French

A world language spoken across five continents — from Paris to Dakar.

15 themes · 2 age tiers · puzzle library keeps growing

Speakers

Over 300 million speakers (first and second language combined)

Where it's spoken

France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, and across much of West and Central Africa — Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, DR Congo, Cameroon and beyond

Language family

Indo-European, Romance branch

In the app

15 themes, 6 puzzle types, 2 age tiers

About French

French (le français) is one of only a handful of truly global languages. It is the official or working language of 29 countries, a pillar of the United Nations and the European Union, and the native tongue of communities that span Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and North America. For children growing up in the UK, French is usually the first 'second language' they meet at school — and it opens doors everywhere.

What many UK families forget is that roughly half of all French speakers today live in Africa. Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire and Mali are among the languages' great literary and musical centres. At Linguistic Quest we mark French with both the French and Senegalese flags because we want children to hear both accents — Parisian and Dakar French are both correct, they are just different flavours of the same beautiful language.

French pronunciation is famously tricky for English speakers — silent consonants, nasal vowels, and words that sound like one continuous stream — but the grammar is far more regular than English, and the payoff for young learners is enormous: fluency in French is a genuine passport to study, work and travel.

A single word, 'bonjour', is considered a basic courtesy in every French-speaking country — walking into a bakery without it is genuinely unwelcome. We make sure children learn the greeting first, not the vocabulary lists.

A handful of French to take away

These appear across our puzzles — every word in the app is paired with a translation and a spoken voice.

Bonjour

Hello / good day

Merci

Thank you

S'il vous plaît

Please

Enfant

Child

Père

Father

Mère

Mother

Tips from our editors

•Read children's books aloud — French rewards readers who follow the rhythm of full sentences, not single words.
•Learn verbs in their whole conjugation family, not one form at a time.
•Watch films or series in French with English subtitles before switching to French subtitles.

Pick a theme to play

Each theme gathers 40–80 words, phrases and idioms. Every puzzle type teaches the same vocabulary in a different way — children absorb the words faster because they meet them again and again from new angles.