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Read French Books with Inline Translation
Read French literature with paragraph translation and word lookups that understand context.
Bring any French EPUB or text and read it in the original. Translate a paragraph when the sentence structure gets tricky, look up single words in context, and save the ones worth remembering as flashcards.
Free, no sign-up.
See how French reads with a translation
Il y avait en Westphalie, dans le château de M. le baron de Thunder-ten-tronckh, un jeune garçon à qui la nature avait donné les mœurs les plus douces.In the castle of Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh in Westphalia there lived a youth whom nature had endowed with a most sweet disposition.
Free French books to start with
Every book below is in the public domain and takes under three hours to read. Open one to read it with translation, word lookup and audio.
- Candide, ou l'optimismeVoltaireFrench · Satire, PhilosophyMedium2 h 50 min
- Zadig, ou la DestinéeVoltaireFrench · Philosophy, AdventureMedium2 h 16 min
- Poil de CarotteJules RenardFrench · ClassicsMedium2 h 45 min
- Les malheurs de SophieComtesse de SégurFrench · Children'sEasy2 h 46 min
Why learn French by reading books
French spelling hides a lot of its pronunciation. Hearing each paragraph read by a French voice while you follow the text closes the gap between what you see and what you say.
Long literary sentences, with their nested clauses, are the hardest part of French reading. Paragraph translation lets you check your parsing instead of guessing.
Many French words have several meanings. Contextual word lookup explains the meaning in your sentence, not just the first dictionary entry.
What you get
Inline translation
Tap any French paragraph to see it translated, and tap a single word to see what it means in that exact sentence.
How inline translation worksAudio narration
Have each paragraph read aloud in a French voice while you follow the text.
How audio narration worksFlashcards from your reading
Save words you look up and practise them as flashcards, tied back to the French book they came from.
How flashcards worksYour own books
Upload any EPUB, PDF or text file in French. Your books stay in your browser; nothing is stored on a server.
How upload your books works
French reading: common questions
- Which French books can I read here?
- Any EPUB, PDF or text file you have. Classics by Voltaire, Hugo, Flaubert and Dumas are in the public domain and free to download from Project Gutenberg and Wikisource.
- Is there a way to make hard French easier?
- Yes. The CEFR simplification mode rewrites a passage at roughly B1 level while keeping the story, so you can read a book that would otherwise be out of reach.
- Can I practise vocabulary from what I read?
- Yes. Save words from any lookup as flashcards and practise them as flashcards. Each card remembers the book it came from.