8 YouTube Channels to Learn French, by Level

French is kinder to the eye than to the ear. Half the letters at the end of words are silent, “ils parlent” sounds exactly like “il parle”, and words lean on each other so that “les amis” comes out as one word with a z in the middle. That is why so many learners can read a news article and still get lost when two people talk in a café. YouTube is a good place to fix this, as long as the video matches your level.

Most lists of French channels put a lesson for total beginners next to a native comedian and leave you to work out the order. We sorted them by level instead. In November 2026 we opened every channel below and the video we recommend from it, and wrote down what you see on screen: French, French with English, or nothing. We also checked which channels write their own subtitles and which leave you with YouTube’s automatic captions.

At a glance

• From zero, taught in English: Learn French With Alexa
• A1: French Comprehensible Input
• A1-A2: Petit Ours Brun
• A2: Easy French
• A2-B1: Piece of French
• B1: innerFrench
• B2: Jamy - Epicurieux
• C1: Cyprien

1. Learn French With Alexa: a first lesson in English (from zero)

Start with: “Learn French with Alexa Polidoro Free French Lesson 1” · Learn French With Alexa on YouTube

If you know no French at all, you need someone to explain it in English first. Alexa has 2.47 million subscribers, and her first lesson has been watched 9.5 million times since 2012. It runs just under 19 minutes and is split into chapters: an introduction, basic vocabulary, countries in French and a short quiz. She teaches from a sound booth with headphones on, and the French phrase she is working on appears at the bottom of the picture, like “J’habite”.

The channel made its own subtitles in French and English, so you can switch between hearing a phrase and reading it. Alexa is still posting. Recent videos include episodes on Marie-Antoinette and the Reign of Terror, and “Read French With Me”, a reading session at three levels, A1, B1 and C1.

2. French Comprehensible Input: French only, from the first minute (A1)

Start with: “Learn French Absolute Beginners A1#1 Introduction” · French Comprehensible Input on YouTube

This channel does the opposite of Alexa. Its description promises “100% native French, 0% translation, 100% in context”, and the first video keeps that promise in under four minutes. A man in a grey beanie talks to the camera in slow French and holds up small paper flags, Germany first, then France, so you understand from the objects and not from English. There is no text in the picture.

What you get instead are subtitles written by the channel in French, English, Portuguese and Russian. The A1 series is numbered, so the order is clear: #2 “En Suisse”, #3 “J’aime bien...”, #5 “Une routine”, and so on up to #19. With 95,500 subscribers it is the smallest channel here. When A1 gets easy, it has a series of more than twenty videos built on the Tintin album “Le Lotus Bleu”, plus vlogs.

3. Petit Ours Brun: a cartoon French children grow up with (A1-A2)

Start with: “Petit Ours Brun est tout sale” · Petit Ours Brun on YouTube

Little Brown Bear is a French original from the publisher Bayard Presse, and the official channel has 1.2 million subscribers. The episodes are about a small bear’s day. In the one that opens our pick he does not want to wash, he wants to keep playing, and his mother is losing patience. That gives you short sentences about home life. “Il est tard et tu dois te laver.” “Je veux pas me laver, je veux jouer.”

That second line is worth a look. The bear says “je veux pas”, without the “ne” your textbook insists on, because that is how French people talk. The compilation we picked is 26 minutes of full episodes from season 2. There is no text on screen and only automatic captions, which get the bear’s own name wrong more than once, so treat this as listening practice. Bluey also has an official French channel with compilations of full episodes, if you want a second cartoon.

4. Easy French: street interviews with French and English on screen (A2)

Start with: “At a Typical French Market in Slow French | Super Easy French 167” · Easy French on YouTube

Easy French has 1.22 million subscribers and two series you should know apart. Super Easy French is the slow one: in episode 167 a host walks through a street market and names what she sees, and every sentence is printed in the picture in French with the English under it. “Des pommes de terre.” “Potatoes.” Thirteen minutes of that and you can shop for vegetables.

The main Easy French series is harder. The team stops people in the street and asks them a question, and you get real answers from whoever walks by. In “What Do The French Have For Breakfast?” a woman is asked “Et qu’est-ce que vous mettez sur vos biscottes ?”. The same two lines of text keep you afloat. Newer episodes put the level in the title, B1 or B2, which saves guessing.

5. Piece of French: slow vlogs from everyday life (A2-B1)

Start with: “Cook with Me in Slow French” · Piece of French on YouTube

A channel with 444,000 subscribers whose host films her own life and talks through it in slow, clear French. In “Cook with Me in Slow French” she makes a vegetarian moussaka in her kitchen for 27 minutes. You see each step as she describes it, so many new words explain themselves, and the full recipe is on her website if you want to cook along.

Nothing is printed in the picture here apart from the odd drawing, a tomato when she talks about tomatoes. The text comes from subtitles the channel wrote itself, in French and in English. After the cooking video, try “Le vrai français de tous les jours”, one of her most watched videos, and the vlogs about her morning routine and a day in her life.

6. innerFrench: ideas explained in clear French (B1)

Start with: “Pourquoi toutes les marques de luxe sont-elles françaises ?” · innerFrench on YouTube

This is where French stops being about French. Hugo, the host, talks about why so many luxury brands are French, why the French make fun of Belgians, or what the country thinks of Marseille, and he does it entirely in French, for intermediate learners. The channel has 987,000 subscribers. In the luxury video, 16 minutes long, harder words appear on screen with a simpler French explanation: “maroquinerie” is “produits en cuir”, a “bras droit” is a “principal conseiller, assistant”.

The French subtitles are the channel’s own, and the description links to a transcript on the innerFrench site. Some videos, like “Comment apprendre le français dans le bon ordre ?”, have English subtitles as well. One thing to know: the innerFrench podcast ended in September 2026 with episode 200, after nine years. All of it is still on the channel, which makes it a large finished library.

7. Jamy - Epicurieux: science and history for a French audience (B2)

Start with: “On a volé le cerveau d’Einstein !” · Jamy - Epicurieux on YouTube

Nothing here is made for learners. Jamy has 2.43 million subscribers and tells stories from science and history to French viewers: how the Mona Lisa disappeared, the first ascent of Mont Blanc, a scam at the palace of Versailles. The video about Einstein’s brain being stolen after his death has 16.5 million views and lasts 11 minutes. It is divided into chapters, from the autopsy to the day the thief was found.

Two things make it a good first native channel. Jamy sits at a microphone and speaks straight to the camera, so you can watch his face while he talks. And the channel wrote its own subtitles in French and in English. Read the French track on the first pass. Don’t start here before you are comfortable with innerFrench.

8. Cyprien: sketch comedy at full speed (C1)

Start with: “APPRENDRE UNE LANGUE - CYPRIEN” · Cyprien on YouTube

Cyprien is one of the biggest names on French YouTube, with 14.5 million subscribers, and his sketches are short, between two and eight minutes. We picked “Apprendre une langue” because you will recognize yourself in it. In six minutes he goes through German, English, Latin, Greek and Japanese, at one point in a beret and a striped shirt with a baguette under his arm. It has 23 million views.

The channel added subtitles in eleven languages, English, Spanish and Japanese among them, but not in French. The French captions are automatic, the costumes and scenes keep changing, and nothing is slowed down for you. If you can follow the jokes without the English track, you understand French the way French people speak it to each other. He is still making videos in 2026.

How to study with a French YouTube video

French playing in the background while you do something else helps less than you would hope. Twenty focused minutes with one video get more done:

1. Pick your level honestly. If you understand less than about half after two minutes, go one channel back on this list.
2. First pass with French text. French subtitles or the French printed in the picture, not English. You want to link the sound to the spelling.
3. Second pass on the hard lines. Replay what you missed and look at the letters you did not hear: the silent endings, the “ne” that vanished, two words that merged into one.
4. Third pass by ear. Turn the text off and listen to the same part again.
5. Say it out loud. Repeat three or four lines after the speaker and copy where the words link, as well as the words.

The second pass matters more in French than in most languages, because the distance between what is written and what is said is so large. We go into the method in how to learn French with videos. And learning French with YouTube in PlayLingo gives you a catalog of French videos sorted by level.

Watch with interactive subtitles in PlayLingo

Every channel above works in PlayLingo, and so does any other YouTube video you paste in. The app shows the French line by line under the video, with a translation into your language, which helps most with Petit Ours Brun and Cyprien, where YouTube has only automatic French captions. Tap a word or a phrase and Lingo explains it in that sentence: why the bear’s mother says “ça va barder”, or what a piece of slang in a Cyprien sketch means. Save a phrase and it comes back for review later, together with the moment in the video where you heard it.

For the third pass, switch to Listen mode: the text hides, the video pauses after each line, and you can reveal a sentence word by word if you get stuck. Speak mode is for the last step: say the line aloud and watch the words light up. Build mode has you put a line back together from its pieces. You can also slow the video down or loop one line. PlayLingo works on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android and is free to start, with a daily portion of practice.

Common questions

What is the best YouTube channel to learn French for beginners?

Start with Learn French With Alexa if you want French explained in English from the very first word. Add French Comprehensible Input as soon as you can, because it gets you listening to French without translation at A1. Use both for a few weeks before moving on.

Can I learn French on YouTube?

You can get far with listening and vocabulary, especially if you follow the levels and watch each video more than once. Most learners still use a course or a textbook for grammar alongside it, and look for speaking practice with people once they reach A2-B1.

Which French YouTubers are good for learning French?

From B2, Jamy - Epicurieux is the easiest native channel on this list: one host speaking to the camera, and French subtitles written by the channel. Cyprien is for C1, with fast sketches and automatic French captions only. Before B2, stay with channels made for learners, like Easy French and innerFrench.

Are there YouTube channels to learn French for kids?

Petit Ours Brun is a French cartoon for small children with short sentences, and Bluey has an official French channel. Both suit children and adult beginners from about A1-A2. Neither has French subtitles written by the channel.