English · français
English–French parallel texts
Read French books with English alongside, or English books with French alongside: the original and the translation side by side, paragraph by paragraph.
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…
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.
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.
Free English–French stories
English classics with the French translation side by side. They open in the browser, with no account needed.
EN → FR
The Gift of the Magi
O. Henry
The Gift of the Magi
O. Henry · English–French · 15 min
EN → FR
The Last Leaf
O. Henry
The Last Leaf
O. Henry · English–French · 15 min
EN → FR
The Open Window
Saki
The Open Window
Saki · English–French · 10 min
EN → FR
The Necklace
Guy de Maupassant
The Necklace
Guy de Maupassant · English–French · 20 min
EN → FR
The Tell-Tale Heart
Edgar Allan Poe
The Tell-Tale Heart
Edgar Allan Poe · English–French · 15 min
EN → FR
The Cask of Amontillado
Edgar Allan Poe
The Cask of Amontillado
Edgar Allan Poe · English–French · 15 min
EN → FR
The Monkey’s Paw
W.W. Jacobs
The Monkey’s Paw
W.W. Jacobs · English–French · 25 min
EN → FR
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Ambrose Bierce
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Ambrose Bierce · English–French · 25 min
EN → FR
The Happy Prince
Oscar Wilde
The Happy Prince
Oscar Wilde · English–French · 25 min
EN → FR
The Selfish Giant
Oscar Wilde
The Selfish Giant
Oscar Wilde · English–French · 10 min
EN → FR
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Washington Irving
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Washington Irving · English–French · 85 min
EN → FR
The Ant and the Grasshopper
Aesop
The Ant and the Grasshopper
Aesop · English–French · 5 min
EN → FR
The North Wind and the Sun
Aesop
The North Wind and the Sun
Aesop · English–French · 5 min
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.