French listening practice

Short French passages with audio at normal or slow speed. Listen first, follow the French transcript, then reveal the English line by line.

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Le Petit Prince — I

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry · A2 · Fiction

Audio uses your browser's built-in French voice. If you don't hear anything, check your system has a French text-to-speech voice installed.

  1. Lorsque j'avais six ans, j'ai vu, une fois, une magnifique image,

  2. dans un livre sur la Forêt Vierge qui s'appelait « Histoires Vécues ».

  3. Ça représentait un serpent boa qui avalait un fauve.

  4. J'ai alors beaucoup réfléchi aux aventures de la jungle,

  5. et j'ai réussi, avec un crayon de couleur, à tracer mon premier dessin.

Key vocabulary

  • magnifique — magnificent, beautiful

    adjective — comes after the noun it describes

  • la Forêt Vierge — the Virgin Forest

    noun phrase — capital letters show it's a proper name

  • avalait — was swallowing

    imperfect tense — ongoing past action

  • un fauve — a wild beast

    noun — also used for tawny/golden colour

  • réfléchi — thought, reflected

    past participle of réfléchir

  • un crayon de couleur — a coloured pencil

    noun phrase — de links the two nouns

How to practise listening in French

  1. Play the full passage once at slow speed without reading. Just notice the rhythm and the words you catch.
  2. Play it again at normal speed, this time following the French transcript with your eyes.
  3. Replay individual lines that gave you trouble. Reveal the English only after you've tried to understand from the French.
  4. Finish by listening once more with English hidden. The goal is to understand from the French directly, without translating in your head.

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