French to English
Translate a French book into English, and keep the French
Upload a French novel, essay or classic and read it with English beside every paragraph: the French as the author wrote it, the English when a sentence slips away.
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…
How it works
Upload the book, choose English, and look at the free preview of the opening pages, side by side. If it reads well, translate the whole book and read it in the browser, or download it as a PDF, an EPUB, or a Kindle file. More about translating a book.
Where to find French books
French Wikisource offers thousands of classics as free EPUB downloads, and Project Gutenberg has many more. Your own DRM-free EPUB, a text-based PDF or a Word file all work.
Reading French with English beside it
Literary tenses
French novels are told in tenses, like the passé simple, that people rarely use when they speak. With the English beside them, you can read on without stopping for every verb form.
Long sentences, kept whole
Proust's sentences run for half a page. Pairing is by paragraph, so each long sentence stays in one piece on both sides, and you can always see where you are in it.
Questions
Can I read a French book with English side by side?
Yes. Upload the book, choose English, and read each French paragraph with its English beside it, in the browser or on your e-reader.
Can I learn French with it?
Yes: read the French first and look across only when you need to. The free library also has French stories sorted by level, from beginner up.