Learn French for Canada, starting from nothing
Most TCF and TEF preparation assumes you already speak French. This is the part that comes before that — 58 lessons from bonjour to the exam, explained in English.
The six stages
Each stage ends somewhere useful. You are not learning grammar for its own sake — you are learning to do a specific thing, and then the next thing.
| Stage | What you can do after it | Lessons | Words |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · First words | Greet someone, say your name, count, and say where you are from. | 8 | 48 |
| 2 · Everyday life | Order food, ask a price, tell the time, describe your family. | 10 | 60 |
| 3 · Getting around | Directions, transport, appointments, and the present tense. | 10 | 60 |
| 4 · Living in Canada | Housing, work, health, admin — and the past tense. | 10 | 60 |
| 5 · Opinions | Agree, disagree and explain why — the future and conditional. | 10 | 60 |
| 6 · Bridge to the exam | The exam formats, at a level you can now handle. | 10 | 60 |
| Total | 58 | 348 | |
About 10 hours of lesson time in total, plus review. At 30–40 minutes a day that is roughly three months to the end of Stage 6.
Why exam practice is the wrong place to start
A beginner who opens a TCF listening paper learns one thing: that they cannot do it. It is demoralising and it teaches nothing, because the paper assumes a level you have not built yet.
Practice papers are a measuring instrument. They are extremely useful once you have something to measure. Before that, they are just a wall.
The sequence that works: build the language, then learn the exam format — which takes about a fortnight — then measure and refine.
What Stage 1 actually contains
So you can see the level, not just the promise. The first 8 lessons:
- The alphabet and spelling your name
- Bonjour — saying hello
- Je m'appelle — your name
- Numbers 0 to 20
- Politeness — please, thank you, sorry
- Je suis — saying where you are from
- Le, la, un, une — the word for 'the'
- Putting it together — your first conversation
By the end of that — about 1.2 hours — you can greet someone, give your name, spell it, count, be polite, and say where you are from.
Everything is explained in English
This matters more than it sounds. Immersion-only beginner courses spend your first month teaching you to guess. If you have a year to give, guessing is fine. If you are working towards an immigration deadline, being told plainly that à + le always contracts to au saves you three weeks.
The exam itself is entirely in French, and Stage 6 moves you there. The English is scaffolding, and it is removed on purpose.
Aim at NCLC 4 before NCLC 7
NCLC 7 is 600–900 hours from zero. That is far enough away that most beginners quit in month three, having never felt they arrived anywhere.
NCLC 4 is roughly a third of the distance and reachable in a few months. It is a real checkpoint that proves the method is working. What NCLC 4 means, and how to know you are there.
Start at lesson one, free
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Related
Formats, points and immigration thresholds change. Confirm current requirements with the official test provider and with IRCC before you plan around them. This is exam preparation, not immigration advice.