My child is in 6th grade and has never studied a language. Is French I too hard?

No. French I assumes zero background. The first weeks are greetings, the alphabet, numbers and classroom phrases. The two things that genuinely take time are noun gender and the spelling-to-sound gap, and both are handled through repetition rather than difficult reasoning.

How can my child practise French pronunciation at home without a French speaker?

Evelyn responds to spoken French and will flag specific sounds — the French r, nasal vowels, the u in 'tu' versus the ou in 'tout' — and model them for repetition. It is a practice partner, not a certified teacher, and it works best alongside classroom instruction.

What is the difference between French I and French II?

French I stays almost entirely in the present tense and the near future. French II introduces the past tenses — passé composé and imparfait — along with object pronouns, reflexive verbs and longer reading passages.

My child gets verb endings right on paper but not when speaking. Why?

Because -e, -es and -ent are silent, written practice never tests the ear. Speaking practice forces the student to choose the right subject pronoun and verb form in real time, which is a different skill from filling in a blank.

Can sessions follow our school's textbook?

Yes. Tell Evelyn the chapter or unit vocabulary and the grammar point being covered, and practice will use that material rather than a generic sequence.

French I

Middle School (6-8) · World Languages

French I is the first year of formal French study, usually taken in 6th, 7th or 8th grade. The work is split between learning how French sounds — nasal vowels, silent final consonants, liaison — and building the grammar spine of the language: gendered nouns, present-tense verbs, and agreement between nouns and adjectives. By the end of the year a student can introduce themselves, describe their family, school day, and free time, ask and answer simple questions, and read a short paragraph of French without translating word by word. Because so much of French I is about the gap between spelling and sound, it responds well to a tutor that listens and talks back.

Start a session on French I

What this covers

Pronunciation and spelling correspondences: silent final consonants, the accents (aigu, grave, circonflexe, cédille), nasal vowels in words like 'bien', 'bon' and 'blanc', and when liaison happens
Nouns, gender and articles: le/la/les, un/une/des, and building the habit of learning every new noun with its article rather than alone
Present tense of regular -er verbs (parler, aimer, habiter) plus the high-frequency irregulars être, avoir, aller and faire
Adjective agreement and placement — adding -e and -s, irregular forms like beau/belle, and the small set of adjectives that go before the noun (BAGS/BANGS)
Asking questions three ways (intonation, est-ce que, inversion) and forming negatives with ne… pas
Everyday functional French: numbers to 100, telling time, dates and weather, classroom objects, family, and choosing between tu and vous
Talking about plans with aller + infinitive (le futur proche) — the first way students express the future

Where learners get stuck

Saying 'je suis douze ans' for 'I am twelve': English uses 'to be' for age, so students map it directly. French uses avoir — 'j'ai douze ans' — and the same pattern shows up with hunger, thirst and cold, so one fix repairs several sentences.
Guessing noun gender from meaning or from Spanish/English cognates: Students expect gender to be logical (a table isn't female) or to match a language they already study, but 'le problème' and 'la voiture' break both rules. The gender lives in the article, not the noun, which is why it has to be memorised as a pair from day one.
Pronouncing every letter, especially final -s, -t, -d and -ent: Reading habits from English carry over, so 'ils parlent' becomes four audible syllables. Compounding this, -e, -es and -ent verb endings all sound identical, so students who learn by ear alone start spelling them interchangeably. Both need explicit, spoken correction.
Putting adjectives before the noun, as in 'une bleue voiture': English word order is fixed, so students apply it wholesale. French usually places adjectives after — with a short, high-frequency exception list that has to be learned as a list, not as a rule.

What a session looks like

Sessions are spoken conversations. Evelyn will ask a student to say French out loud — repeating minimal pairs like 'vous'/'vu' or 'bon'/'bonne', reading a short dialogue, then answering questions about it in French. When a verb ending or a gender slips, the correction happens in the moment, followed by a chance to say the sentence again correctly. Grammar is explained in English when a student is stuck, then practised in French. A typical session mixes a few minutes of pronunciation drilling, a grammar focus such as conjugating one irregular verb across all six persons, and free-form question-and-answer using vocabulary from the student's own textbook or unit list.

Helpful to know first

No prior French required — this is a true beginner course
Comfort naming basic English parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective) and identifying the subject of a sentence
Willingness to speak aloud and be corrected on pronunciation, which is where most of the early progress happens
Access to the student's class vocabulary list or textbook chapter, if they are taking French at school

Questions

My child is in 6th grade and has never studied a language. Is French I too hard?: No. French I assumes zero background. The first weeks are greetings, the alphabet, numbers and classroom phrases. The two things that genuinely take time are noun gender and the spelling-to-sound gap, and both are handled through repetition rather than difficult reasoning.
How can my child practise French pronunciation at home without a French speaker?: Evelyn responds to spoken French and will flag specific sounds — the French r, nasal vowels, the u in 'tu' versus the ou in 'tout' — and model them for repetition. It is a practice partner, not a certified teacher, and it works best alongside classroom instruction.
What is the difference between French I and French II?: French I stays almost entirely in the present tense and the near future. French II introduces the past tenses — passé composé and imparfait — along with object pronouns, reflexive verbs and longer reading passages.
My child gets verb endings right on paper but not when speaking. Why?: Because -e, -es and -ent are silent, written practice never tests the ear. Speaking practice forces the student to choose the right subject pronoun and verb form in real time, which is a different skill from filling in a blank.
Can sessions follow our school's textbook?: Yes. Tell Evelyn the chapter or unit vocabulary and the grammar point being covered, and practice will use that material rather than a generic sequence.