I came across this pretty unique language learning application called Lingopie, which offers TV shows to learn French. Lingopie is an excellent tool to improve your French by watching French movies and series.
Disclosure: This site is sponsored by ads and affiliate programs. I may earn money from the companies mentioned in this post.
Why you’ll love Lingopie
Learning with Lingopie is fun because you combine watching real shows and being able to interact with subtitles to understand what’s on your screen. You get to learn French with native speakers who use real spoken French, not academic French that you learn in books. This is a chance to learn a great deal of idioms as well as slang vocabulary that French use on a daly basis.
Watch and click with Lingopie
The Lingopie interface looks a lot like Netflix, therefore it feels immediately familiar. When you watch a movie or a show, you can have the script displayed on the right hand-side of the screen while subtitles appear at the bottom of the screen in both French and English. Here’s a scene from the famous French show Lupin that I’m watching on my computer.
The interesting part is that every word in the French subtitles is clickable. When I click on the French word “border” in the sentence “il viendra te border cette nuit”, a bubble comes up with the English translation (to tuck you) for “te border”. It separates the expression as a pronoun and a verb.
Notice that French words are color-coded, based on their grammatical function. Click on the speaker icon to listen to the pronunciation of the word you’ve selected.
Clicking the plus sign adds the word to your list of vocabulary. Once you have enough vocabulary in your list, you can take a quiz based on the words and expressions you added to your list.
Lingopie is great for beginners
If you’re just starting learning French, there’s a convenient option at the bottom of the screen to slow down the pace of the movie for better comprehension.
Loop sentence is another great feature that lets you replay one sentence as many times as needed for you to understand.
Lingopie grammar coach
When you need more explanation about a sentence on the screen, go to the Grammar tab in the right-hand side or click on the lightbulb on the far right to bring up the grammar coach.
I tried the Grammar tab on the sentence in Lupin “C’est quoi, ce bordel, là.” and here’s the grammar explanation that came up:
It’s an informal way of asking “What is this mess here?”. In this sentence, “C’est” is a contraction of “ce” (this) and “est” (is). “quoi” is the interrogative word for “what”, “ce” is a demonstrative adjective meaning “this”,”bordel” is a slang term for “mess”, and “là” is an adverb indicating location, similar to “here” in English.
Shows from Netflix catalog
Lingopie offers great Netflix series to binge-watch and learn French. New shows are added to the selection of Netflix series and movies every month. Here’s a few great series I recommend you start with.
- Call my agent (Dix pour cent)
- Lupin
- Family business.
To watch Netflix series and movies, you need a Netflix account and you also have to install Lingopie Chrome extension. If you’re not located in France, you can access the Netflix French catalog by using a VPN.
TV shows to learn French on Lingopie
Besides the Netflix catalog, there are thousands of hours of tv shows to learn French: comedy series, cartoons, short movies, fundamentals of the French language, web series.
Lingopie is not for entertainment only but it also offers videos on how to write a French resume or how to prepare for a job interview.
Upload the Lingopie app on your phone to watch the TV catalog from your phone. Shows are added every month so you don’t run out of French shows to watch.
French music on Lingopie
I was pleased to find some artists I like in the music section: Clara Luciani, Grand corps malade, Stromae. What better way than to learn French with Clara Luciani’s songs?
French cuisine on Lingopie
For those who like to cook, Lingopie is a must. There are many cooking shows available and you’ll master all the culinary vocabulary in no time. Chef Patrick Dujancourt and Philippe Etchebest will teach you the basics of French cuisine from Roquefort sauce or béchamel to Cassoulet.
Get some play time on Lingopie
Like other language applications, Lingopie offers flashcards pop quiz and word master play where you have to find English-French matching translation.
Podcasts on Lingopie
The tv catalog section also contains interesting podcasts such as Chronique criminelles (criminal chronicles) by Jacques Pradel, as well as podasts about recent history events or myths and legends.
Lingopie pricing
With a yearly subscription, Lingopie is very affordable at €5.99/month and you can take advantage of Lingopis’s 7-day free trial. The yearly plan also gives you access to other languages: Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, German, Italian, Korean and Japanese.
I personally find the concept of watching movies with added interactivity fun and appealing. I hope that this article made you want to try out Lingopie. Please let me know what you think about this way of learning French in the Comments section.
If you’re in the mood for more French, head to French expressions translated to English.
