Practice FrenchLecture · niveau découverte
French A1 reading practice
Short illustrated stories for absolute beginners: present tense, short sentences, and the most frequent words in French. Read the passage in French, check the key vocabulary, then test yourself with comprehension questions.
Le chat de la boulangerieFree full sample
What you can read at A1
A1 stories use the present tense, short sentences, and the most frequent words in French. At this level the win is confidence: recognising words you know inside real paragraphs, and discovering you can follow a plot in French at all.
Every story is published with an English title and summary, a key-vocabulary list, and comprehension questions. In the app the same stories add recorded audio, tap-to-translate help, and saved progress. Each story’s language passes automated checks and human approval before publication.
The A1 stories
A1free full sample
Le chat de la boulangerie
The Bakery Cat · 2 min · le quartier
Inès visits the bakery and notices a small gray cat near the door. Read the entire passage, the translation, and all questions free — no account.
Read the full story →
La carte postale de Léa
Léa’s Postcard
Léa writes a postcard from Nice and sends it to her friend Sami.
Le pique-nique de dimanche
The Sunday Picnic
Hugo and Nora have a simple picnic in the park and enjoy a quiet Sunday.
Ma journée typique
My Typical Day
The narrator follows a simple day from the morning alarm to a quiet evening at home.
Une visite au marché
A Visit to the Market
Marie and her mother shop at the market, find their fallen list, and buy a yellow rose.
Le parapluie jaune
The Yellow Umbrella
Emma shares her yellow umbrella with an elderly woman on a rainy day.
From Le chat de la boulangerie
Chaque matin, Inès passe devant la boulangerie de son quartier. Aujourd’hui, elle voit un petit chat gris près de la porte. Le chat miaule doucement. Inès entre et dit bonjour au boulanger. Elle achète une baguette chaude et un croissant. Le boulanger donne un peu d’eau au chat. Le chat reste sous la table, puis il s’endort. Inès sourit. Avant de partir, elle promet de revenir demain avec un peu de lait.
Inès visits the bakery and notices a small gray cat near the door. continue reading →
Common questions
Is this really free?
Everything on these pages is free with no account. In the app, three reading lessons per day are free; a subscription removes the cap. The web version of the app stays free.
Should I use a dictionary while reading?
Not on the first pass. These stories are written so a A1 reader can follow the plot from context — that tolerance for ambiguity is itself the skill you are training. Use the vocabulary list on the second read instead.
How much should I read at A1?
Little and often beats long sessions: one short story a day, read twice, does more than an hour on Sunday. When you can follow all the A1 stories without the summaries, start the A2 stories.
Who writes these stories?
Stories are drafted with structured generation tools, pass automated language checks, and are approved by a human reviewer before publication. Found something off? Report it to support@toba.solutions.
Read with audio and translation help
The free app adds recorded audio, tap-to-translate, comprehension scoring, and saved progress across every story.