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français · English

Learn French with short stories

Read French books with English alongside, or English books with French alongside: the original and the translation side by side, paragraph by paragraph.

FrenchEnglish

Longtemps, je me suis couché de bonne heure.

For a long time, I went to bed early.

Parfois, à peine ma bougie éteinte, mes yeux se fermaient si vite que je n’avais pas le temps de me dire : « Je m’endors. »

Sometimes, my candle barely out, my eyes would close so quickly that I had no time to tell myself: “I’m falling asleep.”

Et, une demi-heure après, la pensée qu’il était temps de chercher le sommeil m’éveillait…

And half an hour later, the thought that it was time to go to sleep would wake me…

Du côté de chez Swann, Marcel Proust (1913), with our own English rendering.

Free French–English stories and ebooks

Stories to read in French, with the English beside each paragraph. They open in the browser, with no account needed, and each free one is also a free French–English ebook for Kindle, Kobo or any e-reader: downloading needs a free account, no payment (which file to pick).

Open the French–English library, where you can search the stories and filter them by level.

Want to hear it too? French stories with audio are narrated, free, with a speed control.

By level:

48 of 393 stories shown: the level pages above and the French–English library have the rest.

Free graded readers in French

Every story here carries its level on the Common European Framework, from A1 for beginners to C1 and beyond, so the library works as a set of French graded readers, most of them free: start at the level where you understand most of a page, and move up when the English beside it is something you check only now and then.

Want a book that isn’t here? Make your own French–English parallel text from any EPUB or PDF: free preview, and 50 free pages when you sign up.

Reading French with English alongside

Written French is far easier than spoken French for an English reader. Centuries of shared vocabulary mean that a page of French is full of words you half-know, even when you couldn’t follow a conversation.

The hard part is everything in between: idioms, pronouns like y and en, and a literary past tense you will rarely hear aloud. A parallel text lets you read real novels at that stage, with the English there whenever a sentence closes in on you.

Reading English books with French alongside

For French speakers, reading English books with the French alongside keeps the story moving through phrasal verbs, slang and the idioms that textbooks skip.

It also suits anyone who reads both languages and simply prefers to meet an author in the original, with a translation for the passages that deserve a second look.

393 English stories in the library have French alongside: Apprendre l’anglais avec des histoires courtes.

Where a parallel text helps most in French

The passé simple

Novels narrate in the passé simple, a tense French speakers use on the page but almost never in speech. Its forms (il fut, ils vinrent) are easy to recognise once you have seen them next to their English a few dozen times.

Faux amis

Librairie is a bookshop, actuellement means currently, and sensible means sensitive. The translation beside the sentence keeps false friends from bending the story.

Style over speed

French prose is often admired for its sound and rhythm. A parallel text lets you keep reading the original for its style and check the meaning on the other side.

French classics to read in parallel

Long out of copyright and easy to find as EPUBs. Any of them makes a good first French–English parallel text:

  • Candide, Voltaire
  • Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
  • Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours, Jules Verne
  • Bel-Ami, Guy de Maupassant

Or use a book you already own: the method works best with something you actually want to read. See how to read a parallel text to get the most from it.

Questions about French–English stories

Where can I read French stories with English side by side for free?

Right here: 351 free French–English stories open in the browser with no account, the English beside every paragraph, from A1 to C2.

What is a French–English parallel text?

A French text placed beside its English translation, paragraph by paragraph, so you can read in one language and glance across to the other whenever you need to.

Which French story should I start with?

Pick the level where you understand most of a page: the beginner stories use short sentences and common words, and the levels above them add longer sentences and richer vocabulary. Each story shows its level on the Common European Framework.

Can I read French–English stories on a Kindle or Kobo?

Yes. Every free story is also a bilingual ebook; downloading needs a free account, no payment. Subscriber books download with Reader.