France: repairs, the pharmacy, refunds and complaints, joining clubs and talking about work
• Plan how to keep improving after B1, and understand what the DELF and DALF diplomas involve

Frequently asked questions