French Beyond the Basics
Like Duolingo, but for French Beyond the Basics. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.
Free during early access · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in French Beyond the Basics
- Dropping vowels creates a faster, more rhythmic flow
- Textbook speech sounds overly formal to locals
- It makes the speaker sound more natural and less formal
- Street speech relies on vowel deletions
- Each dropped 'e' removes a syllable from the sentence
- The 'ne' is almost always dropped in casual speech
- The difference between formal and street-level pronunciation
- Fewer syllables result in a faster staccato rhythm
- The 'je' and 'sais' often blend into a 'sh' sound
- How dropping a vowel changes the syllable count and rhythm
- It is safe in informal settings with friends or family
- You must keep the vowel if dropping it creates three consonants in a row
- It is safe when the remaining consonants are easy to say together
- Recognizing the shortened version of 'je ne sais pas'
- Three consecutive consonants are too difficult to pronounce clearly
- The 'e' (schwa) is the primary target for deletion
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives French Beyond the Basics the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
When a French speaker says 'p'tit' instead of 'petit', what is the primary benefit to the conversation?
Get it right to open this lesson and 169 more in the app.
Where French Beyond the Basics takes you
Bridge the gap between classroom French and the vibrant language spoken on the streets of Paris and Montreal. Master complex tenses, navigate social nuances, and leverage your Spanish knowledge to accelerate your fluency.
- 1
Sounding Like a Local
- The Art of the 'Schwa': Dropping Vowels to Speed Up
- Linking Words: When to Connect Sounds and When to Stop
- Intonation Patterns for Questions vs. Statements
- Mastering the French 'R' Without Straining Your Throat
- 2
Navigating Daily Life and Social Circles
- Tu vs. Vous: The Unspoken Rules of Social Distance
- Ordering in a Cafe Without Sounding Like a Textbook
- Polite Refusals and Softening Your Requests
- Common Fillers: Using 'Euh', 'Bah', and 'Alors' Naturally
- Texting and Internet Slang: Abbreviations You Need to Know
- 3
Expressing Complex Thoughts and Timelines
- The Subjunctive: Expressing Doubt, Desire, and Necessity
- Talking About the Past: Choosing Between Action and Description
- Hypotheticals: What Would Happen If?
- 4
The Spanish-French Connection
- Cognate Shortcuts: Identifying Shared Latin Roots
- False Friends: Words That Look the Same but Mean Different Things
- Grammar Parallels: Reflexive Verbs and Object Pronoun Placement
- Preposition Pitfalls: Where Spanish and French Diverge
- Vowel Shifts: Mapping Spanish 'O' and 'E' to French Sounds
- Regional Influences: French in the Borderlands
- 5
Street Talk and Modern Slang
- Verlan: The Art of Reversing Syllables
- Common Idioms That Make No Sense Literally
- Expressing Emotion: From Mild Annoyance to Pure Joy
- Anglicisms: English Words Borrowed (and Changed) by the French
- 6
Precision in Description
- Nuanced Adjectives: Moving Beyond 'Bon' and 'Grand'
- Adverb Placement for Emphasis and Clarity
- Describing Physical Sensations and Health
- The Passive Voice: Shifting Focus in Your Sentences
- Relative Pronouns: Connecting Ideas with 'Dont' and 'Lequel'
- 7
Professional and Formal Settings
- Writing Professional Emails and Letters
- Participating in Meetings and Expressing Opinions
- The Language of News and Current Events
- 8
The Logic of the Language
- Why French Spelling Doesn't Match the Sound
- The Evolution of Gender in Nouns
- How French Absorbed Words from Arabic and German
- The Role of the Académie Française in Modern Speech
8 sections · 34 units · 170 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
French Beyond the Basics is taught in the The Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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